New Vision (Kampala) - October 6, 2008

In the 1960s, Africa's growth and transformation - evolving from Third World to First World countries - was impeded by, mainly, the anti-private sector attitudes of the governments at that time and also by failing to grasp the importance of export-oriented growth, unlike the Asian economies. By the time we shifted to private-sector led growth, competition for investment had stiffened with the opening up of China, Eastern Europe and, later on, India.

These larger emerging economies attracted more investments. China has, in the last 18 years (1990-2007) attracted an estimated $327 trillion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) compared to $ 2.9billion that came to Uganda in the same period, the fact that Uganda made more reforms notwithstanding.

The present biggest problem of Africa's economies is their smallness. That is why the movement of regional integration is crucial. Similarly important is the issue of access to the big markets of the US, EU, China, Japan and India.

I, therefore, salute these countries for recently granting tariff-free, quota-free access to our products. There is, however, the question of agricultural subsidies. These subsidies are a fetter to the growth of the World economy. There are, of course, other bottlenecks to Africa's growth and transformation. Inadequate electricity, poor road and rail infrastructure, especially stand out as factors that raise the cost of doing business in Africa.

In the case of Uganda, the use of telephones is being handled well, especially with the building of the broadband and the under-sea cable. This should lower the cost of voice and data communication to 10% of the current cost by mid 2009 (from 4,000-5,000 megabytes per second per month to 400-500 megabytes per second per month).

As far as Uganda is concerned, universal primary and secondary education has created a big pool of trainable manpower for industrial output. We are also expanding the technical schools.

I am prefacing the discussion of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with a statement on socio-economic transformation because I do not accept the view that the use of donor money will be or should be the primary stimulus of actualising these MDGs. MDGs will be sustainably achieved as a consequence of the socio-economic transformation of Africa. Donor assistance is welcome where possible. However, it cannot sustainably cause the actualisation of these MDGs.

Uganda is on course to meet most of the MDGs - poverty eradication, education, political empowerment. We are having some problems with the maternal health care mainly because of poor sensitisation and cultural attitudes. When I inquired as to why Uganda was not moving fast on maternal mortality rate some two years ago, I was told that, apparently, there are two factors:

Husbands do not allow their wives to be delivered by male doctors and medical staff.

The women do not like delivering lying on their back (kugarama). They prefer the traditional way of kneeling. Apart from these cultural reasons, the real remaining constraints are inadequate supplies of gloves for the midwives, the lack of the post partum haemorrhage control measures e.g. ergometrine, the canvasses, etc. Again, this goes back to resources - tax collection by the State, which is itself a consequence of economic transformation. We have now built Health Centre IIIs in about 80% of the sub-counties of Uganda. Yet they do not have these supplies all the time.

The development of Africa is the responsibility of the Africans themselves and not that of our development partners. In pursuit of this, African governments have put in place ambitious programmes, whose implementation has, however, been wanting in some areas.

Africa has made commitments towards development under:

NEPAD - Uganda was successfully peer reviewed on June 29, 2008.

Africa's Green Revolution - commitment to allocate at least 10% of the national budgetary resources for agricultural and rural development policies. Uganda allocated 6.4% in financial year 2008/2009 for agriculture and the necessary rural infrastructure.

Maputo Declaration 2003 on Health to commit 15% of the national budget - In the financial year -2008/2009, Uganda allocated 10.8%.

Regional integration - East African Community has been expanded to include Rwanda and Burundi. Good progress has been made towards the establishment of a Customs Union.

Under the MDGs, Uganda has performed as follows:

Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger- Uganda has been able to reduce the proportion of people living on less than $1 per day to 31% presently, from the 56% recorded in 1992. If this trend continues, it will be possible to achieve the MDG target of 28% of Ugandans below the poverty line by 2015.

Achieve universal primary education - The net enrollment ratio in primary schools in Uganda stands at 84%. Literacy rate between 15 and 24 years is also 84%.

Gender equality and women empowerment - The ratio of literate women to men has gone up from 67% in 1998 to 92% in 2008. The number of female Members of Parliament has risen from 17% of total membership in 1989 to 30% in the Seventh Parliament (2001-2006).

Reduce infant mortality rate - In Uganda, child deaths before the age of one declined from 92 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1992 to 76 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2006. Child deaths before the age of five also declined from 167 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1992 to 137 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2006.

Improvement of maternal health-The maternal mortality ratio has declined modestly from 523 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1989 to 435 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006.

Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases - The MDG target of halting and reversing the spread and prevalence of HIV/AIDS was achieved in Uganda by 1996.

Ensure environmental sustainability - Access to improved water sources increased from 34% in 1990 to 63.8% in 2006. This trend indicates that the target of 77% is achievable by 2015.

The shortcomings identified provide an opportunity for Africa to exercise "ownership" of its own development agenda and the need for a genuine "partnership" with the international community.

Africa's struggle for transformation and achieving the MDGs would be better helped if the developed countries fulfilled their commitments with more effective aid, sustained debt relief and market access.

Africa, however, must take responsibility for her future.

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