Thank you John A Jackson and Peter Odama for holding these discussions;I assumed this is the kind of brainstorming sessions on development we could indulge in and get many on board in promoting the ideas that will influence policy towards our side;I believe we need to involve the district authorities as concerned citizens and constructively engage with them what their priorities are. I think the idea of a think tank and lobby for West Nile is good; we have to influence the policy makers, we need to start with the local governments and push this through a bottom-up approach. Someone, here needs to compile the development ideas articulated here and take it up with the people who can make things happen; there're many competing priorities, funding allocations are very stringent and if we don't push hard then ours will fall far behind on the priority list. As regards Peter's question,I tried to attach the CAA Master plan but the limitations on the size of messages we can post here does not permit me to do so, so I recommend you access and download it from here:http://caa.co.ug/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&id=18&Itemid=81, but I doubt if it gives you anything on the compensation methodology. Please note that this is a public document and anyone can access it, there is absolutely no restrictions in accessing it.
Regarding the web link dated 18 July 2013 you provided I can only comment that it is mainly a problem of working out the necessary compensation package with the communities who are likely to be affected by this project, but later events show that this has changed since. I haven't done any research on the issues regarding compensation but the latest here is from 15 October 2015:http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Arua-airfield-land-owners-to-receive-compensation/-/688334/2913326/-/mfrwk3/-/index.html, you can read and research more on the latest information and I certainly believe the district authorities may already have the latest in this aspect. The story in the above link seems to confirm that the 270 landowners around Arua Aerodrome are to receive Shs6.5b as compensation from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for their land offered for expansion and upgrading of the facility and the CAA Manager of Up Country airports seemed to confirm that. As at that time, the residents had on September 27,2015 given a 10-day ultimatum to CAA to pay them or they withdraw their offer of land but it appears the money issues regarding compensation may afterall have been resolved because I don't hear of it these days ? I think one of the prominent professionals in the legal fraternity has been handling this case for the affected communities and I would therefore not expect us to drag their name here for customer-client confidentiality reasons ! Milton Anguyo Arua,Uganda -------------------------------------------- On Fri, 8/4/16, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: Subject: WestNileNet Digest, Vol 92, Issue 8 To: [email protected] Date: Friday, 8 April, 2016, 12:01 Send WestNileNet mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of WestNileNet digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Analysis of issues (JohnAJackson) 2. Re: Analysis of issues (Peter Odama) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2016 14:24:55 -0500 From: JohnAJackson <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: [WestNileNet] Analysis of issues Message-ID: <CAAAQbE1_uhQ3RQD88L2PNWaTJ3QqHQeK7Mz+uWny7bSTZ=w...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Dear Milton Anguyo, I really like your technical analysis of the Arua airport physical structure. Big projects start from a concept paper that is distilled by a steering committee. Your analysis of the airport could simply be taken as a serious concept paper to stimulate further discussion with various stakeholders including our elected representatives from this region. Experience has taught us that a lot of mega projects take a long time to execute. First, there is the lobbying processes that takes many years until we get a buy in from somebody who finally says, lets get this work done. Second, there is bilateral money hunting from a donor country, which in itself takes another many years. Third, there is feasibility study that consumes another junk of time. Fourth, there is the start of actual project and construction phase that could take many years. Charles Male put it rightly, there has been serious brain drain from the region to the south or other parts of Uganda, DR Congo or South Sudan in search of jobs/basic survival. These migrations are inevitable human pattern of life that exists in almost every society. Human beings have been migrating in search of resources for thousands of years. We can only reverse this process by creating tangible attractive jobs that can retain people to stay in the region. To achieve this goal requires serious private investment either by the people from the West Nile region, foreign investment and revitalization of the economy that collapsed since 1970's. Although many of us have migrated to work in different places far from West Nile region where we were born, perhaps it would be very important for us to figure out some practical ways we can encourage each other and articulate strategies for serious economic development of the region. Assuming we had a consortium where we work and collaborate effectively as a team, we could augment the efforts of local leaders in the region. Bring strategic ideas of development to our elected representatives who can pursue some of these ideas with various ministries. If we have good plans we can bring forward to the government, a lot of things may get done. Mind you, the government has its own priorities. There have been some instances where money for development in this region was returned to the National Treasury because the money for projects was not used. Perhaps if we all teamed up well and identified key projects that needs to be implemented by the local districts, we could avoid money being returned to the Treasury. While we all recognize manpower development short comings in the region, the big question for all of us to think about is how do we come together to support the efforts of the people on the ground who are trying their best? In this forum, we have expertise from various disciplines. if we could form a consortium (resource pool) of consultants,this would be extremely useful to this region we all belong to even we though we do not live it everyday. JJ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://orion.kym.net/mailman/private/westnilenet/attachments/20160407/f1dd4bd2/attachment-0001.html> ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2016 16:32:58 -0700 From: Peter Odama <[email protected]> To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Analysis of issues Message-ID: <CAAxi7y=a4cz2rg-f0c25yruk1tzr-ugbrzkg--xfcs1tj_z...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" #Milton is there way to get to know and access as a national company the concept paper and master plan with the cost of compensation of land owners on this plot......it appears both political will and lack compensation has hit a snag. Some investors through local companies networks and proper MoU signed with government could easily invest and with an aim of future returns of investment, only if government is open to such moves publicly ...read this http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/Arua-airport-project-stalls-over-land-conflictShut-gateway/-/688342/1918210/-/item/0/-/uk25lh/-/index.html Odama On Apr 7, 2016 10:25 PM, "JohnAJackson" <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Milton Anguyo, > I really like your technical analysis of the Arua airport physical > structure. Big projects start from a concept paper that is distilled by a > steering committee. Your analysis of the airport could simply be taken as a > serious concept paper to stimulate further discussion with various > stakeholders including our elected representatives from this region. > > Experience has taught us that a lot of mega projects take a long time to > execute. First, there is the lobbying processes that takes many years > until we get a buy in from somebody who finally says, lets get this work > done. Second, there is bilateral money hunting from a donor country, which > in itself takes another many years. Third, there is feasibility study that > consumes another junk of time. Fourth, there is the start of actual project > and construction phase that could take many years. > > Charles Male put it rightly, there has been serious brain drain from the > region to the south or other parts of Uganda, DR Congo or South Sudan in > search of jobs/basic survival. These migrations are inevitable human > pattern of life that exists in almost every society. Human beings have been > migrating in search of resources for thousands of years. We can only > reverse this process by creating tangible attractive jobs that can retain > people to stay in the region. To achieve this goal requires serious private > investment either by the people from the West Nile region, foreign > investment and revitalization of the economy that collapsed since 1970's. > > Although many of us have migrated to work in different places far from > West Nile region where we were born, perhaps it would be very important for > us to figure out some practical ways we can encourage each other and > articulate strategies for serious economic development of the region. > Assuming we had a consortium where we work and collaborate effectively as a > team, we could augment the efforts of local leaders in the region. Bring > strategic ideas of development to our elected representatives who can > pursue some of these ideas with various ministries. If we have good plans > we can bring forward to the government, a lot of things may get done. Mind > you, the government has its own priorities. There have been some instances > where money for development in this region was returned to the National > Treasury because the money for projects was not used. Perhaps if we all > teamed up well and identified key projects that needs to be implemented by > the local districts, we could avoid money being returned to the Treasury. > > While we all recognize manpower development short comings in the region, > the big question for all of us to think about is how do we come together to > support the efforts of the people on the ground who are trying their best? > In this forum, we have expertise from various disciplines. if we could form > a consortium (resource pool) of consultants,this would be extremely useful > to this region we all belong to even we though we do not live it everyday. > JJ > > > _______________________________________________ > WestNileNet mailing list > [email protected] > http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet > > WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. > _______________________________________________ > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://orion.kym.net/mailman/private/westnilenet/attachments/20160407/05cb834e/attachment-0001.html> ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list [email protected] http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet ------------------------------ End of WestNileNet Digest, Vol 92, Issue 8 ****************************************** _______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list [email protected] http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). 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