Uganda is one of the countries in Eastern Africa. It is also a land locked country. On the eastern, it borders Kenya, North is Southern Sudan, to the west is DRC (Congo) and to the southwest is Rwanda, while to the South is Tanzania. A portion of Lake Victoria borders it on the southern part. The lake is also shared by Kenya and Tanzania. The country has a moderately modified Equatorial climate. The country’s capital city is Kampala. The official language is English while the Buganda is the traditional language. Uganda is one of the third world countries and less developed.
As any other developing nation, Uganda faces several challenges which hinder its development agenda. Inadequacy of resources is one of the challenges. Uganda lacks rich resources such as oil and precious minerals. The main resource is fertile soils. The latter is also poorly managed. This hinders it from producing maximum output (Narayan, 2013).
Corruption is yet another challenge. There are high rates of corruption in the country and huge amounts of money are held by a few individuals. This makes the gap between the rich and the poor very wide. This has also resulted into high unemployment index in the country ranging from graduates to college leavers.
. Uganda’s population Growth has increased drastically causing pressure to the country’s economy. This has led to slowdown in economic growth. High population has also exerted a lot of pressure on the excising resources such as land whereby individual ownership of land has reduced by 70% since 1901. Growth in population has also caused pressure to the government and made it difficult to budget for its citizens.
Technology has not been embraced, especially in production sectors like agriculture. Most farmers use old methods of farming which has resulted to poor production of food, hence food insecurity in the country. Most farmers practice small scale farming and used traditional methods of farming. This means most of the products are for home consumption and no export to earn foreign exchange for the country (Mehmet, 2014). Infrastructure– this is a major problem in Uganda. Most roads are poorly developed, hindering accessibility and movements of raw materials and finished goods in and out of the country. The most reliable mean of transportation is railway, which is poorly maintained. Electricity is also not connected to most parts of the country and this has led to low or poor production, processing and preservation services (Gollin, et al 2014).
To enable the country grow, there are strategies laid down by the government to enable it raise the country’s economy. These include improved agriculture, improved infrastructure and industrialization among others.
Through the ministry of agriculture, the government of Uganda has come up with new methods of farming, which includes cash crops, involving technology in agriculture, seminars and workshops to train farmers and use of modern fertilizers. This will increase productivity and export from the country. Agriculture being the backbone of Uganda is targeted at providing high revenue for the country (Mehmet, 2014). Another plan is to improve roads, which will ease movement of raw materials and finished products, in and out of the country. This will include improving the current roads and creating more accessible pathways to interior parts of the country. This will also include supply of electricity to all parts of the country to facilitate production, preservation and processing (Clarke et al., 2014). The government is also linking with investors who will invest in the country hence creating job opportunities to the youth and reducing crime levels. The investors will come up with industries and companies which will provide job opportunities to graduates and college leavers (Packenham, 2015).
In conclusion, even though Uganda is a third world country which is experiencing a lot of problems like corruption, hunger, poor infrastructure among others, it has the capability to overcome all these challenges if their strategies are well put in place and implemented. If the plans laid down, the country is able to achieve its development goals by 2030.
References
Clarke, C. G., Dickenson, J. P., Gould, W. T. S., Mather, S., Prothero, R. M., Siddle, D. J.,… & Thomas-Hope, E. (2013). A geography of the Third World. New York: Routledge.
Gollin, D., Lagakos, D., & Waugh, M. E. (2014). Agricultural productivity differences across countries. The American Economic Review, 104(5), 165-170.
Manor, J. (2014). Rethinking Third-World Politics. Boston, M.A.: Cengage Learning.
Mehmet, O. (2014). Economic Planning and Social Justice in Third World Countries. Web.
Narayan, U. (2013). Dislocating cultures: Identities, traditions, and third world feminism.New York: Sage Publishers.
Packenham, R. A. (2015). Liberal America and the third world: Political development ideas in foreign aid and social science. New York: Princeton University Press.