AFRO-NETS> Uganda: War costs outweigh health spending

[A Odutola <chpss_abo@yahoo.com>]

Uganda: War costs outweigh health spending
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Below is redistributed with permission from Irin News. Any ideas as 
to how civil societies in African countries can motivate or persuade 
their leaders to spend more on development and less on futile wars? 

Comments welcome.
A. Odutola
CHPSS
Lagos, Nigeria
mailto:chpss_abo@yahoo.com


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Uganda 

War costs outweigh health spending

Irin News
Published Date: November 14 2002

Sixteen years of conflict in the north has cost the Ugandan economy 
about US$ 1.33 billion, more than the sum spent on health care, ac-
cording to research just published.

"The cost of the war is greater than central government spending on 
health. All Ugandans are paying for this war," Phil Vernon, Country 
Director for CARE International in Uganda, said in a statement on 
Thursday. 

According to the research, commissioned by Civil Society Organisa-
tions for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU), a coalition of more than 
40 local and international NGOs, 29 percent of the costs related to 
military expenditure, with loss of livestock accounting for 24 per-
cent, and ill health and deaths adding another 21 percent. 

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni recently announced plans to in-
crease the Ugandan defence! budget, in part to fund an expansion of 
the army in an attempt to defeat Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels 
in the north. 

"We have wasted a lot of time by responding below the challenges, but 
now that we have mobilised, we are going to finish the problem in the 
north," The New Vision government-owned newspaper quoted Museveni as 
saying on Sunday. 

The move would in part reverse a troop-reduction exercise begun in 
1991, which reduced the size of the Ugandan army from some 100,000 to 
around 40,000, according to The New Vision.

"The government has had to spend more on the military, and therefore 
by implication less on investments for development. The recent budg-
etary reallocations to defence spending are an example," Vernon said.

More than 500,000 people in northern Uganda are forced to remain in 
government-protected camps fearing attacks by the LRA, a shadowy 
group led by a self-styled mystic, Joseph Kony. The launch in March 
of a major government offensive - Operation Iron Fist - against the 
LRA's rear bases in southern Sudan forced the LRA back into Uganda, 
leading to an increase in attacks against civilians, and higher lev-
els of displacement in the north of the country. 

Not only had households been directly affected by the escalation in 
LRA raids, often losing productive family members, but had also been 
unable to develop their livelihoods or invest in education, the 
CSOPNU statement said.

"The best way we can help Ugandans out of poverty is by putting all 
efforts into ensuring a peaceful and permanent end to the conflict. 
Only then will we be able to start investing for a better future," 
Vernon said.

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