Market access becoming Uganda’s engine of underdevelopment

Yoweri Museveni wrote a book entitled Selected Articles on the Uganda Resistance War.  It was first published in 1985. In it he complained that previous regimes had neglected the production of foodstuffs – especially nutritious millet, sorghum, peas and others – in preference for exports thereby perpetuating colonial distortions. As a result Ugandans were eating low calorie and protein foodstuffs which contributed to malnutrition. He stressed the need to re-orient the economy in such away that food production was given due emphasis to overcome malnutrition.

In May 1987, the Uganda government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) signed an agreement for external assistance. One of the IMF’s conditions is the expansion and diversification of exports to increase foreign exchange earnings to repay external debt.  

At the seminar on Uganda’s economy since 1986 held in Kampala in December 1989, the then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development informed seminar participants that boosting exports would be one of the most important economic achievements.

The significance of boosting exports was driven home by President Museveni when he closed the seminar. He stated that there was potential for increasing Uganda’s exports especially of the non-traditional kind such as beans, soy beans, fruits and many others including fish which the colonial administration had developed to meet the protein requirements of low income consumers and end malnutrition in Uganda.

Since that seminar, President Museveni has argued consistently at many meetings including summits in Addis Ababa and last September in New York that the main constraint to Uganda’s development was lack of market access for Uganda’s exports to earn foreign exchange in neighboring countries and beyond.

To overcome this constraint President Museveni has made it one of his top priorities to persuade foreigners and Uganda peasants to produce high value foodstuffs and other commodities such as flowers with a high demand in foreign markets. He has therefore welcomed the current food crisis – regardless of its adverse impact on Ugandan consumers – as an opportunity to sell more food in external markets and to the World Food Program (for humanitarian purposes) to maximize foreign exchange earnings. At the same time, Uganda has become a recipient of food donations for humanitarian purposes!

Since the 1990s, Uganda’s production of traditional and non-traditional exports has increased considerably and Uganda has been described as a ‘success story’ with an excellent record in adjusting to the requirements of global markets. But this ‘success’ has occurred at a very high human cost.

Ugandans are increasingly having fewer meals a day of poor nutritional value which are dominated by cassava, maize and plantains. Accordingly, 30 percent of Ugandans go to bed hungry, some 33 percent are mentally sick in large part because they are eating cassava and maize which contribute to neurological abnormalities, 40 percent of children under five are undernourished, 12 percent of infants are underweight because their mothers are undernourished and up to 80 percent of children are dropping out of primary education largely because they are hungry.

When infants are born underweight they suffer from permanent disabilities related to brain damage, learning and hearing difficulties. Others face the prospect of early death. Infants born underweight who survive to adulthood are likely to suffer from diabetes, heart disease and obesity. And children who do not eat adequate and balanced diets during the first three years suffer from brain underdevelopment.

Food and nutrition insecurity contributes to economic underdevelopment because of the time wasted through sickness and nursing as well as resources spent on treatment. Poor nutrition lowers physical activity and productivity even when not sick. Thus, in Uganda where 30 percent of the population do not eat enough their productivity is low and so is their contribution to economic growth and overall development.  

Under-nutrition impairs development because it lowers brain development and the ability to learn. Hungry children who drop out of school also miss the opportunity to learn. Overall, there is sufficient evidence that human capital development through education contributes to economic development.

In Uganda high levels of infant underweight, child under-nutrition and drop out from school have denied many Ugandans the opportunity to learn and acquire skills for increased labor productivity and economic development.  

To sum up, better nutrition complemented by adequate clothing and housing as well as safe drinking water and good sanitation contributes to economic growth through increased education, improved health and labor productivity.

Human capital development should therefore start with the health of the mother at the time of conception so that she produces a normal child who should be breastfed for at least six months and enjoy balanced weaning foods especially during the next three years of rapid brain development. Accordingly, targeted action against maternal mortality, infant underweight and child malnutrition is crucial as a prerequisite for economic growth and development.  

Government policies that have stressed food production for cash rather than for the stomach in Uganda since the 1990s are therefore anti-development because they are depriving Ugandans of adequate and nutritious diets essential for a healthy, active and productive life which together contribute to economic and social development. Ipso facto, these policies should be refocused so that the country produces food first and foremost for Ugandans and a surplus for export.  No sensible parent or development expert would disagree.