The Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has asked the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) to map out inequality in the Country.
Among was on Thursday, 20 October 2022 meeting officials from the commission led by the chairperson Safia Nalule Juuko who were presenting the Annual Report on the State of Equal Opportunities in Uganda for the Financial year 2021/2022.
The Speaker asked EOC to partner with Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) to make an assessment of discrimination and marginalization and general inequality countrywide to help in the delivery of services.
“I would like to challenge the commission to partner with UBOS to develop an Atlas containing maps of inequalities like discrimination and marginalization in Uganda. What is in the Eastern region, what is in the central region, what is in the northern region,” Rt Hon. Amonf said.
She added that the map will be able to tell if resources have been distributed equally.
“What is where? And what can be done to this area, and once you have that representation, this will really be easy, for us in the decision making it will help us to understand what is lacking in some areas and it will help us in making decisions,” she said.
Among further noted that the Karamoja region for instance has a big challenge with its road network and this needs to be assessed for service delivery.
She also tasked the commission to asses where works are being done in the country especially with money borrowed by Government.
According to the report presented by Nalule focusing on the state of Equal Opportunities in the social development sector with a focus on special grants for person with disability, Northern Buganda received the highest percentage share of the special national grant disbursed compared to other sub-regions.
“The findings reveal that Acholi, Bunyoro, andkigezi received the least percentage with 5.3%, 4.7%, and 3.2% respectively.whereas the program is intended to cover the whole country, it has been implemented in 123 districts out of the 136 districts,” Nalule said.
On the appeal by the Speaker, Nalule said that they would indeed work with UBOS to come up with a map showing income inequality in the country.
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