Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision - December 2, 2004
Harriette Onyalla
"There's a three-year plan for the emergency phase of the Northern Uganda Recovery and Development Programme in the offing. It's going to cost about sh882 trillion over the next 15 years," a source in the Prime Minister's office, said.
However, northern Uganda state minister, Grace Akello, declined to give actual figures, but confirmed that the cost for implementing the region's economic recovery plan was in trillions.
"Some people are shocked that the budget for bringing the region back on its feet is bigger than the national budget. But immeasurable damage has been on infrastructure and the people. Helping the region regain normality is going to have great financial implications. The budget is running in trillions," Akello said.
She was addressing journalists at her office in Kampala on Friday on inter-ministerial taskforce.
Akello said the Northern Uganda Recovery and Development Plan was the equivalent of the Marshal Plan, which was implemented in Europe after the Second World War. She revealed that the plan had already been adopted by the Prime Minister's Office and would soon be discussed in Cabinet before its implementation begins.
"We have been working on the plan through an inter-ministerial task force. The first document is out and ready for review by Cabinet. When you look at the north, everything needs to be done, but we are prioritising the most urgent things," she said.
A book released in September by World Vision, an international aid agency working in northern Uganda, says the region's conflict had already cost about sh220 trillion. The book, Pawns of Politics, Children, Conflict and Peace in Northern Uganda, says military expenditure contributes to 28% of the national loss, loss of livestock and crops taking 24%, illness and death 21%, reduction in tourism 14%, while loss of household assets and homes contributed to 25% and loss of forex 2%.
The book also says the total economic cost of the war in Acholiland is at least 180 trillion which is more than the central government's health budget.
The war characterised by its ferocious brutality against civilians and the abduction of children has been a constant blemish on the relative prosperity in Uganda.
Since 1990, there has been a 20% reduction in poverty, a surge in school enrollment and a decline in HIV/AIDS rates in the country. In contrast, poverty, death, school dropout and HIV/AIDS rates are rising in the north.
According to district reports, infant mortality in northern Uganda is 172 per 1,000 compared to the national figure of 88 per 1,000.
Out of every 1,000, 276 children under five in the region die. The maternal mortality rate is 700 per 100,000 in the north compared to the nation figure of 506 per 100,000.
Aid groups estimate that over 30,000 people have died in fighting between the LRA and government forces, and 20,000 children have been kidnapped by the rebels to serve as fighters, porters and sex slaves.
The insurgency led by Joseph Kony, has displaced over 1.5m people, many of whom live in squalid camps.
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