The Republic of Uganda is a unitary state with a district-oriented decentralised administrative system, which means the country's governance model provides for local governments at the district level presided over by a central government (Chapter 11, Article 176 Constitution). 

The local governments are semi-autonomous administrative units with governance powers defined under in the Constitution (Chapter 11) and the Local Governments Act (1997). The Constitution and Local Governments Act were last amended in 2015.