Census Analytical Report - Uganda Bureau of Statistics

Analytical Report11.3 Embracing religious and ethnic diversityUganda comprises numerous ethnic tribes and a number of religious groupings. The diversity of thelanguages spoken is important in preserving culture and heritage. As a strategy, Uganda should adoptmeasures to protect, maintain and promote linguistic and cultural diversity. Institutional networksaiming to promote and develop the cultural heritage and indigenous people should be supported anddeveloped. Further more, government should ensure that all initiatives supported by donors andintergovernmental organisations demonstrate that they will not adversely affect cultural and linguisticdiversity. In addition, there is need for continuous dialogue to improve Uganda's social cohesionthrough political commitment to minority groups, promotion and protection of minorities’ right.11.4 Promoting proper management of environmental resourcesImproved access to safe water supply and sanitation is one of the priority areas in the PEAP. Althoughgovernment has put in place policies to address them, more needs to be done and in some cases are-think of the implementation strategies is required. The current policy emphasizes communitymanagement of water resources. This implies that the community takes care of the basic maintenanceof the water source. This however, has cost implications and communities may have to charge a fee toeffectively manage the water resources. However, the policy is unclear on how the very poor canaccess the safe water sources that are managed by the community. This should be addressed so asto discourage the use of unsafe water sources.A policy on sanitation is in existence and its implementation is shared among the Ministries of Waterand Environment, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education and Sports. Although the responsibilitiesof each institution are well known, the overall ministry responsible for coordinating and monitoring ofthe sanitation programme remains unclear. Poor sanitation at household level poses a health risk butnot much has been done to enforce toilet construction. In addition, the sanitation policy does not fullyaddress the disposal of hazardous waste such as polythene bags. These issues need to beaddressed.The use of wood fuel for cooking by households is widespread in both rural and urban areas. Theprotection of the environment and further prevention of de-forestation would only be possible if thedemand for wood fuel declined. Increasing access to clean energy has great health and humandevelopment benefits by reducing indoor pollution. The current policy on alternative energy sourcesand rural electrification, however, needs to examine the cost of using alternative forms of energy.11.5 Increasing the ability of the population to learn skillsThe Universal Primary Education (UPE) program has improved primary enrolment visibly since itsintroduction in 1997. It is recommended that monitoring and evaluation of the UPE implementation bestrengthened and that some of the policies be reviewed to achieve 100 percent literacy amongst allschool going children above primary four. Further, measures to increase school retention should bedevised to ensure that drop outs are minimized.140