How can Uganda bolster its economy using Domestic Resources Mobilisation and Private-Public Partnerships?

1. Uganda – From Billions
to Trillions
How can Uganda bolster
its economy using
Domestic Resources
Mobilisation and Private-
Public Partnerships?

2. Tables of contents
 1. Millennium Development Goals – Results and lessons
learnt
 2. Sustainable Development Goals – How to go from
billions to trillions to finance Uganda’s SDGs
 3. The Way Forward
 Domestic Resources Mobilisation
 Private-Public Partnerships
 Priority PPP projects
 Gaps in PPP successes

3. Uganda’s Millennium Development Goals –
Progress Report
ACHIEVED 
Uganda achieved to half the proportion of people
living in extreme poverty in 2010, and the
proportion of people who suffer from hunger in
2012.
SOME PROGRESS, BUT SLOW 
As of 2010, figures regarding Ugandan universal
primary education stagnated, although the literacy
rate of both men and women between 15-24 year
olds have risen, and reflect greater equality
between men and women.
Text: Millennium Development Goals Report for Uganda 2013. Graphics: United Nations Millennium
Development Goals.

4. SOME PROGRESS, BUT SLOW 
The under-five mortality rate has been very slow
between 2000-06, but accelerated greatly since
2006, and if this rate of progress is maintained,
Uganda has a chance to meet the MDG target in
2015.
ACHIEVED, ON TRACK 
As of 2012, Uganda achieved gender parity in
primary education, although there remain some
gaps between men and women in secondary and
tertiary education. Women hold 35% of seats in
Parliament.
SOME PROGRESS, BUT SLOW 
Uganda has made some progress in terms of access
to care after childbirth and proportions of births
attended by a skilled health personnel, however it
is unlikely to meet the targeted reduction in
maternal mortality by 2015.
Text: Millennium Development Goals Report for Uganda 2013. Graphics: United Nations Millennium
Development Goals.

5. STAGNANT, SOME REGRESSAL 
Uganda is not a significant contributor to the global
environmental crisis, however it still struggles with
loss in biodiversity. The proportion of Uganda’s land
area covered by forests was 15% in 2010, compared
to 18% in 2005 and 25% in 1990.
ON TRACK 
In cooperation with international partners, Uganda
has dealt comprehensively with its debt to make it
sustainable in the long term, it is also extending the
access to information and communications
technologies.
STAGNANT, SOME REGRESSAL 
Although progress has been in registered in
reducing the burden of all three diseases,
particularly malaria and tuberculosis, the HIV/AIDS
prevalence rate among the 15-24 age group has
increased.
Text: Millennium Development Goals Report for Uganda 2013. Graphics: United Nations Millennium
Development Goals.

6. Findings
 Uganda achieved MDG success mainly on two fronts; halving the number of
people living in absolute poverty and capping debt sustainability.
 Out of the 19 MDG targets, Uganda has attained, or is on track to attaining
10, is stagnant on 6, and reversed on one.
 National and local ownership remained low throughout implementation of the
MDGs in Uganda. Consequently, the National Development Plan was not
aligned with the MDGs, which resulted in a separate financing,
implementation and reporting framework, and mixed success on Uganda’s
MDGs.
LéO Africa Forum (2015), Silo Fighters (2015)

7. The success of the post-2015 development
agenda depends largely on the degree of
ownership experienced by citizens,
communities and their national government.

8. WorldResourcesInstitute

9. The Way Forward
 Where should Uganda focus its energy to become a Middle Income Country by
2040?
► Uganda should build on its momentum – the successes of a number of
MDGs – while simultaneously boost some of its lagging sectors of development.
 Education (MDGs 2 and 3)
 Health (relating to MDGs 4, 5, and 6)
 Infrastructure and energy (MDG 7)
 How?
► Domestic Resources Mobilisation (DRM)
► Public-Private partnerships (PPPs)

10. Domestic Resources Mobilisation – From
billions to trillions
 In the fiscal year 2014/2015, the Uganda Revenue Authority collected US$2.8
billion.
 This is 13% of GDP in 2014/2015 (lagging behind its East African neighbors
Kenya and Tanzania, at 15% and 17% respectively), and almost 3 times the
ODA Uganda received in 2013.
 Uganda could achieve the Billions to Trillions shift (assuming current levels of
ODA) by further improving its DRM and encouraging the crowding in of private
resources (PPPs).

11. Private-Public Partnerships
 In order to realise its vision of becoming a Middle Income Country by 2040,
Uganda cannot solely rely on increasing DRM. It will need the private sector as
an engine of economic growth.
 Uganda’s strengths: strong government will and positive mindset,
wide range of opportunities
 Its weaknesses: low institutional development and inadequate PPP
skills.
 Uganda has already identified a number of high priority projects with high
probabilities of success to bolster confidence in both public and private
sectors on PPP as a delivery model.

12. PPP Priority Projects
 Uganda’s National Development Plan’s key PPP priority projects required to
accelerate the transformation of the economy to a middle income state are in
the sectors of Energy, Transport, Health, Industry, and Education.
 Most of these projects are closely aligned with the SDGs in terms of
environment (hydro-power stations), poverty reduction (creation of
phosphate industry in the East, boosting tourism with the upgrade of Entebbe
Airport), and health (creation of maternal and neonatal care hospitals).

13. Gaps in PPP feasibility
 Although PPPs are one of the only way forward in Uganda’s quest to transform
billions to trillions to finance its sustainable development, PPPs can only
finance so many aspects of development. Other – more qualitative rather than
quantitative – aspects of development, such as gender equality, or peace and
justice, are difficult to ‘finance’ through PPPs. They do not figure in Uganda’s
National Development Plan, although there is still a gap to bridge in terms of
gender and class equality.
 These qualitative aspects of development require a behavioral shift, which
can be achieved if it is consciously fed into the various PPP projects the
Uganda government is planning to undergo (some areas of gender and class
equality can be education, health, or employment).

14. Conclusion
 Generally, Uganda is on the right track to achieve its vision of becoming a
middle income country by 2040, and of bridging some of the gaps left in the
rundown of the Millennium Development Goals, while simultaneously
achieving a good number of the Sustainable Development Goals (especially
regarding poverty reduction). However, Uganda’s vision of economic wealth
do not perfectly align with the ecological mission of the SDGs, and Uganda
will have to sacrifice one for the other.