UGANDA may not achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) come 2015, Rukia Chekamondo, the finance state minister, has said.

Opening an international conference on population and development at Colline Hotel, Mukono recently, Chekamondo said though Uganda is on course to achieve the second goal (universal primary education), efforts were lacking to achieve gender equality, infant and maternal mortality reduction as well as reproductive health services which are part of the eight goals supposed to be achieved by 2015.

She said results showed a rise in new HIV infections. “Young people still remain vulnerable to sexual and reproductive health conditions including teenage pregnancy.”

However, on the HIV/AIDS front, Uganda has garnered global recognition in its fight against the scourge. The national prevalence rate currently stands at 6.4% from 30% recorded in the 1980s.

The Government continues to promote abstinence, faithfulness and condom use while the provision of anti-retroviral therapy has prolonged lives of many people.

Meanwhile experts have warned that Uganda’s rate of population growth slows down economic growth. With a population growth rate at 3.2%, Uganda, has one of the world’s fastest population growth rates.

Uganda’s population has increased from 23 million in 2000 to 27 million in 2005 and is expected to reach 33 million in 2010. It is projected that by 2020, Uganda’s population will be 46 million and finally hit 55 million come 2025.

It is estimated that 25% of Ugandan female teenagers have already had children hence high rate of early marriages, school drop-out and maternal mortality.

Hassan Mohtashami, the United Nations Population Fund deputy country representative, noted that they seek to control and prevent maternal mortality. He said one way of achieving that was to control pregnancy before 18 years and after 35 years.

“There should be a minimum of three years between two pregnancies. The less pregnancies a woman has, the less incidences of maternal mortality,” Mohtashami said.

Charles Zirarema, the acting Population Secretariat head, says: “We must ensure the population growth is equal to the available resources.”