US Secretary Hails Uganda

By Felix Osike “ I have come to Africa not to preach, but to listen. I want to see what has worked here and what has failed. I want to ask how we can do better. I want to learn from Uganda’s political and economic success.”These were the remarks of the visiting US Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill while addressing the business community and students at Makerere University’s department of women studies. O’Neill on his four-country African tour with Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock group U2, said he came with an open mind convinced that human beings everywhere have the potential to succeed.He hailed President Yoweri Museveni’s leadership for making Uganda the first country in Africa to reduce its AIDS infection rate. “Uganda shows the positive difference that leadership can make. There is still much more work to do in fighting corruption and building democracy, improving infrastructure, strengthening the financial sector and expanding exports,” he said. O’Neill, 66, a former Alcoa Inc. chief executive officer, meets President Museveni this morning at State House Nakasero. He said Uganda has been an inspiration for the continent. “Uganda’s economy has grown by almost 7% annually over the past ten years, an extraordinary achievement in any part of the world,” he said.He said because of that growth, poverty fell from 56% of the population in 1992 to 35% in 2000. He said as a result of UPE, primary school enrolment has increased from 55% of the children in 1994 to nearly 94% in 1999 and over 47 % of the pupils are girls.He appealed to the World Bank and other multilateral development banks to reform their ways of doing business with poor countries. “They must improve the effectiveness of their assistance,” he said. “Rather than focussing on inputs I want them to focus on results. Don’t tell me how many of the children you have enrolled in school or how much you have spent, tell me how many of the children can read, write and compute at their grade level,” he said.O’Neill said he came to hear from entrepreneurs, investors, farmers, artisans and vendors in the market. “I want to hear their hopes and dreams and I hope they share with me their insights into how best to eliminate the obstacles to Africa’s prosperity,” he added.“For some 50 years, thoughtful, compassionate people have struggled to solve poverty here. The results of the official development assistance have been disappointing and many poor countries here have stayed that way, even as others excelled,” O’Neill said.Earlier, the Treasury Secretary, accompanied by his wife, daughter, Under Secretary John Taylor, US ambassador Martin Brennan, Director American Centre, Mary Jeffers, Bono and Hollywood film star Chris Tucker visited a water project, a health centre and a UPE school, Kisimbiri Church of Uganda, in Wakiso district, 20 miles from Kampala. The three projects were funded by Poverty Action Funds (PAF) secured under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), debt cancellation initiative.The US ambassador’s self-help fund is providing the money to purchase the roofing sheets for the new classroom block.At Wakiso health centre, O’Neill and Bono cuddled babies, weighed them and talked to their mothers.Ends