By Mwiza Keikuzi
CHIEF REPORTER
In 2016, President Yoweri Museveni worn a 5th term in office after presenting a manifesto containing a list of promises his government pledged to deliver to Ugandans.
This month of May, five years later, is a time to take stock of how much of these promises have been achieved across several ministries and government agencies. The different stories are featured after this general story.
In the new term, President Museveni promised he was going to be tough on his officials who don not deliver dubbing it a ‘Kisanja Hakuna Mchezo,’ meaning a term of not tolerating mediocrity!
In the following story uploads, government agencies and ministries present a picture of relative success on the promises they set out to do. However, this did not come without challenges among which are the following:
Once of the challenges the manifesto implementation rocess faced was the complex nature of land acquisition to enable infrastructure works to be undertaken. This isrelated with the land rights as enshrined in the constitution. This has given birth to compensation issues by making it costly. This was a cross cutting issue that mainly affected roads, electricity, water, health and other infrastructure projects.
The second challenge was the unpredictable weather patterns with delayed rains and long droughts that significantly affected both productivity and production, which in turn slowed down economic growth.
The third challenge was Budgetary and financing gaps that limited the resource envelope which eventuall has affected the fulfillment of counterpart requirements for donor-funded projects leading to delays in project implementation. Compensation related demands to kickstart the projects. Some projects were abandoned due to insufficient resources for example the provision of sanitary pads in schools and the hand hoes.
The fourth challenge was Corruption, which continuously undermined efforts in implementing the manifesto. This was evidenced by collusion and air supply for some inputs, diversion of resources meant for certain interventions. These resulted into project delays and sometimes abandonment.
The fifth challenge was lack of commitment on the part of implementers, which was been exhibited in: Poor planning by the MDAs by failure to prioritize of the manifesto commitments with in the annual budgets and plans. Lack of coordination between the implementing agencies to facilitate harmonization of plans. This resulted into duplication of efforts thus failure to achieve intended results. Inadequate supervision by the implementers in regard to when projects are being implemented and also during utilization. This resulted into shoddy works constructed for the case of infrastructure related
The sixth challenge was Continuous creation of new administrative units across the country. This resulted in the shift in the manifesto targets even when resources for such new units had not been captured within the budgets. This resulted in some areas not accessing services as captured within the commitment matrix. For example increasing number of sub counties without any form of secondary school despite the continued construction of seed secondary schools.
The seventh challenge was low Agricultural Productivity. About 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture which grew at 2 percent on average in the five years to 2016/17. In 2017/18, growth in agriculture rebounded to 3.8 percent, as the sector recovered from drought. With population growth of 3 percent, workers in agriculture have thus experienced a decline in per capita income. The productivity in agriculture remains low with output per acre lagging middle-income countries like Vietnam and Brazil, and has declined in recent years. For example, coffee yield in Vietnam is 2.2 tons per hectare compared to only 0.67 tons in Uganda.
The eight challenge was High cost of Capital. The high cost of capital remained a major challenge to the economy as a whole. To address this challenge, Government needed to continue capitalizing Uganda Development Bank. So far the bank has been capitalized up to Ushs 272 billion. On top of this, Government guaranteed loans of USD 15 million and USD 5 milllion from African Development Bank (AfDB) and Exim Bank of India, respectively for SMEs.
The ninth challenge was High Unemployment. The new entrants to the labour market are about 600,000 per annum. The strategies for improving this was to increase the establishment of manufacturing (factories), and improve the incomes in agriculture to attract our youth back into agriculture. Uganda still needs to create more than 600,000 jobs a year to accommodate its growing population. There are recent reports which suggest that literacy and numeracy rates have declined in recent years. The Presidential Initiative of providing grants/low cost revolving loans, equipment and skilling was a positive move to quickly create jobs for the youth and women, and a strategy for export promotion and import substitution.
The tenth challenge was the High cost of doing business. The cost of doing business remained high in Uganda. To address this challenge, the Government needed to prioritize infrastructure investments in Energy, Transport, water, and ICT. There shall be the need to invest quickly in transmission and distribution of the power that will be negated. The tariff should be capped at 5 cents and this will require providing subsidies from the budget.
Low exports was cited as another challenge the manifesto implementation faced. Trade performance is a key driver of economic growth and poverty reduction to all countries. Uganda had a very high export potential that remained untapped.
Lastly, the Public Debt was another challenge. Public debt continuously accumulated mainly due to the need to improve infrastructure in order to reduce the cost of doing business and improve competitiveness. The IMF’s most recent Debt Sustainability Analysis for Uganda rates the country’s external public debt at low risk of debt distress. As at end, FY17/18 Uganda’s debt to GDP amounted to 41.5% of GDP, which is below the sub-Saharan average estimated at close to 56% of GDP at end 2018. The report however notes that debt in Uganda has risen significantly over recent years, with non-concessional lenders (particularly China) driving this increase.