Quiros 1

Genevieve Quiros
Mrs. McClellan
AP Human Geography Period 4
22 April 2014
Uganda Development Index
The United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) most ambitious goal in Uganda is to reduce the number of people living in poverty. Uganda has approached up to seven on the
Millenium Development Goals that are a part of UNDP’s plans. However, the government still must enact the policies created to see major improvements in development. In 2005, the sixth issue of Uganda’s trends in human and environmental development was issued. This number has dropped through a planned manner from 56 percent of the population in 1992 to 38 percent in
2004. Despite the reduction of population living in poverty, Uganda remains over 60 percent below the poverty line. In 2002 Uganda’s HDI was .449 then increased in 2003 in .488. Literacy rates have risen from 67 percent in 1999 to 70 percent in 2003. Life expectancy improved 43 years in 2000 to 45.7 in 2004. However, in 1999, Uganda was classified with an HDI lower than the GDP per capita, which suggests failure to translate economic growth into better lives for their people. The Ugandan government has responded with a Poverty Eradication Action Plan as the national development framework. The four pillars of this framework are economic growth, structural transformation, good governance and security. The United Nations Development
Programme does not have information on Uganda’s gender development index or ratio of women and men in the labor force and secondary education. It was not listed if an alternative is used instead, but Uganda is described to have a cultural acceptance of women in the work and

Quiros 2

education place. Reports do show the gender inequality index at .517 and female­male ratio in parliament as .538. Children of either gender are expected to have 11 years of schooling, but on average have 4.7 as adults because poverty stunts them. Women are allowed to be educated if it can be afforded; their barrier is not a cultural one, it is a financial one. Though Uganda has
reported