HEALTH; AN ENGINE TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Health, the engine of economic growth. A second leading African nation in budget transparency; Uganda swims in the fragrance of honor for observing the democratic principle of participation and inclusion. We share greater hope that with the recent government exhibition of co-operation with Civil Society organizations, the national budget reading day shall in future be a day of great pleasure and excitement; surely where there’s a will, there’s a way. The health sector is inevitably the driving force behind every economy’s growth though, it suffers belittlement in various ways. The “people” form the engine to lubricate the wheel of economic growth. Therefore their physical and mental welfare accounts to their productivity. By population health, I consider the state of being free from physical or psychological disease or malfunction. The good news is that Uganda has been recently marked a country with the most active population. However this leaves without mention on the people’s welfare. Uganda is currently an open-gate for Ebola victims and last month, 10 million dollars have been received for Ebola prevention which I believe, are being put to use accordingly.

The budget allocation for health is in the past years, approximated as 2.6 trillion which is quite a healthy sum but the leading question should not be the budget allocation but rather, enforcement and accountability of ministries to the populace. The status quo holds that health services supposedly free are not actually free. We still encounter cases of medical personnel exploiting a patient’s urgent despair for treatment to charge them for what would be otherwise free. It’s important to stress that ignoring the health faculty is denying a vehicle of its engine oil. Poor health facilities in Uganda are contributory to the high infant disability and death rate. Even in the presence of fair medical facilities, some of these do not meet Uganda National Bureau of Standard’s requirement and expired medicine continues to be administered to patients, owing to the fact that more than a half of the products in circulation are fake. In studying the disease segment, we are still challenged by the enormous strike of communicable diseases like AIDS. Malaria, diarrhea and tuberculosis despite government effort to provide free service treatment. I appreciate the ongoing sensitization about some of these diseases like AIDS, Ebola and malaria, however this serves a little importance when the cure is inadequate and not meeting the standard. As more industries are being opened for employment, health risk factors are accordingly increased. Occupational safety measures have to be improved for life’s sake; a healthy population maintains a wealthy economy after all, everyone’s health is their wealth.

In the food arena; a recent Africa research by Addis Ababa based scholars shows that lack of food is a leading cause of child deaths and disability in Africa with about 10,000 children dying every day and a child dying of hunger every 3 seconds. Uganda being a subsistence economy requires that more resources be allocated to the agricultural sector which influences the quantity and quality of food we consume. This year’s budget avails only one trillion to the agricultural sector which shows a decline and yet there’s an increase by over 1.5 trillion in the security and defense sector; is it to secure a diseased people? Nevertheless, we can’t underestimate government effort to safeguard the health of the population, though let us recognize the relevance of population health to a healthier economic growth. Ahimbisibwe Innocent Benjamin innopianist4@gmail.com