Today, July 11, is World population Day and the celebrations in Uganda will be held in Kayunga district under the theme Uganda at 33 Million, Time to Act. Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, the Regional Director, Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office (PPD ARO) said that the theme is asking the government and people what they are going to do about the already existent population.
With Uganda’s population growth rate at 3.2% and over 50% of the population being young people, the majority of people have attributed the low levels of development on the high population. However, Musinguzi said that the already existing population is not the problem, but poor planning is.He points out that the young ones are the future leaders and engines of economic growth, so policies which can help them turn into useful citizens should be put in place. He adds that reducing population growth is welcome but is not the only problem, but what is important is planning for the population through the different ministries that are in charge of doing something to help the population.
“Different bodies, say, National Planning Authority and ministries like the Ministry of Education, Health and Finance should engage in programmes which can help to provide jobs, health and better infrastructure, hence turn the population into assets.” Though majority of the population is rural based, Musinguzi says that soon the population will be majorly urban, thus the ministry responsible for urban planning should also do their job. He says that by doing this, the level of rural urban migration and unemployment will reduce since the people, including university graduates, will get jobs within their areas of origin.
In the area of health, Musinguzi advises the Ministry of Health to pay attention to reproductive health by educating the people to space their children, avoid early pregnancies and use contraceptives.
He believes that giving people a free and voluntary choice is the best way to solve such issues. “Government should not get involved in setting targets on the number of children a couple should produce but rather people should be given information and services on family planning so that they can choose how many children to produce and their spacing,” says Musinguzi.
The Ministry of Finance and Planning can also help by putting favourable policies for investors and the private sector. In terms of education, Musinguzi believes paying attention to tertiary institutions is the way to go. His advice to government is to put in place adequate infrastructure through constructing vocational institutions, training centres for practical skills and technical colleges so that people can gain practical skills which are relevant to our locality. By doing this, he says that people will become experts in laying bricks, carpentry, properly laying flower beds so that the city is well decorated while reducing on the number of idle people. He says such policies can enhance development since not everyone can attain university education.