Agriculture as a vital means for achieving human development
Rakai district, July 24th 2008
Primary agricultural activities generate nearly 40% of Uganda’s gross domestic product (GDP); 70 to 80% of export earnings, almost all domestic food requirements and most of the raw materials required in local industries. Yet the sector is experiencing a declining trend in public investment: direct public spending is at less than 5% of the annual budget.
UNDP Resident Representative, Theophane Nikyema, addresses an audience of district officials from the Central Region’s 14 districts
“I would like to call upon you to stand up to the occasion in your respective roles and capacities to ensure that agricultural productivity is given the position it deserves in the fight against poverty” said UNDP Resident Representative Theophane Nikyema, while opening a dissemination workshop of both the 2007 National Human development Report and the 2007 Uganda Millennium Development Goals Progress Report.
Attending the Central Region workshop in Rakai district on the 23rd July were all Chief Administrative Officers, District Chairpersons, District planners and other key decision makers at the district level from the Central Region’s fourteen districts
The dissemination workshop for the Central Region is the second in the series of five which are taking UNDP Strategy and Policy Unit staff around the country in an effort to bring the findings of the report to local governments.
The dissemination workshops provide a unique opportunity to take stock of the challenges on the ground and share key recommendations with district officials for effective and better informed district planning.
‘UNDP is aware that the district is a key entity in ensuring development in Uganda. We have the expertise in this room to make fair progress on the MDGs’ noted Nikyema who was speaking to a full room of about one hundred and fifty Central Region officials.
‘It is this challenge that the districts have to address’ he added.
The UNDP Resident Representative further pledged to partner with the host district of Rakai, civil society organizations and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics to produce a disaggregated MDG report for the district.
Addressing the workshop in his welcoming note, the Rakai district Chairperson, Mr, Vincent Semakula Setuba, noted budgetary constraints as a challenge in the attainment of the goals but also highlighted the remarkable progress made by the Rakai district.
Rakai, which was the first district to be affected by the HIV/AIDS virus in Uganda has seen its prevalence rate drop form 44% in the early nineties to 12% today; while its primary school enrolment has tripled since the introduction of the Universal Primary Education from 60,000 to 180,000 pupils.
In his concluding remarks, UNDP National Economist, Mr. Patrick Birungi reminded the audience of a key recommendation of the 2007 National Human Development Report: the formulation of a National Agricultural Policy to guide and prioritize investments and resource allocation.
As a response to this pressing challenge, he announced, UNDP has initiated dialogue with key partners and is planning to organize and facilitate a national workshop on Agriculture with all national stakeholders later this year.
UNDP’s next dissemination workshop will focus on the Eastern Region and be held in both Kumi and Moroto district.
UNDP Resident Representative, Theophane Nikyema, addresses an audience of district officials from the Central Region’s 14 districts
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