Progress in nutrition related millennium development goals in Uganda before adoption of post-2015 development agenda: review of goals 1, 2 and 4

Abstract

Promulgation of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in year 2000 gave hope to the world that common interests and challenges such as poverty and hunger, education, gender equality and women empowerment, child mortality and maternal health, diseases such as, HIV/AIDS, malaria, environmental sustainability, as well as global partnerships that were affecting the world could, respectively, be prioritized and responded to within a timeframe of the year 2001 to 2015. In this case, the developing countries like Uganda were accorded great attention. Nutrition has been at the forefront of the MDG implementation as one of the daunting challenges affecting developing countries. This paper is based on a narrative review of quantitative and qualitative data aimed at establishing the progress Uganda made towards achieving the three nutrition related MDG (1, 2 and 4). A timeframe of 2001 when the goals were officially launched up to the deadline of 31^st December 2015 and the adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda was considered. The majority of Low and Middle Income Developing Countries (LMIDCS) failed to make substantial progress in achieving most of the goals, including the nutrition related goals. Uganda only achieved MDG one - target 1.A indicator of halving a proportion of people living below less than $ 1.25 a day. To some extent, this helped in alleviating poverty, creating jobs, and generating income and saving and other opportunities which are indeed catalysts to human development and socioeconomic wellbeing. Unfortunately, Uganda missed achieving the rest of the nutrition related MDG. They included: reducing underweight children under five years (MDG 1.8), increasing net enrollment of boys and girls in primary education (MDG 2.1), increasing proportion of pupils starting grade one to last primary grade (MDG 2.2), reducing child mortality rate per 1,000 live births (MDG 4.1) and reducing infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births (MDG 4.2). However, the hope at this particular moment ought to be directed towards tracking and achieving goals in the Post-2015 Development Agenda whose aim is mainly to build on the progress of the MDG.

Key words: Nutrition, Millennium Development Goals, Post-Development Agenda, Uganda