Posts Tagged ‘Uganda’

Eccovi alcune notizie sull’Uganda e sull’Africa recuperate da internet nel dicembre 2011.

PRIVATE OR GOVERNMENT; IS THE FEES YOU ARE PAYING WORTH IT?
5 december 2011

UGANDA SHILLING GAINS MORE AGAINST DOLLAR
5 december 2011

UGANDA, LIGHTS OUT FOR HEALTHCARE IN WEST NILE 0
12 december 2011

ANCHE L’EUROPA NELLA COALIZIONE CONTRO RIBELLI UGANDESI
13 dicembre 2011

PROFUGHI RUANDESI CONTRO ‘CLAUSOLA DI CESSAZIONE’
14 dicembre 2011

MINISTRO UGANDESE SI DIMETTE PER CORRUZIONE
16 dicembre 2011

UGANDA: GOVERNMENT TO REDUCE MATERNAL MORTALITY BY 50 PERCENT
18 december 2011

UGANDA PROMOSSA DALLA LONELY PLANET
20 dicembre 2011

UGANDA, IN CRESCITA EXPORT STIMATO CACAO NEL 2012 (12%)
28 dicembre 2011

It is this time of the year when people review their plans to see how much has been achieved, failed on and what can be done in the new year. To parents, it is a time when they decide whether their children should join a day-care, start school through pre-primary to primary and other levels of education depending on the age.
There are many things to consider here which demand a lot of planning and at this moment with concentration on how to meet an extra cost.
John Ntege, a father of two, has had to tour majority of the primary schools around Kampala to find a school which his son will join next year after he graduated from his pre-primary school. But this errand has not been easy for him. He has had to move from school to school for a vacancy, not because his son doesn’t have the brains, but because his pockets are not favoured by the demands in these schools.
As he says, no school has asked for less than Shs600, 000 as tuition. Never mind that this has nothing to do with scholastic materials, uniform, daily transportation of the child to and from school plus the meals. If his son is to use any of the school shuttles, the range has been between Shs400,000 to Shs600,000 extra per term. He describes the circumstance as “ridiculous”.
“What schools are demanding is outrageous. I can’t pay more than what I earn. Yet, I need their service. But to think that I am paying for a primary child more than what it costs a university student is more than ridiculous. The government is seated, watching. Think of an average Ugandan failing to provide basics to their family?” Mr Ntege explains.
With only Shs1m per month as take home after 30days of work, this will not even be enough to meet his son’s school expenses in a term. John spends Shs450, 000 on rent monthly, has to pay medical, water and electricity bills.
On why he does not try his luck in one of the government’s Universal Primary Schools (UPE) where it is expected to be free, at least from the burden of paying fees, Mr Ntege cannot stand it. He says; “Have you heard that any of those policy makers take their children to any of the schools implementing free education? Why don’t they champion a cause they promote as good? Because they know what is missing in those schools so they take their children to other schools.”
It is reason you will find that many private schools have come up even with the introduction of UPE 15 years later. The beginning was a blow to the private sector with many investors fearing for the worst. But as it turned out, it is a venture for many business people today.
But Mr Patrick Kaboyo, the coordinator of the Coalition of Uganda Private Schools has asked government to put a regulatory framework for private schools to stop them from hiking tuition fees. He urges that many private school proprietors have missed the link in providing the service and are taking advantage of parents and increasing fees anytime including in the middle of a term because there is no policy to oversee that the public is not exploited.
“Parents are getting circulars from schools every time to either increase fees or asking money for trips. We want government to put a framework to prevent private schools from hiking school fees. It is abnormal for a parent to pay a tune of Shs700, 000 per term for a child in pre-primary” Mr Kaboyo says.
The debate around how much should a primary, secondary and university student pay has been on for some time. In some cases keeping a pupil in school is more expensive than maintaining a university student. A parent for example with a child at Kampala Junior parts with Shs620,000 for fees every term and depending on an activity the child participates in per term, there is an extra cost like swimming is charged Shs50,000, French lessons (Shs40,000), ballet (Shs120,000), Art (Shs20, 000) and if the child is to use the school bus for transport another Shs680,000 will be paid.
However, these are co-curricular activities which according to Ministry of Education are part of the curriculum and should not be charged separately from school dues.
But the question is how many Ugandans can meet these costs in private schools where for instance Uwezo an organisation that seeks to establish primary children competencies in basic skills by involving both the school and community learning of the child has indicated in its reports that pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills are better than those in government-aided schools?
How do UPE schools survive with Shs6,000 government pays per term per child?
Is it that private investors are cheating the public or government is giving a low deal to its citizens?
A mini survey by this paper shows that Kabojja PS charges Shs640,000, Hillside PS (Shs500,000), Greenhill (Shs600,000), and Sir Apolo Kaggwa PS (Shs705,000). Dr Yusuf Nsubuga, the director basic education in Education ministry in an interview at the 18th sector performance review said for any school to increase fees, it must seek for permission from the ministry.
However, because it is a private investment, he adds that the schools meet most of the expenses like payment of teacher salaries, infrastructure development and instructional materials, it is difficult for them to control their financial management other than the quality of education they are providing to the learners. But parents insist that its government’s mandate to ensure learners get quality education and the means should be favourable for all citizens to access.
fonte www.monitor.co.ug - Patience Ahimbisibwe

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UGANDA SHILLING GAINS MORE AGAINST DOLLAR
5 december 2011

The Uganda shilling has rallied against the dollar on the back of an upsurge in inflows from Ugandans living abroad and offshore investors seeking to purchase attractive government debt at an auction on Wednesday. The central bank of east Africa’s third largest economy is expected to conduct a 95 billion shillings ($37.62 million) Treasury bond auction on Wednesday. The two-year bond has a coupon rate of 10 percent.
At 0748 GMT commercial banks in Kampala quoted the local currency at 2,495/2,505 against the U.S. currency, stronger than Friday’s close of 2,520/2,530.
“The debt is very attractive and we’re seeing a huge interest from offshore investors” said Ahmed Kalule, a Treasury dealer at Bank of Africa. “So inflows from these investors plus those from Ugandans overseas coming for Christmas are meeting very low demand in the market and the shilling is drawing energy from that.”
Bank of Uganda (BoU), which launched an aggressive round of monetary policy tightening in July, left its benchmark Central Bank Rate (CBR) for December unchanged at 23 percent last week from November. The bank’s decision followed the release of the country’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) data showing Uganda’s headline inflation slowed to 29 percent year-on-year in November from the previous month’s 30.4 percent.
Kalule said the shilling, which hit its all time low of 2,901 on Sep. 23, was finding its support and resistance levels at 2,480 and 2,560 levels respectively. “Market sentiment still points toward a further appreciation of the unit (shilling) as the market continues to witness low customer appetite for the dollar and expected dollar conversions from NGOs” said a market report from Stanbic Bank Uganda.
The shilling has recovered 13.8 percent of its value against the dollar since its Sep. 23 record low but it’s still 6.4 percent down against the dollar in the year to date.
fonte http://allafrica.com

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UGANDA, LIGHTS OUT FOR HEALTHCARE IN WEST NILE 0
12 december 2011

Increased fatalities, patients paying to fuel their own ambulances, cancelled surgical operations, 11km journeys just to sterilize equipment – such are the symptoms of a healthcare crisis in Uganda’s West Nile region caused by weeks of power blackouts, according to parliamentarians and medical staff.
“People were really dying [during blackouts]” said Gilbert Olanya, a member of the Parliamentary Social Services Committee, which visited the region recently and described the crisis there as “unique” in Uganda.
The region’s referral hospital in the town of Arua, 430km northwest of Kampala, serves a catchment population of more than 2.8 million people across eight districts, and many others in neighbouring South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The region is not connected to the national grid and ever since the main generator run by the town’s sole power supplier, West Nile Rural Electrification Company Ltd (WENRECo), broke down in September, the hospital’s acting director Emmanuel Odar says the facility has reached a low point.
Residents are so unhappy with WENRECo they have called for its 20-year contract – due to end in 2023 – to be revoked, according to local media reports. “We don’t know why the WENRECo people are here – they are doing us a very big disservice” said Sam Wadri, of the Arua council. “We have been affected severely” Odar said. “Sometimes, we even have to cancel the [operating] theatre list.” He explained that because of the blackouts, staff sometimes took instruments to be sterilized at a private hospital in Kuluva – 11km away – which has its own small hydro-electric power plant.
Arua hospital has a back-up diesel generator but in the absence of WENRECO-supplied electricity, this has consumed a three-month allocation of fuel in a single month. “So how we survive the other two months, it’s a very big challenge” Odar said. “If you have exhausted your budget, then you stay in darkness.”
While the Ministry of Health has promised to subsidize fuel for four hospitals elsewhere in Uganda to compensate for national grid blackouts, its permanent secretary, Asuman Lukwago, said he had been unaware of the extent of power outages in West Nile. “But we are able to help them at any time they are in a critical crisis – if the hospital is in a crisis and needs help tomorrow, we can help” he said.
Such help would be welcomed by Arua resident Linda Mutambi, who remembers a doctor having to stitch her up in the dark when power failed during a Caesarean section about a year ago. The stitches had to be removed and re-sewn. Now expecting her third child, the thought of returning to hospital makes her apprehensive. “I always fear. I always think that now I’m pregnant again, what am I going to do? They are going to take me to the theatre again. I’m just imagining again power going off for me, that’s what is always in my mind.”
The parliamentary committee’s lead researcher, Josephine Watera, said there was no doubt that maternal deaths had risen because of the blackouts, even if chronic under-reporting of such fatalities meant accurate data was unavailable. “The situation is very bad. After going into the field, our eyes are open” she said. She said the health centre in Yumbe, another West Nile town, had been effectively shut down as it had no water, no generator, and a broken solar panel. Patients who have been paying for already short supplies are now faced with fuelling their own ambulances, Watera said.
Local discontent with WENRECo stems not only from its frequent blackouts – despite a pledge to deliver 18-24 hours of electricity a day – but also the delayed completion of 3.5MW hydro-power plant in Nyagak, which was supposed to go online in 2006. As an interim measure, the company operates two small generators in West Nile, but locals say these provide electricity for just two hours a day.
Angelo Izama, director of local energy think-tank Fanaka Kwawote, told IRIN the delays at Nyagak were symptomatic of a failing national procurement process. “Regulators of any variety in Uganda tend to be weaker than the entities that they regulate. So companies that are involved, foreign or local – really project immense influence over the procedures of procurement” Izama said.
Only 10 percent of Ugandans have access to electricity. In rural areas the proportion is 3 percent.
fonte www.afronline.org

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ANCHE L’EUROPA NELLA COALIZIONE CONTRO RIBELLI UGANDESI
13 dicembre 2011

L’Unione Europea finanzierà la costruzione di una base logistica che favorisca attività militari e di intelligence nell’ambito delle operazioni di contrasto all’Esercito di Resistenza del Signore (LRA) nell’Africa centro-orientale. A rendere noto l’allargamento al ‘vecchio continente’ della coalizione di cui fanno già parte Uganda, Sud Sudan, Centrafrica, Repubblica democratica del Congo e Stati Uniti è il ministro della Difesa di Kampala, Kryspus Kiyonga, che riferisce di un finanziamento “per oltre un milione di dollari”.
Al termine di sopralluoghi effettuati in diverse zone di confine, territori di difficile accesso in cui l’LRA è più attivo, i militari statunitensi dispiegati il mese scorso dall’amministrazione americana hanno individuato infatti la località di Nzara, nell’ovest del Sud Sudan, e Obbo, in Centrafrica, per l’insediamento di due basi permanenti di coordinamento e addestramento delle truppe africane.
La scorsa settimana – riferisce la stampa ugandese – si è conclusa ad Entebbe, vicino Kampala, una sessione di addestramento nel corso della quale le truppe hanno ricevuto in dotazione nuovi equipaggiamenti per la lotta contro la guerriglia. All’addestramento, condotto dai militari americani, ne seguiranno altri nei paesi limitrofi dove è attiva la ribellione guidata da Joseph Kony.
Il rinnovato interesse da parte dell’Unione Africana, che ha di recente lanciato un’iniziativa regionale contro il fenomeno LRA, si inserisce nell’ambito di un programma approvato lo scorso anno dal presidente americano Barack Obama per il ‘Disarmo e la riqualificazione del Nord Uganda’. Sulla base di una richiesta del Congresso, il governo di Washington ha inviato nella regione africana un centinaio di uomini dei corpi speciali incaricati di coordinare le operazioni contro i ribelli.
fonte www.misna.org

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PROFUGHI RUANDESI CONTRO ‘CLAUSOLA DI CESSAZIONE’
14 dicembre 2011

“Non vogliamo perdere i nostri diritti alla protezione in quanto rifugiati”: è il messaggio della petizione, a nome dei circa 17.000 profughi ruandesi in Uganda, indirizzata all’Alto commissario dell’Onu per i rifugiati Antonio Guterres.
La missiva è motivata dalla ‘clausola di cessazione’ annunciata dall’Alto commissariato dell’Onu per i rifugiati (Unhcr/Acnur) e caldeggiata dal presidente ruandese Paul Kagame. Una clausola che, se entrerà in vigore il 31 dicembre come previsto, comporterà la fine della protezione internazionale finora concessa ai profughi e potrebbe preludere a rimpatri forzati.
Nella petizione dei profughi e richiedenti asilo ruandesi, trasmessa alla MISNA dai promotori del Fahamu, piattaforma di sensibilizzazione sui diritti dei rifugiati, si denuncia un clima di oppressione e di assenza di libertà nel Rwanda del presidente Paul Kagame. “Coloro che sono già tornati non hanno trovato nulla per aiutare la loro reintegrazione. Alcuni di loro sono stati perseguitati, persino torturati, altri sono scomparsi, forse prelevati dai servizi di sicurezza. In alcuni casi i profughi sono tornati indietro” si legge nella petizione, un documento dettagliato di 90 pagine. In Uganda, denunciano i profughi “siamo vittime di discriminazioni a causa della nostra origine e delle problematiche irrisolte legate alla nostra situazione”.
Secondo i promotori della missiva, l’omicidio del giornalista ruandese Charles Ingabire, ucciso in Uganda nella notte tra il 31 novembre e il 1° dicembre scorso, è un chiaro esempio e una diretta conseguenza della clausola di cessazione. Il nome di Ingabire fa parte di un elenco di altri 18 profughi ruandesi uccisi, alcuni dei quali dalla polizia ugandese, altri da agenti ruandesi, dal 2010 tra la comunità rifugiata in Uganda.
Il nodo dei profughi in Uganda risale all’epoca del genocidio ruandese del 1994, quando furono sterminati tra 500.000 e 800.000 tutsi da milizie estremiste hutu, e scapparono civili di entrambe le comunità.
Negli anni successivi, dopo l’arrivo al potere della ribellione che mise fine ai massacri, guidata da Kagame e da un nucleo di ruandesi provenienti dall’estero, altri profughi hanno scelto la via dell’esilio.

fonte www.misna.org

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MINISTRO UGANDESE SI DIMETTE PER CORRUZIONE
16 dicembre 2011
Nessuno lo aveva mai fatto in Uganda, e solo pochi altri nel resto dell’Africa: dimettersi da ministro per un’accusa di corruzione.
Il record appartiene a Kabakumba Masiko, ministra per i Rapporti con la Presidenza, finita nella tempesta per un episodio di “appropriazione indebita”. Masiko è accusata di aver sottratto, quando tre anni fa era ministro dell’Informazione, apparecchiature della Ubc-Uganda broadcasting corporation (la ‘Rai ugandese’) e di essersele portate a casa sua, nel proprio collegio, 250 chilometri a sud della capitale, Kampala. “Ho fiducia nei giudici e mi dimetto per permettere che le indagini su di me siano condotte nel massimo della trasparenza” ha detto ai giornalisti increduli durante una conferenza stampa.
In Uganda, come nella maggior parte dei Paesi del continente, la corruzione è endemica e diffusa a ogni livello. Raramente i potenti di turno vengono condannati per questo tipo di reato, mentre molto spesso politici in vista finiscono nel mirino della giustizia nell’ambito dello scontro politico tra fazioni rivali.
fonte www.agi.it

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UGANDA: GOVERNMENT TO REDUCE MATERNAL MORTALITY BY 50 PERCENT
18 december 2011

The Ministry of Health has partnered with civil society organisations to launch a fresh campaign to fight infant and maternal mortality in the country. The campaign dubbed, ‘Everyone is Me’ is expected to bring to the fore mothers and childhealth issues not only at policy level but also create awareness among Ugandans, who are expected to play a role in saving lives.
“By the time you go to bed, 16 mothers and 121 babies will have died today. The campaign values everyone child, and believes that everyone has a role to play in lowering the current high maternal, newborn and child deaths in Uganda” Save the Children Uganda country director Peter Nkhonjera told journalists in Kampala on Friday.
The campaign will focus on giving out 1,000 childbirth kit to community health centres and also ensure that trained health workers are available in the centres. The Assistant Commissioner of Child Health in the Ministry of Health, Dr Jesca Nsungwa Sabiiti, said the ministry has embarked on training 6,000 midwives over the next four years aimed at reducing the alarming rates of maternal and infant mortality in the country.
“The ‘Everyone is Me’ campaign is in line with attaining the Millennium Development Goals, among which includes initiatives to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters and child mortality by two-thirds” Dr Sabiiti said. “We are already running a test site model in Kabarole, Kibale, Kyenjojo and Kamwenge districts to realign our resource with stakeholders to see if we can reduce these deaths. After we have assessed the viability, shall role it to other districts” she added.
Mr Nkhonjera said the five-year campaign will focus on soliciting “hand-raiser” actions for policy change, popular mobilisation, programming redirection and resource mobilisation for maternal, newborn and child healthcare.
The campaign is being implemented in partnership with The White Ribbon Alliance, Unicef and the United Nations Population Fund.
According to the 2006 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey, some 6,000 women die annually during pregnancy, during childbirth or due to complications that arise shortly after. The survey also indicates that 44,500 newborn babies die within the first 28 days of life, while about 184,000 children do not live to see their fifth birthday.
fonte http://allafrica.com – Stephen Wandera

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UGANDA PROMOSSA DALLA LONELY PLANET
20 dicembre 2011
Più visibilità per il turismo ugandese. Con questo obiettivo le autorità di Kampala hanno avviato una campagna promozionale a 360 gradi per innescare una spirale positiva che porti allo sviluppo di un settore dotato di grandi potenzialità.
Motore e fulcro della campagna saranno le rappresentanze diplomatiche di Kampala all’estero, i cui organici, assicurano i responsabili del settore. saranno opportunamente rafforzati. Coordinata dall’Autorità per le Aree protette e dall’Autorità dell’Aviazione civile, l’iniziativa si avvantaggia anche del sostegno di Lonely Planet, la casa editrice britannica di guide turistiche diffuse in tutto il mondo, che per il 2012 ha assegnato proprio all’Uganda il titolo di destinazione prioritaria a livello mondiale.
Per dare più consistenza alla campagna, il ministro del Turismo, Ephraim Kamuntu, ha recentemente ribadito la “necessità di una ripresa” dell’attività di Uganda Airlines perché “uno sviluppo efficace del turismo non può prescindere da una compagnia di bandiera“.
fonte www.agi.it

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UGANDA, IN CRESCITA EXPORT STIMATO CACAO NEL 2012 (12%)
28 dicembre 2011
La messa a frutto di nuove piante, con il conseguente aumento della produzione, porterà alla crescita del 12 per cento l’export di cacao dall’Uganda nella stagione 2011-2012.
La stima è stata fatta in un intervento ad un convegno sul futuro del comparto da John Muwanga Musisi, responsabile del settore per lo sviluppo del caffè e del tè presso il ministero dell’Agricoltura di Kampala. Musisi ha previsto che l’anno prossimo la produzione toccherà le 18.000 tonnellate contro le 16.478 di quest’anno.
Una performance, ha precisato, “che porterà gli introiti a 55 milioni di dollari contro i 52,7 realizzati quest’anno. L’aumento della produzione sarà soprattutto il risultato dell’ampliamento della superficie dei terreni destinati a tale coltura, perchè sono sempre più numerosi gli agricoltori che si dedicano alla coltivazione del cacao e ciò avrà sicuramente un impatto positivo sull’export“.
fonte www.agi.it

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Cambio valuta: in data 02/01/2012 1 dollaro USA è pari a 2485 scellini ugandesi, 1 Euro è pari a 3195,0123 scellini ugandesi