News

The Uganda National Planning Authority (NPA) and the National Population Council (NPC) has convened an experts’ forum to finalise Uganda’s demographic dividend (DD) roadmap. The forum will be held from 4^th to 8^th July 2016 at the Jinja Nile Resort. The experts will seek to move the DD agenda in Uganda beyond the evidence that has been generated to demonstrate the potential of DD in transforming the socio-economic landscape of Uganda to concrete action plans to harness this potential. The meeting is convened in partnership with the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Pathway to success

A DD roadmap defines the national strategy that should guide the operationalisation of the DD agenda in the short and medium term. In the case of Uganda, it should outline the practical steps that the country should undertake in order to maximise the extent of DD that could be earned, in line with the country’s Vision 2040.

During the meeting, participants will identify game changer interventions cutting across the various DD pillars namely; education, health, family planning, economic reforms and governance. Through this process the experts will propose high-impact interventions that the Uganda government will need to make in order for DD to become a reality. The roadmap will also inform how the resources needed to harness the DD are going to be mobilised.

The roadmap will clearly define the responsibilities for the multi-sectoral effort and also develop an accountability mechanism identifying indicators to measure progress and ensure the robust monitoring and evaluation of the strategy, and that investments remain well focused. Further, an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the Ugandan socio-economic context will be conducted to take account of opportunities to be exploited and potential risks to enable formulation of risk mitigation strategies.

This exercise will also contribute to Uganda’s efforts towards developing DD country plans and priorities to be presented at the 2017 African Union Summit for Heads State and Government whose theme is on youth and the demographic dividend.

As a basis for developing the roadmap, Uganda has already generated ample evidence on the potential value that the DD can add to the achievement of the country’s development aspirations, both short- and long-term. The potential value of DD in transforming Uganda’s socio-economic landscape is documented in the 2014 report Harnessing the Demographic Dividend: Accelerating Socio-Economic Transformation in Uganda. This study and its findings were endorsed by the President, H.E Yoweri Museveni, who has shown strong commitment towards the DD agenda. He ratified the Report, which outlines the challenges and opportunities for the country to harness a DD, and directed that the findings and recommendations of the report should be incorporated in the national development plan and sectoral plans.

The expected national DD roadmap from this meeting will systematically augment efforts towards harnessing the DD in Uganda potentially accelerating integrated socioeconomic development and the achievement of the goals of Vision 2040.