FOOD SECURITY
• The Ugandan Constitution makes repeated references to food security. Articles XIV and XXII outline the duties of the State – to ensure the establishment of ‘national food reserves’ and ‘to encourage and promote proper nutrition through mass education and other appropriate means. In general food security in Uganda has improved. However, there are wide regional variations. Food security is often assessed by measuring levels of under/ malnutrition and whether or not children have three meals a day.
• 66% of poor children do not receive 3 meals a day
• 48% of all children do not receive 3 meals a day
• Steady progress in reducing the national prevalence of stunting among under-fives from 33% in 2011to 29% in 2016 has not led to a large reduction in the overall number of stunted children in Uganda due to the rapid growth in population (UDHS, 2016).
• 29% of children are mildly to moderately stunted
• 9% of children are severely stunted
• 3% of children experience mild-to-moderate wasting
• 1% of children experience severe wasting
• Wasting rates are 3 times the national average in West Nile (10%) and Karamoja (9%)
• Uganda’s high levels of undernutrition, especially among children, are due to inadequate diets and the country’s high prevalence of infectious diseases such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea. Additionally, weaknesses in health care provision, poor childcare and feeding practices, and a lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene also contribute to poor nutritional outcomes.
• Undernutrition remains an important contributor to poor maternal, newborn and child survival and development. Undernutrition during a child’s first years is linked to poor academic achievement and compromised economic productivity later in life.
WATER AND SANITATION
• Clean water, sanitation and hygiene are all crucial to children’s survival and health, particularly in relation to water borne diseases and malnutrition.
• Despite progress with more than 3 out of 4 of the population having access to safe water supply (57% in 2000 and 78% in 2016), more than half of households use unimproved toilet facilities. This means 31.4 million people do not have access to improved sanitation of whom 2.7 million are practising open defecation (UDHS, 2016).
• poor sanitation cost US$177m per year (WSP/WB, 2012)
• 78% of children are using water from an improved source.
• 24% are severely water deprived, having to travel long distances or wait in long queues for safe water
• 23% of children in rural areas and 9% in urban areas are deprived of adequate sanitation.
• 16% of children live in homes with handwashing facilities near the toilet.
• Rates of severe sanitation deprivation are five times higher among poor households than among non-poor households
BIRTH REGISTRATION
• Birth registration for under-five children in Uganda stands at 32% with only 19% of under-fives have a birth certificate.
• Birth registration is every child’s right, as well as an important factor in providing access to other rights such as health care and education.
• Its absence remains one of the obstacles to protecting children against violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.
• Registration also enables government to budget for and provide services as and where they are needed.
• Over-centralised and complicated registration and certification processes, cost and lack of public awareness about the importance of registration contribute to low rates of registration.
INFORMATION DEPRIVATION
• Having access to reliable information is critical in a fast-developing society like Uganda. More informed parents can make better decisions affecting the lives of their children.
• Children with access to computers and other technology can develop useful skills to aid their education and improve their chances of better paid, skilled jobs in later life.
• 19% of children lack any source of information at home and so are considered severely information deprived.
• 2% had used a computer in the three months prior to the 2016/17 UNHS
• 75% of all children live in households with access to a landline/mobile phone 91% of them living in urban areas.
• 54% do not have a radio, 85% do not have a TV and 97% do not have access to a computer.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND URBANISATION
• These have been identified as major challenges that will have an increasingly significant impact on the wellbeing of children in coming decades, particularly on those who are poorest and most vulnerable (GoU & UNICEF, 2017). This is nowhere more so than in Uganda, which is already affected by frequent droughts and where the rate of urbanization is high.
• Ugandans is highly dependent on the country’s agricultural production, most of which (99%) is rain-fed (rather than irrigated). Any climatic changes or shocks can therefore severely affect crop yields and the population’s food security, health and wellbeing.
• Temperatures are predicted to rise by an unprecedented 1.5ºC in the next 20 years and by up to 4.3ºC by the 2080s. A no-climate-action scenario could lead to more than 4°C warming towards the end of the 21st century.
• Annual total precipitation increased by20% over the last 30 years
• Uganda is prone to riverine flooding, 1million people were affected between 1979 and 2010.
• Uganda is experiencing rapid urbanisation – at a rate of 5.2% per year (GoU & UNICEF 2017).
• Between 2002 and 2014, the share of Uganda’s population living in urban areas increased by more than 50% and it is estimated that by 2040 21 million Ugandans will be living in urban areas, the majority of them young (UN-Habitat, 2016). This is leading to an increasing concentration of vulnerable children in cities.
• More than half, 54% of Kampala’s residents live in slums with inadequate housing, poor sanitation and limited access to basic services, including education and employment (UN-Habitat, 2014)
• Kampala and Wakiso alone are responsible for about 12% of all unimmunised children in the country (UDHS, 2016).
• Children living in rural areas have a higher likelihood of being stunted than those in urban areas.
• A 2013 survey by the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect estimated that there are 10,000 street children in Uganda, a 70% increase since 1993, with approximately 16 new children coming to Kampala’s streets every day (UNICEF, 2015).
• Children and adolescents living in urban areas are exposed to particular risks, with young urban males citing drugs and alcohol as their biggest health risks while adolescent girls identified violence from other people, unsafe sexual activity, early pregnancy, rape and defilement as the biggest threats. UNICEF’s Adolescent Girls Vulnerability Index shows that aside from Karamoja and West Nile, adolescent girls tend to be most exposed to social vulnerabilities in Central Uganda, which represents the hub of rapid urbanisation.
• Urban populations are more likely to be infected with HIV than those in rural areas 8.7% urban and 7% rural with urban women in particular are more at risk.