UGANDA
Population
The government estimates the population to total 22.2m in 2000 - figures are based on the preliminary results from the 1991 census which put the population at 16.1m. The average rate of annual increase has been around 2.5%, but high HIV/AIDS infection rates are expected to profoundly affect demographic patterns. Predominantly Bantu groups, who comprise some two-thirds of the population, live mainly in the south, concentrated in a wide band around Lake Victoria, reflecting agricultural potential. Only 13 per cent of the population live in towns of any size, forty per cent in Kampala. There is a major ethnic division between the Bantu groups, and the Nilotic groups who live in the sparsely populated north. The average annual urban growth rate for 1995-2000 was a high 5.4%
In an effort to fight poverty (more than 40% of the population suffer from poverty) spending on education and health was increased in the government’s 2001/02 budget.
Refugees and Internally Displaced People's (IDPs)
Protracted conflicts that affect a quarter of the
country have resulted in the displacement of thousands of people over
recent years. The areas affected are the Rwenzori mountains on Uganda’s
western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, eastern Uganda
where disturbances have been caused by violent raiding of villages
by Karamojong pastoralists, and the north.
For the past 17 years the Acholi people of northern
Uganda have been the victims of a brutal, unrelenting
rebel insurgency that has resulted in the displacement today of some
80% of the entire
Acholi population in the northern Gulu, Kitgum
and Pader regions, and more recently the eastern Teso region. The
numbers fluctuate according
to events; a resurgence in LRA violent activities
in the northern areas since April 2002 brought the number of IDPs
to over 840,000 in late
2003, up from 522,000. Most of these live in
crowded camps (government created “protected villages”) with little food and poor
sanitation. These camps have now become just as much of a target for
attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as the villages once
were, and aid workers are under constant threat of attack. Concerns
have been raised over whether the IDPs are being detained against their
will in violation of the UN’s guiding principles on displacement.
The looting and burning of crops has resulted
in increased dependence on humanitarian organisations for food such
that by January 2003 the
World Food Programme stated that Northern Uganda
was facing its worst humanitarian crisis in the 16 years of conflict.
At the end of 2002 the UNHCR said there were 176,900 refugees in Uganda, 90% of whom are from southern Sudan, and the remainder from Congo (DRC) and Rwanda – 22% more than the last census in 1997. Most of the Rwandan refugees entered Uganda through Tanzania. Since 1994 the government has been generous in allocating land for the settlement of Sudanese refugees, enabling the UNHCR to establish agro-based local settlements. Security is a concern because of the various rebel groups that operate in the west and north of the country, most notably the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) which frequently attack IDP camps to loot and to abduct people to serve in their army.
Health
Uganda's health indicators are among the worst in the world, the legacy of more than two decades of sporadic, but protracted instability, aggravated by the AIDS epidemic. By way of example - Uganda's maternal mortality rate at 1,200 is almost 25% higher than the sub-Saharan norm and the ratio of population to doctors at 25,000:1 worse than in many low-income countries. NGO's (non-governmental organizations) provide much of the formal-sector health care which is distributed relatively evenly throughout the country.
HIV/AIDS
Demographic patterns have been seriously affected by HIV/AIDS, which is now the leading cause of death among adults, followed by tuberculosis and malaria. In mid-2000 the Ugandan Ministry of Health reported that more than 800,000 Ugandans had died of AIDS since the disease was first diagnosed in the south-west of the country in 1983; it further estimated that nearly one-and-a-half million Ugandans -- over seven per cent of the country's population -- carry the HIV virus.
The government was the first in Africa to acknowledge the seriousness of the epidemic, undertaking a major public information campaign in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease. The campaign has helped cut down the rate of infection by almost half in the last seven years. In the past two years the decline has been most dramatic: in urban areas from 10.9% to 8.7%, and in rural areas by 0.1% to 4.2%. According to the Minster for State Health, a total of 10,000 people, or one third of the 30,000 anti-retro viral (ARV) users in Sub-Saharan Africa, are in Uganda. Since their campaign against expensive western drugs started in the late 1990’s, the price of combination treatment has fallen from an average US$600 a month to US$30 per month.
Food security
Uganda is a low-income, food-deficit country. The major foodcrops are: roots, tubers, plantains, pulses, maize, millet, sorghum. Uganda is generally self-sufficient in food, although food security, even in typically productive agricultural areas, has been threatened by ongoing conflict. Shortages have generally been the result of distribution problems or security difficulties in the Northern areas, where death rates from malnutrition and communicable diseases are high. At the start of 2003 the World Food Programme was feeding over 800,000 IDPs and 150,000 refugees in 66 settlements in eight districts. It reported, however, that it was facing serious funding difficulties as it had only been able to raise 30% of food supplies needed. Total affected populations in Uganda, including drought-affected persons, IDPs, refugees and abducted children, are estimated at 1.02m.
Education
Once one of the best education systems in tropical Africa, the education system is now in poor condition. Education is highly valued as reflected in the strong support from civil society. Primary education is not free, the result being that while the majority of children start school, only about half of the boys and less than a third of the girls complete their education. University education is free.
Last updated September 2003
