populystAGNES KYOTALENGERIRE writes at ALLAFRICA.COM:
THE population of Uganda has grown from 4.8 million people in 1950 to 33 million people as per UDHS (2011).
With the current rate of population growth of 3.2 per annum implies that about 1.2 million babies are born every year.
The country’s population is expected to double yet again in 22 years to 55 million people. If the current trend continues, it is projected that by 2050, Uganda will have 130 million people. READ MORE.
Note: Uganda’s total fertility rate, 5.9 children per woman, is one of the highest in the world, and is higher than the Sub-Saharan average of 4.8. The UN’s ‘medium variant’ estimate predicts that the population of Uganda will rise from 33 million in 2010 to 94 million by 2050 and 171 million by 2100.
ANNE MUGISA and CATHY MWESIGWA write in ALLAFRICA.COM:
President Yoweri Museveni has cautioned that the population issue in Africa should be put in its proper context and discussed without complacency, exaggeration or panic.
He observed that industrial societies do not have time to generate so many children and added that evidence shows that in Africa too, middle class women also do not have time to generate children endlessly.
Speaking at an international family planning summit in the UK Wednesday, Museveni said that population growth isn’t the problem but, according to him, underdevelopment and lack of social-economic transformation as well as child spacing which would ensure the health of babies and mothers.
Museveni was accompanied to the summit by his wife, First Lady and Minister for Karamoja, Janet Museveni.
He urged African governments and their development partners to sensitise the peasant women about child spacing to ensure spaced and planned child births. READ MORE.
ARNE DOORNEBAL WRITES AT RADIO NETHERLANDS:
With an increase of 1.2 million citizens every year, Uganda is the third-fastest growing country on earth. The population boom is causing bitter fights over land and may lead to food shortages, warn experts. Meanwhile, individual families feel the strain. “I love my children, but just wished I had fewer of them,” says a struggling mother of seven.
A focused conversation with Justine is not possible because a horde of children permanently surrounds her. The twin four-year-old sons scream for attention, while her three-year-old daughter tries to grab the notebook of a visitor.
“Ugandan women are extremely fertile,” says the 40 year old. “I love my children very much, but I fail to give everyone enough attention. I have to combine motherhood with my work as a hotel manager. The youngest children delay going to school because I use the money for school fees for the elder ones,” she explains.
Justine was married twice. Both men left her. Only the second ex-husband contributes to his children’s education. This scenario is commonplace in Uganda, where women give birth to an average of 6.2 children. READ MORE.
Analysis and Opinion
