Statement of Need

Uganda is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has a population of 47,166,588 people and more than 80% of this population is rural and 35% live below the poverty line (CIA World Fact Book).

Education is recognized by the government of Uganda as a basic human right and efforts have been made to provide free primary education to all children in the country. The majority of literate Ugandans go through two basic levels of education (primary and secondary school). However, just a few advance to college and other higher institutions of learning. The introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE) program in 1997 improved enrollment significantly. Within 7 years of implementing UPE, enrollment in primary schools rose from 2,203,824 to 7,377,292 students and from 123,479 to 697,507 students in secondary schools. The gap between primary and secondary school enrollments remains very big, an indication that most Ugandans do not advance beyond the primary level of education. The massive numbers enrolled at the primary level continue to pose challenges in terms of cost, infrastructure and organization; challenges that have plagued the country with poor quality education, low levels of student achievement, untrained teachers, inadequate infrastructure and crowded classrooms. Gender inequality also remains a problem that sets harsher barriers for girls to attain education, leaving the female population disenfranchised and underrepresented despite government efforts to close the gap. All these issues continue to hinder progress.

Unemployment & Population Growth: With a population currently estimated at 47 million people, Uganda has one of the youngest and most rapidly growing populations in the world. Its fertility rate is among the world’s highest at close to 5.5 children per woman in 2022. Gender inequities make fertility reduction difficult. On average women are less educated, participate less in paid employment, and often have little say in decisions over childbearing and their own reproductive health. Left unchecked, population increase will further strain the availability of land and natural resources and will continue to overwhelm the country’s limited means to provide food, employment, education, health care, housing, and basic services. Current reporting (2024) indicates that over 52% of Ugandans are unemployed and a significant size of this population are women.

Gender Inequality: As highlighted in the sections above, gender inequality remains a huge barrier to reducing women's poverty. Women are subjected to an overall lower social status than men. This leaves women with no ability to act independently, participate in community life, get an education or escape dependency on abusive men. Livelihoods in rural areas depend on farming as the main source of income and 90% of all rural women work in the agricultural sector. In addition to agricultural work, rural women are responsible for taking care of families. The average Ugandan woman spends 15 hours a day on non-economic/domestic tasks such as preparing food and clothing, fetching water and firewood, and caring for dependents (children, elderly, sick and orphans). This is not only burdensome but leaves women with no time to engage in economically productive activities. Poor families find it difficult to support and educate their children. Girls drop out of school to get married, find work as domestic workers or as sex workers, all of which expose them to a disproportionate risk of getting infected by HIV.

Energy: Over 90% of households in Uganda still depend on either firewood or charcoal as their primary source of energy for their domestic cooking needs. This has resulted in one of the highest rates of loss of forest cover in the world. There is a continuous poorly regulated practice of cutting trees for firewood and charcoal and less effort is invested in planting more to replace those being cut. Commercially utilized biomass, such as timber for construction, also has had a detrimental impact on Ugandan forest development. There is an urgent need to wean the population off the use of biomass and transition to clean and renewable energy.

Water Supply and sanitation: Out of 47 million people, 41 million people (83% of the population) lack access to a reliable, safely managed source of water. 7 million people (17%) lack access to improved sanitation solutions. Uganda has experienced two decades of economic growth, leading to large population movements from rural areas to informal settlements around urban centers. The downside of this growth is that high population growth rates that have stressed water and sanitation services that exist. In addition, urban people living in poverty pay as much as 22 percent of their income to access water from water vendors. Spending such a high percentage of earnings on water reduces overall household income, limiting opportunities to build savings and break the cycle of poverty. Many families living in rural areas spend more than 30 minutes walking to collect water from open and unsafe wells to meet water needs for their households.

Life Expectancy: Uganda’s life expectancy at birth is estimated to be 64.38 years (as of 2023) and the infant mortality rate is approximately 61 deaths per 1,000 children. With a frail healthcare system, the country remains vulnerable to health scares like COVID-19, Ebola and other health threats. HIV has also remained a threat with an estimate of 1.2 million people living with the virus as of 2023. Women are more vulnerable with an infection rate at 7.8% compared to 4.7 for men.

Political Violence, Refugees & Displaced People: Around 30 million displaced persons, refugees and asylum-seekers live in Africa, representing almost one-third of the world’s refugee population. Millions of new displacements were recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria, triggered by increasing insecurity and human rights violations. Given the fact that Uganda has had relative peace since 1986, it acts as a go-to country for most people in this region seeking safety and refuge. According to UNHCR estimates in 2023, Uganda is a host of more than 1.5 million refugees. With the impact of COVID-19 and that of climate change, the situation will continue to worsen.

Uganda faces numerous challenges that could affect future stability, including explosive population growth, energy, and infrastructure constraints, corruption, underdeveloped democratic institutions, influx of more refugees, and human rights deficits. Communities Empowerment Africa was formed to respond to this need. We continue to work with local and international initiatives to serve the need at hand and to provide innovative solutions that will bring sustainable change to the communities we serve.