The Local Government Councils play a critical role in the provision of governance focus within Local Governments in a decentralized governance like Uganda. Over time, the changing political economy has greatly shaped to composition of the councils in terms of experience, knowledge and capacity to effectively execute the mandate of local governments. An initial assessment of the SDLG programme indicates that a myriad of issues ranging from; expectations management; knowledge and understanding of the functions, roles and responsibilities of the organs of LGs; knowledge and understanding of council procedures and guidelines among others continue to cripple council operations.
 
With the new Local Government leaders and councils getting into their second year in office, a critical pre-requisite of their performance such as induction and orientation in their roles, responsibilities and functions has not taken place in a number of Local Governments due to resource constraints and limited budgetary support. In those that have had the opportunity to be inducted, the process and approach has not adequately equipped the leaders to fully grasp the content delivered by the facilitators. As observed by one of the leaders;
 
“..we are really struggling with the current set of councilors because they have not understood their roles and responsibilities well. For instance, the role of council committees is very clear in guiding the council decisions and recommendations, but you find that, a number of issues that should have been handled at the committee stage find their way into the plenary and moreover by the very members of the select committee. This renders the committees dysfunctional and drags a lot of time of the council proceedings…”
Chairperson of Sessional Committee in a Local Government
 
In order to respond to challenges such as indicated above, the SDLG programme has adapted a different approach of inducting councilors. The approach is structured in a way that sessions will be practical, participatory and be blended with coaching and mentoring sessions with topical champions over an extended period of time. The topical champions – who are selected on the basis of their previous experience, knowledge and expertise in a particular subject matter with provide issue focused support to the who council, council committees and representatives of special interest groups in different topics such as; presenting and debating issues in council, reference and documentation, understanding the different structures of LG and their functions among others. All these geared towards enhancing the functioning of Local Government Councils as a key decision making structure.