KAMPALA - The Minister of Local Government, James Musoni, has urged African countries to maximize their potential and actively engage their populations in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Minister was speaking, yesterday, at the closure of a global forum on MDGs in Kampala, Uganda.

"The first thing is to define the course of action, because even if you have these targets and external support, without your internal capability to implement them, you still have problems,” Musoni later told The New Times.

He called on African countries to define their priorities, course of action and then mobilize their respective populations to support them before rallying external resources to supplement their efforts.

"But this should be done in a manner that the available resources are fully and well utilized,” he said.

The Minister also urged African governments to embrace accountability, noting that they should, first and foremost, be accountable to their people, and then to other stakeholders, including development partners.

Meanwhile, participants at the forum advised that the world’s poorest countries should foster greater growth by tapping into significant unexploited potentials across their territories.

They concurred that countries need to have a more strategic approach to local development if they are to effectively address their development challenges.
David Morrison, the Executive Secretary of United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), told the media that his organization will be partnering with the poorest nations to ensure that they achieve their MDGS.

The MDGs were instituted by the UN in 2000 and are meant to be achieved by the year 2015.

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