According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 40 percent of households did not consume sufficient quantity of food with the proper nutrient content, while rural households experienced twice more prevalence of food poverty that the urban ones.
The government is accused of not focusing enough
on food security and nutrition in its programmes, abetting the problems of
hunger and malnutrition.
An estimated 114,000 children and 13,000 pregnant
or breastfeeding women were said to be suffering acute malnutrition between
March and April 2023, according to the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase
Classification) Uganda Acute Malnutrition Report 2023.
In addition, some parts of Uganda, especially in
the northeast, frequently require food aid, while reports have put the stunting
rate in Uganda at 26 percent.
Laws and policies on food security and nutrition
in Uganda are justified to ensure that not just enough food is produced, but
that all citizens are getting adequate and the required nutritional amounts also within the required health standards.
Bernard Bewambale, Head of Programmes at CONSENT,
a consumer rights NGO, says it was embarrassing for Uganda to have people
going hungry or even eating less than five food crops a day.
In his presentation at a dialogue on The State of
Food and Nutrition Landscape in Uganda, Bewambale said the new law and policies
on food security should focus on sensitisation to ensure households, schools
and other institutions have adequate and healthy food.
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In September 2024, Parliament permitted MP Milton Muwuma to introduce a Private Member’s Bill: The Food and Nutrition
Bill, which makes it criminal for a household head who, without justification,
fails to provide safe and nutritious food for their families.
But, University lecturer, Ndebesa Mwebesa, a board
chairman of SEATINI Uganda said that even in its agriculture development
programmes, the government has not emphasised food security, noting that even
in the president's State of the Nation Address, it does not feature.
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According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 40
percent of households did not consume sufficient quantity of food with the
proper nutrient content, while rural households experienced twice as much
prevalence of food poverty as urban ones.
The dialogue was focused on ensuring that what
Ugandans consume is not only adequate but also healthy, in line with the
"Know What You Eat" campaign run by SEATINI.
Programmes and Communications Manager, Herbert
Kafeero expressed worry that with the current situation, Uganda was not going
to meet the Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2 about eliminating all forms of
poverty and ending hunger by 2030.
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Some of the initiatives that the government has
put in place over time include the 1995 Constitution which provides for the
right to food, the Food and Drugs Act, of 1995 and the Food and Nutrition Policy.
However, the policy is considered too outdated to
cater for the challenges faced today.
Alex Bambona, the Assistant Commissioner, of Food and
Nutrition at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries,
admitted that the policy was obsolete, but that the process to replace it had
been too slow.
This is because of the long bureaucracy involved and the fact
that the cabinet directed the ministry not to update the existing one, but to
have a completely new one.
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He, however, said Uganda's progress rate is too
slow to achieve the SDGs.
On the process, Bambona said the back-and-forth moves were
all aimed at ensuring that as many stakeholders, including the Ministry of
Health and the Office of the Prime Minister as well as relevant agencies and
departments were involved.
Currently, they are handling regional consultations and the
consultations will end with presentations before the parliament, according to
him.
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In his response, Richard Okot, the Assistant Commissioner of External Trade at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, said before the national policy and the law are in place, the local governments can have a role to play through bylaws.
Giving the example of the Mubende DLG ordinance on maize production and transportation, Okot said the sub-region has managed to attain the best standards of maize grain in the country because of how the farmers and transporters handle it.
Okot condemned the way vegetables are transported on trucks from the countryside to the towns, with workers seated atop the cargo with no protection, which compromises the hygiene of the food.
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He said the law should not only cater for adulteration through handling, chemicals use, labelling and others for the local market, but also for the export market which has suffered rejections.
Currently, according to him, the way foods are being harvested, parked and exported does not meet the required standards.
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Florence Basiima Tushemerire, a nutritionist lecturer at Makerere University was more concerned about children who are being exposed to dangerous foods without regulation, calling for a law to protect them.
