3 in 10 Ugandans going without food daily

As Uganda today joins the rest of the world to mark World Food Day, at least three in every 10 households will skip a meal or not eat at all for the entire day.
Mr Moses Mbuusi, a statistician at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos), defined severe food insecurity as frequent and prolonged periods of insufficient food intake due to a lack of money and other resources.
“Households with severe food insecurity are households that skip a meal and end up going the whole day without food,” he said.
The 2024 National Population and Housing Census released recently by Ubos shows that the sub-regions of Karamoja, Bukedi, Teso, Lango and Elgon had the greatest percentage of extremely food insecure households.
The report also indicates that six in every 10 households were experiencing severe food insecurity in Karamoja Sub-region and only 19 percent of the households are food secure.
Overall, the 2024 National Population and Housing Census shows only 54 percent of households in the country are food secure, while 31 percent are experiencing severe food insecurity, and 46 percent moderately or severely food insecure.
The report indicates that 197,811.81 households (63 percent) out of 313,987 households in Karamoja were facing severe food insecurity followed by Teso with 244,810 households (50 percent) of 48,9620 households, Bukedi with 251,863.5 households (50 percent) of 503,727 households and West Nile with 362,219.04 (48 percent) of 754,623 households in the sub-region.
These are followed by Lango with 235,979.19 households (41 percent) of 575,559 households in the sub-region, Elgon with 205,410.66 households (39 percent) of 526,694 households, Busoga with 328,201.66 (34 percent) of 965,299 households, Acholi with 135,177 (29 percent) of 466,128 households, Kigezi with 99,229.5 (25 percent) of 396,918 households, Bunyoro with 159,181.92 (24 percent) of 663,258 households, Tooro with 186,356.16 (24 percent) of 776,484 households, Buganda with 719,004.93 (21 percent) of 3,423,833 households, and lastly Ankole with 151,700.94 household (18 percent) of 842,783 households sub-region.
Explaining food insecurity
Mr Mbuusi said severely food insecure households are those that have experienced the most severe forms of food insecurity as measured by the food insecurity Experience Scale.
He said the figures were obtained after asking the households if they had skipped a meal in the last 12 months by the time of enumeration.
“We asked eight questions and our analysis compares those eight questions and determines whether a household went without a meal the whole day, whether a household skipped a few meals, or whether the household has reduced their portion. So where you see the severe food insecurity, those are households that skip a meal and end up going the whole day without food,” Mr Mbuusi said.
He further explained that the census did not capture factors leading to food insecurity in the sub-regions.
For Karamoja, Mr Mbuusi said: “Karamoja is donor-aided, they hardly do agriculture. So when the World Food Programme delays or the government doesn't send aid they will compromise and when things are bad, they can even spend a day without food.”
He added that Teso and Bukedi sub-regions predominantly depend on agriculture and will have food during the harvesting season, but will lack food when out season.
“These are agricultural people and we have seasons. When they harvest, there will be plenty of food but when there is a shock in their output, they hardly go and buy food like we do in Kampala,” he said.
The 2024 census shows Uganda has 10.68 million households.
Cities with food insecurity
The households experiencing severe food insecurity were also highlighted, with Soroti City taking the top spot with 43 percent, followed by Arua City with 40 percent while Hoima City has 15 percent, indicating the lowest prevalence.
The rest are Mbale City with 38.1 percent, Lira City (33.5 percent), Jinja City (26.9 percent), Gulu City (26.2 percent), Kampala (25.1), Mbarara City (18.8 percent), Masaka City (18.7 percent) and Fort Portal City (18.2 percent).
Household food 
The report also reveals that household size has an impact on food security, indicating that 58 percent of single-member households were food secure while 48 percent of households with 10 members or more declared to be food insecure.
Ubos indicates that education level of household heads also has an impact on the prevalence of food insecurity in that those who had not attended any formal education had a higher prevalence of food insecurity than their counterparts.
“Household heads who had not attained any formal education during the census had the highest prevalence of severely food insecurity at 37 percent as compared to household who had attained postsecondary education at 18 percent,” reads the report.
Ms Agnes Kirabo, the executive director of the Food Rights Alliance, said the situation of Karamoja is as a result of neglect, adding that a lot of public and private funds have been directed to the sub-region but the situation is not changing.
Ms Kirabo said both the State and private organisations should not hide behind the harsh climatic conditions in Karamoja, saying the conditions are not harsher than the ones in Egypt.
“The climatic conditions are not harsher than they are in Egypt. Karamoja actually receives a lot of water from all of the mountainous areas from Sebei Sub-region. Karamoja is capable of feeding this country because when you look at the soil fertility map, it has the most fertile soils in this country,’’ she said.
Karamoja has been food insecure for a long time. Hundreds of people in the sub-region died of famine in 2022 while others resorted to eating leaves. 
The districts of Kotido,Napak, Nabilatuk, Amudat, Karenga, Abim and Nakapiripirit were mostly affected.
Mr Julius Mukunda, the executive director of the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG), said the reason Uganda still faces food insecurity is that it has failed to strategise.
He said Uganda is gifted with two rainy seasons and should not be having anyone dying of hunger.
“We do not have a mechanism to store and transport food both in abundance and in scarcity areas,” Mr Mukunda said, adding that the State has not been able to identify the right produce for each region.
“We should be looking at how to add value to cattle business [for Karamoja people] to ensure they have the right markets, prices, and deal with pest and diseases to improve food security,” Mr Mukunda said.
Mr Frank Tumwebaze, the minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, said food insecurity is due to the semi-arid conditions.
“We are promoting irrigation farming across the country and in particular to those places, the government is prioritising investments in water for agricultural production,” he said.