Civil society demands more funding for health, education

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 Posted  Sunday, May 6  2012

A consortium of civil society organisations are pushing for government reforms in the health and education sectors to among others have the percentage of government allocation to the health sector increased to meet the Abuja Declaration target of 15 per cent.

 Boosting education
Presenting their position paper on the national budget framework for next financial year before Parliament’s Social Services Committee recently, the group led by the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CS BAG) gender coordinator, Mr Julius Mukunda, also recommended a 20 per cent budget allocation to boost the quality of universal primary and secondary education.

The team that advocates pro-poor budget policies in the country, also called for the review of teachers’ salaries to Shs400, 000 from the current Shs270,000.


Health sector


The government allocated Shs800 billion to the health sector last financial year but it has reduced it to Shs761 billion next financial year.
While the government has endeavored to set up health facilities across the country, a 2009/2010 report, the Uganda Local Government Councils Score Card, by Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, shows that improvements are only in infrastructure, especially in construction of health centres, but the major problems such as shortage of of drugs, understaffing, shortage of equipment, absenteeism of health workers, and weak accountability mechanisms still exit.
mnalugo@ug.nationmedia.com

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