How Many Parishes Are in Uganda? Understanding Local Governance

Nov 06, 2025 0

Uganda's administrative structure is divided into several levels, each playing a crucial role in governance and local development. Understanding this structure is essential to grasping how the country is managed from the grassroots level up to the national level. Let's delve into the details of these administrative divisions, with a particular focus on parishes.

Map of Uganda Showing Districts

The Structure of Local Government in Uganda

Uganda’s Local Government Act recognizes two types of administrative units at the sub-county level: parishes and villages. The administrative divisions in Uganda are structured as follows:

Village: The lowest political administrative unit, typically consisting of 50 to 70 households and 250 to 1,000 people. Each village is run by a local council - local council I (LCI) - and governed by a chairman (LCI chairman) and nine other executive committee members.
Parish: The next level up from the village. A parish is made up of a number of villages. Each parish has a local council II (LCII) committee, made up of all the chairmen from the village LCIs in the parish. Each LCII will elect, from among themselves, an executive committee. The parish is largely run by a parish chief - a government employee who provides technical leadership to the LCII.
Sub-County: A sub-county is made up of a number of parishes. The sub-county is run by the sub-county chief on the technical side and by an elected local council III (LCIII) chairman and his/her executive committee. In towns, a sub-county is called a division.
County: A county is made up of several sub-counties. Each county is represented in the national parliament in Kampala by an elected member (an MP). In major towns, the equivalent of a county is a municipality (which is a set of divisions).
District: A district is made up of several counties and any municipalities in that area. A district is led by an elected local council V (LCV) chairman and his executive.

At present, Uganda has 80 districts, but the number keeps growing. When President Museveni captured power 23 years ago, after a five-year guerrilla war, Uganda had around 30 districts.

7 Pillars of the Parish Development Model

The Role of the Parish

The sub-counties of Uganda are divided into parishes, which are further divided into villages. These parishes are governed by a local council II (LCII) committee and parish chief. The parish chief is a government employee that provides technical leadership to the LCII. Today, LCIIs are largely involved in settling land distributes and mobilising the community for various activities.

Under the parish development model, the government has recently set up structures and frameworks for planning, budgeting and delivery of public services. The assumption is that by getting citizens at the lowest administrative levels to identify and assign resources for their own social needs, development can tilt in favour of the poor. The overall aim, according to the plan, is to deepen the decentralisation process, improve household incomes, and increase accountability at local levels.

The parish model has seven pillars, all aligned to the third national development plan:

production, storage, processing and marketing
infrastructure and economic services
the model’s governance and administration

The president recently emphasised that out of the seven pillars - production, storage, processing and marketing as well as financial inclusion - require immediate focus.

Parish Development Model

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who captured power in 1986, has set himself an ambitious development target. Through the Parish Development Model launched recently, he is seeking to lift the country’s annual GDP growth rate to at least 7% by 2040 - up from 5.1% projected for 2022. It’s a bottom-up approach to budgeting, aimed at moving national development planning to the grassroots.

The parish model addresses the five critical elements of livelihood enhancement: human, natural resources, social, finance and physical assets. But the missing link is the sustainability aspect.

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Key Components of the Parish Development Model:

Decentralization: Deepening the decentralization process to ensure people’s participation and democratic control in decision making.
Improved Incomes: Aims to improve household incomes at the local levels.
Accountability: Increases accountability at local levels.

Challenges and Sustainability

If well executed, the model could remedy Uganda’s many ills. But it remains to be seen whether the parish model will be implemented effectively. Uganda has a long history of conceiving good programmes but failing to implement them.

One of the key elements of the parish model is the expectation that parish leaders will drive implementation. But their capacity to handle budget issues has not been tested.

The government should not rush into releasing parish model implementation funds to groups. The critical element is to build a clear, functional database of all Ugandans irrespective of employment status or age. This will ease intervention targeting, monitoring and implementation. This will ease short, medium and long-term planning for the country, both at local and national levels.

While the exact number of parishes in Uganda may vary due to ongoing administrative changes, this overview provides a comprehensive understanding of their role within the country's local government structure.

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