It was in September 2000 that world leaders met to set eight critical development goals in order to halve poverty in developing countries by 2015.

As a country classified by the UN as one of 49 Least Developed Countries, Uganda has also been exerting efforts to attain the goals before the deadline.

However, even after 10 years of long journey, it is quite difficult to conclude that most activities regarding to achieve the MDGs are on the right track even though
some achievements, especially in halving poverty, have been made.

According to MDGs report of Uganda 2010, there are areas among the goals progress has been slow. Moreover, in some cases like HIV/AIDS, there has been a reverse trend compared to the progress made in the past.

While access to primary education has improved, the rates of completion of a full course of primary education have stagnated in recent years.

Several of the health targets, including those related to child mortality, maternal mortality, access to reproductive health, and the incidence of malaria and other diseases, have also progressed slowly.

Environmental management and biodiversity loss are also amongst the targets feared to be achieved.

Even in areas where there has been progress in the national averages, there is wide unevenness how the benefits are being shared.

For instance, levels of poverty are more than twice as high in rural areas than in urban areas, and poverty levels remain higher.

In the northern and eastern regions of the country poverty levels have fallen less rapidly. Moreover, the level of inequality in Uganda has increased compared to the early 1990s.

However, Mr. Theophane Nikyema, UNDP Resident Coordinator in Uganda, seems optimistic about the attainment of some of the MDGs.

He, for example, identified Uganda as one of the first African countries to use the acceleration framework, in which the country has managed to reduce poverty from 56% in 1993 to 24.5% in 2010.

“School enrolment rates have improved in 2009 to 82.4% for boys and 83.2% for girls; access to drinking water has also been made available for 73.9% of the population,” he added.

According to John B. Male- Mukasa, Executive Director of Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the recently published Uganda (2010) MDGs report revealed that the country had made achievements on some goals, like MDG 5: “Improving Maternal Health” as the government uses the report to assess and report on its performance.

On the other hand, a study done by economists at the Makerere University based Economic Policy Research Center recommends that Uganda needs to scale up it spending by an additional 10 per cent of GDP per annum to be in position of achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) number 2, 5 and 7, achieving universal primary education, improving maternal health and ensuring environmental sustainability respectively.

Currently, Uganda has an estimated 31.8 million population. By 2050, the UN projects that the population will reach 91.3 million, including one of the highest dependency ratios in the world.

This dependency ratio, which is peaking in the middle of the MDGs review period (1990-2015), is likely to have contributed to the slowed progress towards many of the goals.

Climate change is another persistent problem, having an assortment of manifestations.

According to 2007 National Adaptation Programmes of Action, drought is the most dominant effect of climate change in Uganda. The frequency of droughts is on the increase. Extreme weather exposes populations to harsh living conditions and outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Prolonged dry spells have resulted in respiratory disease, and rising temperatures are changing the geographical distribution of malaria and other disease vectors.

Having all this in mind, Uganda is now waiting for AU Heads of State and Government summit in July, when Africans assess the progress made by Member States towards the achievement of the MDGs in order to see whether it is in the forerunner or behind to the race.