Urban food poverty rises in Uganda

Urban food poverty in Uganda increased by two percent, according to an NGO. The Global Call to Action Against Poverty released the figures during an launch for their 2009 efforts. Jonathan Konuche of Uganda's Daily Nation details the announcement.

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty says that in 1997, urban food poverty incidence in the country stood at 38.3 percent, and that 11 years later, it stands at 40.5 per cent.

The organisation’s national coordinator, Mr Mwangi Waituru, said the country’s social security nets should be rebuilt to complement financial investments aimed at curbing urban food poverty.

“The current consumer society is rapidly eroding the traditional security nets system, leaving the poor more and more vulnerable,” Mr Waituru said in Mwiki at the launch of a one-year campaign to eradicate hunger.

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The price of food, especially maize flour, has soared in the country and though the Government launched a distribution network of low-priced flour, this is yet to reach the most affected regions.

Mr Waituru said that while the country might be producing more food than it did 20 years ago, food poverty was on the rise.

“It is a pity that some of us continue to suffer so much hunger in the midst of so much abundance,” he said, adding that it was a grave violation of human rights that children were still going to bed on an empty stomach amid such abundance.