Hon Anna Adeke Ebaju, youth MP Eastern Region, has advised Ugandans not to lose hope when tackling issues concerning inequalities in the country.
Adeke urged the public to focus their energies where hope can be found because, “all is not lost as only time will tell. The rate at which inequality is happening is really alarming in Uganda with the youth, children and women being the main victims.
We must not lose hope completely for I believe all is not gone. We can still change the narrative only if we focus much of attention on some of the key game changers including Education among others.”
Adeke stressed that Uganda’s education system can greatly change only with a new government whose priority is Education, short of that, all is mere turmoil.
“There is need to focus on Education as the only equalizer to reduce the inequality index in this country.”
She also called upon civil society to strengthen its operations towards achieving the desired economic values in society. “When civil society is strong, the country is even stronger.”
Speaking during an engagement meeting on bridging the inequality gap Monday at Serena Hotel, Maurice Makoloo, Regional Director Ford Foundation, said that there is need to involve the youths in such a heavy task which is largely shooting up day by day.
“The gap between those who have and those who don’t (inequality paradox) has strongly grown and is vividly heavily driven by corruption.”
Makoloo said, “We believe in putting our money where our mouth is and so it gives me great pleasure to announce that we are committing to spend USD 25 million in East Africa to facilitate this goal at least for the next 5 years.”
“With this investment we hope to see governments prioritize fighting corruption, a stronger and expanded civil society and most importantly strengthening of coalitions across all sectors to provide better service to citizens and allow more equity and equality prevail,” he further explained.
He added, “The judiciary must do its role very well so as to stop corruption; I strongly believe that one of the techniques is organizing as many anti-corruption campaigns as possible.”
Dennis Pato, ED Vigana Corps said that, “It requires public trust for civil society to effectively play its role and need for independent agencies to be well run so as to stop corruption, a major facilitator of inequality.”
The study conducted by Uganda Bureau of Statistics shows that the National poverty level in Uganda has increased from 19.7% in 2012/2013 to 21.4% in 2016/2017, with Eastern region having the highest incidence of about 35.7% in 2016/2017.
Lind Ochiel, Program Officer Ford Foundation, concluded with a call of action to all citizens to continue engaging and not to give in to the hopelessness that seems to engulf them and asked for more collaboration to achieve the change that Ugandans are ultimately seeking.
