The effects of COVID-19 have massively been debilitating to many countries like USA, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, China, UK, Iran, Turkey and many others that have registered thousands of COVID-19 cases and deaths. At the moment there are approximately 1,8 million cases, 112, 000+ deaths and 421,000+ cases that had recovered in the world as of April 12, 2020.
Uganda has so far registered 54 cases, no death, and 4 cases of the 54 have recovered from the virus. After registering the first case of Corona Virus, Government of Uganda announced measures to prevent the spread of the virus which included ensuring the reduction in congestion among people through social distancing, frequent washing of hands to deny the virus a fertile ground among others.
In Uganda, Local Governments are the first line of connection to the communities. During the coronavirus pandemic, they have been mandated to enforce government guidelines in regards to preventing the spread. In a statement issued by the Minister of Local Government, Hon Raphael Magyezi on April 4, 2020, Council meetings at district level were suspended and local governments were ordered to only operate with essential staff and have others work from home. Given that it's a budgeting period, the Minister instructed that LG budgets should be approved by the business committee as an interim measure.
The district Chairpersons and Mayors were allowed to move and designated as core staff in the district and members of core COVID—19 task force in their respective jurisdictions. Local Governments are at the frontline of citizen engagement, service delivery and management of public space. One significant area of local government action in the context of COVID-19 is to prevent exposure and vulnerability of their jurisdictions. To achieve this they should be able to disseminate information on prevention, exposure and vulnerability to COVID-19 provided by the Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation.
The Local Governments have free airtime on radio and television stations and thus should be able to use this airtime to regularly disseminate this information in the local languages. They must use these platforms to deal with misinformation. Where necessary, they should also be able to compel the radios and televisions in their jurisdictions to run adverts on how to avoid contracting the virus.
The local governments should also be able to provide information at the different public areas like health centres and district offices that are still operational. Use of other digital platforms or apps to keep citizens informed and enable public participation for continued citizen engagement would be an added advantage during this period.
The Local Governments have a great challenge to support the Ministry of Health on collecting information of members of their community that could have returned from “high risk” and other neighbouring countries, to ensure that they are tested or quarantined before returning home. There should be open communication where anyone with information can be able to reach members of the district task force.
The local communities are facing unprecedented challenges and stress during this time and are increasingly looking to local leaders for help and guidance. However, local governments do not have budgets for crisis management, placing additional financial pressure on them as they continue to deliver essential services and support their communities. They thus must use the available resources and (or) locally mobilise others to protect their communities from the pandemic its devastating effects.
The LGs should be able to engineer and drive citizen-led community responses like mobilizing resources, material items from all the stakeholders including individuals, private sector, civil society, media, churches among others to support the activities of the district task forces, take care of the vulnerable and ensure mobility for critical services like security and healthcare emergency services.
