Uganda – a country of kids (in need)

The health care system in Uganda has devel­oped, but there are still only a maximum of 9 physi­cians per 100,000 inhab­i­tants — depending on the region, signif­i­cantly fewer.

Life expectancy is currently around 63.7 years, and infant mortality has declined but is still close to 6 percent. A woman has an average of 4.7 chil­dren during her life­time, and 0.43 percent of mothers die during child­birth or as a result of it. To stay healthy, access to clean water is elemen­tary — but only 56 percent are granted it. Accord­ingly, diar­rheal diseases are the fifth leading cause of death (5.8%), espe­cially among chil­dren. However, AIDS (HIV) ranks first among the causes of death with over 10 percent, followed by influenza/pneumonia (9 %) and malaria (6.5 %). Road traffic deaths have increased enor­mously, now occu­pying 4th place with almost 6.3%.

With a gross national product of less than $1,000 per capita per year, Uganda is a very poor country. As recently as 2003, 82 % of the working popu­la­tion earned less than one dollar a day. The main exports are coffee and bananas, but tea, fish, tobacco and cocoa also play a role. In 2022, large gold deposits were discov­ered and oil is also increas­ingly being extracted — at the expense of the envi­ron­ment and even inside protected national parks, which play a major role in tourism. If any of the revenue from the gold and oil boom will actu­ally reach the people also remains to be seen.

School educa­tion in Uganda lasts 16 years, including 3 years of nursery. Since 1997, atten­dance at elemen­tary school (7 years) and now secondary school (4 years middle, 2 years high school) in state schools has offi­cially been free of charge.  The average length of school atten­dance increased from 2.8 years in 1990 to 6.2 years in 2015. But to maxi­mize literacy rates (76.5% in 2018), for-profit, fee-based private schools were also allowed. Today, 27 percent of elemen­tary schools and 66 percent of secondary schools are private. Over­crowded class­rooms with 60 to 80 students and a lack of equip­ment do not make it easy for chil­dren to learn. Effec­tive inde­pen­dent quality control, espe­cially of private schools, is lacking.

Private schools charge an average of $130 per child per year, and fees increase with grade level; school supplies, uniforms and exams usually cost extra. For low-income fami­lies, this is an insur­mount­able hurdle. And so far, only 15 percent of students attend secondary school; the average length of school atten­dance in 2015 was around 6.3 years. Two-thirds of chil­dren leave school prema­turely without grad­u­ating. So there is still a long way to go before the declared goal of 11.4 years of average school atten­dance is achieved.

At 241,550 km², land­locked Uganda covers an area equiv­a­lent to about 68 percent of that of Germany. About 36,000 km², or 15 percent, of it is taken up by rivers and lakes, the largest being Lake Victoria. Uganda is surrounded by its neigh­bors South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and the DR Congo. The capital is Kampala, which is home to nearly 5 million people and about 10 percent of the popu­la­tion (47.3 million).

47.3 million people were living in Uganda at the end of 2022. If the current popu­la­tion growth of 2.9% continues, the number would almost double by 2060 …

Uganda unites around 60 ethnic groups, some with their own languages, cultures and reli­gions. The largest groups are Bantu (60 %), Nilotes and Hami­tonilotes (together 24 %). Most believers are Chris­tians (85 %), followed by Sunni Muslims (13.7 %) and the Pente­costal move­ment (11.1 %). Recently, more­over, the influ­ence of the Evan­gel­ical Church from the United States has been increasing.

Since the 15th century Uganda was a kingdom, from 1894 it was a British protec­torate and since October 1962 the country has been inde­pen­dent. The first pres­i­dent was King Mutesa, and the first prime minister was Milton Obote, who deposed the king in 1966. After a mili­tary coup in 1971, Idi Amin began his reign of violence, and Obote took over again from 1980 to 1986. In terms of human rights viola­tions through terror, torture and murder of oppo­si­tion members the two dicta­tors were in no way infe­rior. In 1986 Museveni took over the pres­i­dency after a guer­rilla war, and the first elec­tions followed in 1989. Today Uganda is a pres­i­den­tial republic with a one-party system that uses both auto­cratic and demo­c­ratic elements. The pres­i­dent is still Pres­i­dent Museveni, who has been in office for 37 years and was last confirmed in 2021. The offi­cial languages are English and Swahili.