Africa-Press – Uganda. SAGE
The government has procured 135 motorcycles for district community development officers (DCDOs) at a cost of Sh981.6m to support the implementation of Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE) programme in the districts.
The motorcycles were Tuesday (December 8, 2020) handed over to the chief administrative officers (CAOs) at the function held at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala.SAGE is one of the critical social protection programmes being implemented by the government and it provides a monthly allowance of Sh25, 000 to support older persons’ welfare.Stephen Kasaija, the head of the social protection programme management unit at the ministry, revealed that the motorcycles were procured with support from the development partners.The CDOs according to Kasaija play a key role in the planning and coordination of all the SAGE activities in the districts.”They lead in the implementation of all of our protocols including verification, registration, and identification of pay points. Most importantly they are in charge of managing complaints and grievances,” he said.He added; “The provision of these motorcycles will support them in their day today running of the programme activities and will enhance further delivery of this programme.”The gender ministry permanent secretary, Aggrey Kibenge reported that the number of the SAGE beneficiaries has reached 304,555 after the national roll out.”The rollout targeted to reach 362561 older persons. Of this, 304,555 older persons successfully received their payment, while the 41,000 missed,” he said.The country wide roll-out was anticipated to add over 200,000 beneficiaries on the 167,000 beneficiaries already on the scheme.Kibenge attributed those who missed out to issues to do with national identity cards, sicknesses, fragility, migrations, among others.He disclosed that the ministry has already written to the districts to constitute teams that will register all older persons who missed out on the grant due to such challenges.”When the information is received, the ministry will engage the National Information Registration Authority (NIRA) to ensure that those affected get their records corrected for them to be enrolled,” Kibenge said.While flagging off the motorcycles, the state minister for disabled and elderly affairs, Sarah Kayike, disclosed that government was committed to the reduction of eligibility age of the beneficiaries from 80 years.”This will be actualized when more resources are generated,” she said. Bringing down the age of the beneficiaries’ of the programme remains a key demand from different stakeholders.Betty Kasiko, who represented the Foreign Common Wealth and Development Office, lauded the Government of Uganda for having been able to rollout the programme despite the challenge of Covid-19.”We want to commend the ministry for doing everything possible to ensure that elderly persons are able to get these payments at such a time when most of the households are really constrained because of the livelihood that has been affected by the pandemic,” she said.About SAGEIn the period between 2010 and 2015, the government with support from UK’s Department for International Development (DFID/UKAID) and Irish Aid, piloted SAGE in 15 districts.These were Amudat, Apac, Kaberamaido, Katakwi, Kiboga, Kole, Kyankwanzi, Kyegegwa, Kyenjojo, Moroto, Nakapiripirit, Napak, Nebbi, Yumbe and Zombo.In August 2016, when the pilot phase ended, government took a decision to roll out the grants to an additional 40 districts over five years, in a phased manner.In November 2018, the government took a decision to roll out the SAGE programme, to all districts in the country, starting the last financial year.In March this year, President Yoweri Museveni launched SAGE national rollout in Mbale and this coincided with the International Women’s Day national celebrations.
