Common stand on Uganda's population policy still a far cry

While countries historically have taken advantage of a population spike- to grow economies and expand- it is also true that large populations can suffocate economic development by putting pressure on resources.

The UNPF has projected that if the fertility rate continues as it is, the number of primary school pupils will increase from 7.5 million in 2007 to 18.4 million in 2037. It would require a commensurate rise in teachers from 152,000 in 2007 to 459,000 in 2037. The agency argues, however, that if fertility is restrained and drops to 2.2 children per woman the modest increase in the primary school pupil population will only be 10.2 million in 2037 needing just 253,900 additional teachers.

Similar extrapolations
Similar extrapolations have been made with regard to health services and food, housing, transport, water, sanitation and energy painting a future that Uganda will be turned into one giant slum in the next several decades.

The UN and other agencies argue therefore that Uganda should go the way of China or India, where they say a controlled population can spur economic growth.
However, whether fertility works against modernisation is still being debated in political circles, former Vice President, who also has a PhD in health economics, was skeptical of the population doomsayers.

Speaking to African women parliamentarians at a reproductive health conference, she poured cold water on “disaster “research.

“Who is there to verify that? Yes, it is true there are 6,000 to 14,000 maternal deaths,” she pondered. Her political contemporaries including the President say a large population equates to a bigger market.

“I hope President Museveni will now start listening to our call to check population growth. Even the Asian tigers he keeps referring to at one time had to stop and think about their young population. What is the use of having a big useless population?” asked Bishop Zac Naziringaye, the chairperson of the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (Uganda Chapter).

Facts on Uganda's population
Population size
Today, the total projected population of Uganda is 30.66 million. (Males at 14.93 Million and Females at 15.73 Million)
The Total Fertility Rate is 6.7
Why the fertility is high
High desired family size of 5.6 for men and 4.8 for women
Low contraceptive use of 24 per cent
Implications
Of 6.2 million women of reproductive age, 785,000 are currently pregnant
Over 1 million children will be born in 2007
6,500 births will lead to maternal mortality
Urbanisation
Urbanisation population growth in 2002 stood at 3.0 per cent
Migration
Internal migration rates in 2005/2006 were 20 per cent, international migrates constituted 0.2 per cent of the total population
Reasons for migration include: search for employment 28%, marriage 15%, insecurity 26%, join family 15%, education 9%, others 7% .

Welfare and poverty
In 2002/2003, 25% of households took one meal a day. This improved to 18% taking one meal a day in 2005/2006.