Our high population a stumbling block in fighting poverty
Dec 29, 2010
THE People’s Development Party welcomed the September, 2010 world leader’s meeting in New York for a United Nations’ Summit on eradication of poverty and chronic hunger.
THE People’s Development Party welcomed the September, 2010 world leader’s meeting in New York for a United Nations’ Summit on eradication of poverty and chronic hunger.
The indices on poverty eradication show that Uganda has not progressed considerably in reducing the number of people living below the poverty line.
Reports on the poverty reduction performance show that poverty levels reduced from 56% in 1992 to 31% to-date. Poverty levels are expected to fall further to 25% by 2015. However, much as the target is statistically achievable, it is made impossible by Uganda’s fertility rate of 7% — one of the highest in the world. Because of this, more people will be living in poverty by 2015 with an estimated population of 40 million and projected to rise even higher to about 55 million in 2025.
This population will accelerate poverty because it will overwhelm the economy and escalate the need for adequate and quality social services like health, education, housing and food, which will be difficult to meet.
Uganda is a transition economy and the Government should be the lead engine of economic growth to provide infrastructure development, a conducive environment for business plus efficient labour and financial markets.
The situation in Uganda is worsened by the donor dependency syndrome. The country should adopt favourable terms of trade where donor countries only continue to compete for trade by devaluating their currency and subsidising their economies.
The donors should also be encouraged to fulfil their side of the bargain and stop tying humanitarian aid to political and macro-economic conditions that favour growth and not pro-poor human development. Their aid, which raised our economic growth from 5.8% to 6% as per October 2010, has not helped the people of Busoga with jigger infestation as a result of sharing accommodation with animals.
In October 2010, the World Bank approved a $100m (about sh200b) loan for Uganda for micro-structural support to balance the national budget and target poverty eradication. However, this money should have gone towards strengthening anti-corruption institutions to save the sh500b, which the state loses annually through misappropriation of funds.
The writer is the deputy president of the Peoples Development Party
The indices on poverty eradication show that Uganda has not progressed considerably in reducing the number of people living below the poverty line.
Reports on the poverty reduction performance show that poverty levels reduced from 56% in 1992 to 31% to-date. Poverty levels are expected to fall further to 25% by 2015. However, much as the target is statistically achievable, it is made impossible by Uganda’s fertility rate of 7% — one of the highest in the world. Because of this, more people will be living in poverty by 2015 with an estimated population of 40 million and projected to rise even higher to about 55 million in 2025.
This population will accelerate poverty because it will overwhelm the economy and escalate the need for adequate and quality social services like health, education, housing and food, which will be difficult to meet.
Uganda is a transition economy and the Government should be the lead engine of economic growth to provide infrastructure development, a conducive environment for business plus efficient labour and financial markets.
The situation in Uganda is worsened by the donor dependency syndrome. The country should adopt favourable terms of trade where donor countries only continue to compete for trade by devaluating their currency and subsidising their economies.
The donors should also be encouraged to fulfil their side of the bargain and stop tying humanitarian aid to political and macro-economic conditions that favour growth and not pro-poor human development. Their aid, which raised our economic growth from 5.8% to 6% as per October 2010, has not helped the people of Busoga with jigger infestation as a result of sharing accommodation with animals.
In October 2010, the World Bank approved a $100m (about sh200b) loan for Uganda for micro-structural support to balance the national budget and target poverty eradication. However, this money should have gone towards strengthening anti-corruption institutions to save the sh500b, which the state loses annually through misappropriation of funds.
The writer is the deputy president of the Peoples Development Party