The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
SPECIAL REPORT | THE INDEPENDENT | Visually-impaired Ugandans mainly those interested in budget transparency and accountability will now find it a little easier to follow the developments, following the introduction of the brail format of the citizen’s guide to the budget.
The Citizen’s Guide to the Budget is a simplified document that enables the public to understand the national budget for the year, to improve transparency.
The Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development together with other Budget Transparency Initiative (BTI) Partners, UNICEF, and Uganda Debt Network have now launched the Braille and Audiovisual versions of the Citizen’s Guide to the Budget 2023/2024.
The Production of the Brail is an Initiative supported by UNICEF in 21 countries across Eastern Africa and is aimed at increasing access to information on the allocation and spending of public resources, according to Moses Sichei who represented UNICEF.
The Ministry says it will also help enhance Uganda’s open budget score in the budget transparency index which, has recently stagnated below the required score of around 61.
“We need to get out of that,” says Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry.
Ggoobi says that as the transparency initiative started in 2018, a big majority of the visually and hearing impaired in Uganda were left behind because they could not easily follow the existing formats of the Guide and the whole budget process.
In a statement read for him by Paul Mwanja, the Commissioner of Infrastructure and Social Services, he says that while these have come in towards the end of the financial year, the next one will be in time to ably cater to the targeted community.
The launch of the Braille Audio Version opens up budget information to visually impaired individuals, empowering them to engage in discussions, debates, and advocacy independently.
The Uganda National Association of the Blind (UNAB) hailed the development saying it will allow them to independently read and understand the content, and participate actively in discussions, debates, and advocacy related to budget priorities and allocations.
Demonstrating how to use the braille version of the Citizen Guide, Brendah Khasalamwa, a braille proofreader with UNAB called for improved government allocations to the People With Disabilities activities.
The Executive Director of Uganda Debt Network Tumwebaze Patrick said the braille version of the Citizens Guide to the Budget will make budget information accessible to visually impaired people, allowing them to independently read and understand the content, participate actively in discussions, debates, and advocate related to budget priorities and allocations.
According to UNICEF, the lack of adequate facilities in schools is affecting enrolment.
The country has a 16 recent disability prevalence rate among children, yet of these, only 1.9 percent of them are going to school, leaving the rest at risk of poor livelihoods. In some schools, Dr Sichei says, autistic learners share classrooms with deaf learners, making the situation very difficult for the schools to balance between the two.
On the available staff, he says, there are only two brail mathematics lectures in the country, with both stationed at Kyambogo University.
The country has only 24 schools for the blind and only 11 secondary schools, each having one brail mathematics teacher, which means many learners are deprived of the ability to realize their opportunities.
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