Tag Archives: debate

Salient features of federalism

The October 27, 2012 London conference on Uganda federalism inspired by the keynote Speaker’s address (available at the Uganda Citizen website) was very successful in terms of participation which was national in scope; demographics which embraced men, women and youth; substantive in content; open, frank and tolerant of one another’s views; agreement that federalism is a national issue and consensus on the way forward. A resolution was adopted at the end of the conference and is available at the Uganda Citizen website.

I summarized areas where consensus was reached and posted the report on Ugandans at Heart Forum, www.kashambuzi.com and www.udugandans.com. Subsequently, I prepared and posted a short note on the same above websites clarifying some issues upon request. As this is work in progress, we need to update and add to the information that we already have. I have received requests in this regard. I appeal for active participation of all Ugandans in this debate so that none is left behind and also remember that nobody has monopoly or all the answers on this important subject. Here we go.

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Highlights of the population debate

1. The population debate has been with us for a very long time dating as far back as classical Greece and Rome. It has evolved overtime and now includes population explosion and implosion as well as women’s reproductive health and rights.

2. At the global level population dynamics is a function of changes in births and deaths. However, at the national level (e.g. Uganda) total population is a function of births – deaths + in-migrants – out-migrants.

3. The world population change has gone through three phases: the first phase occurred in the Neolithic Revolution caused by shifts from nomadic hunter/gatherer communities to crop production and animal domestication making more food available to feed more mouths in settled communities and reduced deaths; the second phase from the Industrial Revolution that started around 1750. Improved transport systems and cold storage facilities connected food surplus to deficit regions and public health including general hygiene, safe drinking water and sanitation that lowered mortality; the third phase began in the late 1950s and is characterized by medical and technological advances that too lowered death rate. Thus, all these phases from the first through the third have one thing in common: they saved lives and increased life expectancy. Thus, during these three phases the increase in population was not because couples were having more babies. It is because people were living longer due to a reduction in mortality.

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