Article By Romie Musiimenta
The U.S Mission in Uganda has released its sixth annual full report on finances, showing 60 years of relations with Uganda.
The U.S Ambassador Natalie Brown began by noting how Uganda had endured the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ebola virus strain in late 2022 with support to establish a network of public health emergency operation centres, national laboratories, and training centers for health experts, among others.
“These are shining examples of how the nearly $1b invested annually by the US government in Uganda impacts individual Uganda lives. The story of America’s partnership with Ugandan people is not one of dollars spent but lives impacted,” Brown said in her statement.
To mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, by the close of 2022, the U.S had donated over 18m COVID-19 vaccine doses to Uganda at free cost. While students struggled to learn during the lockdown periods, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) formed 14,000 home learning study groups led by 5,000 community volunteer teachers. The teachers conducted early-grade reading lessons for over 330,000 learners within their communities.
USAID also supported the production of radio instruction for learners, teachers, and parents on 16 radio stations in 20 districts.
In regards to mitigating the Sudan Ebola virus outbreak, the US mission and the ministry of health provided $34m (about Shs125 billion) for the response, in coordination, case management, surveillance, diagnostics, laboratories, infection prevention, and control, risk communication and community engagement, safe and dignified burials, a survivor support program, research, and the treatment of patients in Ebola treatment units.
According to the embassy report, malaria remains a serious health challenge, accounting for 37% of hospital admissions, The U.S President’s malaria initiative has provided 1.3 million insecticide-treated bed nets for expecting mothers, administered indoor residual spraying in 10 districts, provided malaria protection for 3.8 million Ugandans, contributed 1.3 million doses of malaria medications, and provided 1.25 million rapid diagnostic tests.
USAID’S Feed the future in 2021 helped over 900,000 individual participants with food security interventions and supported over 300,000 individuals to apply improved management practices or technologies.
The U.S African Development Foundation invested $871,084 about Shs3.3b to support agricultural cooperatives, off-grid energy, and women-led agribusinesses.
Smallholder and farmer groups were connected to grain traders, the government school feeding program, and the refugee markets through the support of the U.S where they sold assorted food worth nearly Shs45b.
The U.S. also provided Shs1.7b to support communities and the private sector to start nature-based businesses, improving stewardship of natural resources.
USAID also supported the placement of locally constructed beehive fences, benefiting 384 community members, to deter wild animals from crossing to communities around Karuma Wildlife Reserve.
To conserve the environment and reduce the impacts of climate change, USAID power Africa added 140,279 electricity and renewable energy household connections, reducing reliance on forest resources for energy needs.
180,000 Ugandans benefited from USAID-supported resilience activities, including adopting energy-saving stoves, water harvesting tanks, and soil conservation methods to combat the effects of climate change.
USAID launched two programs to mobilize private capital for SMEs, and improve the livelihoods of over 100,000 Ugandans.
While the COVID-19 lockdowns affected global supply chains, the disruptions spilled over to Uganda between April 2020 and April 2021, as Uganda’s exports declined by 29.6% while imports declined by 27.4%, according to the Bank of Uganda.
To address the decline in trade, USAID intervened and supported the ministry of trade, industry, and cooperatives to digitize its trade registry. The new improvement provided new channels of electronic trade. Transaction costs and service delivery in the ministry were improved.
In regards to promoting democracy and fair laws, USAID equipped 237 civil society organizations and human rights defenders with safety and security skills. USAID also provided legal aid to 1,625 individuals while over 6,000 people benefited from legal awareness campaigns to improve access to justice.
In regard to refugees, the U.S. Embassy also injected $180 million to assist refugees. According to the report, 161 individuals were involved in the peaceful resolution of conflicts, 83 trauma healing groups with 1,125 people were formed, and three resource-sharing agreements were signed between formerly feuding communities in Karamoja, enabling over 122,800 people to share water and pasture for livestock.
Also, in 2021, the USAID Apolou food security activity reached 264,398 participants through its interventions while the percentage of women and men who earned cash in the past 12 months rose from 52% to 80%.