Goals of development in Uganda
- Uganda like any other developing nation has certain specific goals of development. According to policy statements, Uganda has several specific Longrun social and economic goals of development to achieve.
- Attainment of high rates of economic growth.
- stabilization of earnings, to avoid price fluctuations.
- Fair distribution of incomes among members of the society.
- Achieving a fair and favourable Balance of Payments position.
- indignization or Ugandanization of the entire economy.
- Elimination of poverty, ignorance and disease.
- Creation of political stability and security countrywide.
- Uganda aims at promoting technological development, so as to minimize technology transfer.
- Creation of employment opportunities for the people.
- transformation of the economy from subsistence to a purely monetary one.
- Rehabilitation and reconstruction of the economy which was shattered by the previous regimes.
- Industrialization. Uganda also aims at transforming the economy from agricultural to that one which is industrial in nature.
- Attaining a self-sustaining integrated and independent national economy.
- Population control. Uganda aims at controlling and regulating its population growth rates.
- Privatization of public sector enterprises.
- Limitation to the achievement of the above goals
- Uganda like any other developing country fails to achieve her desirable goals development for economic, social, cultural, political, institutional and physical climatic reasons.
- Low levels of education; so that although job opportunities may be available, the available unskilled labour may not be involved. At the same time job, opportunities within the agricultural sector may stay vacant because of the diverting educational system. This fails Uganda's targets of attaining full employment.
- Uganda fails to achieve an integrated self-sustaining independent economy because of certain ambitions and aspirations that cannot be accomplished, given the prevailing economic situation.
- Internal and external disorders e.g. the fluctuating revenue from local and export commodities, fails the objective of stable earnings.
- Weakness within the public sector tends to delay decision-making and implementation of plans. This is yet an institutional weakness within the government, resulting into failure to maintain security and achieve economic development.
- Lack of political co-operation and individual aspirations among the people e.g. various opposing groups have not allowed the reduction of poverty, ignorance and disease.
- Weak fiscal and monetary policies in the country has enabled income inequalities to prevail.
- Unreliable data that cannot facilitate proper planning. This has led to failure to achieve high output and income per capita.
- Uganda still experiences low levels of technology. The inappropriate technology' cannot enable easy implementation of technological development programmes.
- Colonial domination. Historical factors linking LDCs to developed countries through the unfair import/export involvement, may not allow the achievement of a fairer Balance of Payments position.
- The growth of output in Uganda and indeed in many LDCs is also limited by physical factors e.g land, climate, etc.
- The socio-cultural setting in many communities in Uganda has tended to favour traditionalism and conservatism, as opposed to dynamism, modernity and economic progress.
- Some of Uganda's goals cannot be attained because of poor performance by both the private and public sectors.
- Economic growth is also limited by the prevailing high population growth rates. This tends to take away the would-be accumulated savings.
- Capital deficiency. Insufficient capital resources in the country also act as a great hinderance to the attainment of several desired developmental trends.
- Political instability. This has created weak attractive power of foreign capital, necessary for economic development.
- A large subsistence sector. The relatively dominant subsistence sector has limited levels of commercialization and exchange. This, too, has affected the rate of specialization.
- Limited natural resources e.g. minerals. LDCs, lack large mineral resources and yet these have proved to be a vital developmental nuclei for many countries.
- Small domestic consumer markets. These have not warranted large-scale modern industrial production.
- Underdeveloped infrastructure. The inadequate transport and communication network does not link the various regions in the country to tap the market potential.
- Rapid economic growth rates in Uganda have also been frustrated by the existence of idle resources, which are unexploited probably for economic and political reasons.