Julius N. Uma
22 February 2006
Kampala — Currently, Uganda still faces several human development challenges in pursuit of poverty reduction and long-term sustainability. With its estimated 3.4 per cent average population growth rate per annum, controlling these high population growth rates remains one of the challenges at stake for policy makers and key stakeholders.
Last year's Uganda Human Development annual report directly linked poverty; environment and sustainable development in a vicious cycle. Many Ugandans expected this year's presidential aspirants to make these trio factors key considerations in their manifestos, ahead of the polls.
According to the 90-page report titled; 'Linking Environment to Human Development: A Deliberate Choice,' there is need to understand how the environment and changes in its state impact on development, thus making its easier to inform policy makers having established a clear empirical link between poverty, environment and sustainable development.
"Poverty affects the environment in the sense that the poor are too pre-occupied with day-to-day survival to have much interest in the implications of their actions on the environment. People thus become vulnerable to the extent that they are unable to cope with physical threats, including natural resource degradation and natural disasters," the report says.
Recently, Uganda was blamed for the rapidly decreasing water levels of Lake Victoria, to try and generate as much power as possible at Jinja to cover the shortfall.
NRM's promise
"In the next five years, we will work towards eradication of malaria. Our programme in the past has been targeting mothers to whom mosquito nest have been distributed. Our target is to eradicate malaria through provision of free mosquito nets and DDT spray in highland areas." The party also promises to supply 18 million nets to over 80 per cent of the population.
UPC's promise
"Worldwide, industrialisation, high poverty levels in Uganda, greed and sheer inconsiderate attitudes have all contributed to serious degradation of the environment. UPC will adopt policies that will strike a balance between economic demands and protection of environment for prosperity"
DP's promise
The party shall "support efforts by the National Forestry Authority. There are support efforts to plant new forest and curb further depletion of national forests for industrial concessions. Extend protection of vulnerable wetlands and enforce the National Environmental Management Authority guidelines on environmental use, with plans to extend forests cover by two million hectares in the next 10 years."
FDC's promise
"The FDC is reportedly determined to achieve a sustainable environment in Uganda, through advancing the UN's Millennium Development Goals."
Bwanika's promise
Unlike independent candidate, Dr. Abed Bwanika's open strategy to make poverty history if elected, the other candidates simply zeroed on attacking their opponents and neglecting the key issues affecting the population through out their campaign periods.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2006 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
