By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi
Africa-Press – Uganda. If one wants to understand the quality of life lived by the people of any country, the most widely used measure is the Human Development Index (HDI). It is published annually by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ranking nearly all countries. This makes it the go-to tool for discussions on development issues.
The HDI was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, who was then serving as Special Adviser to the UNDP Administrator, William Draper. Haq was highly critical of the GDP and GNP per capita metrics that dominated development thinking in the 1980s. His key contribution was leading the argument against the narrow focus of these measures, even though they informed World Bank reports and influenced global development policies.
According to Haq, focusing on national income growth while ignoring how people’s conditions in terms of health, education, and standard of living were affected was too limited. There was a need to de-centre national income in development economics discourse and bring people to the fore. Indeed, the UNDP’s 1990 HDI report opened with the now-famous line: “People are the wealth of nations.”
While alternative development measures have emerged since 1990, these have largely been developed to complement rather than substitute the HDI. I therefore acknowledge the relevance of other indicators of human wellbeing, such as the World Happiness Report, the Numbeo Quality of Life Index, the OECD Better Life Index, the Inequality-adjusted HDI, and the Social Progress Index.
That said, the focus of this opinion piece is to assess the performance of President Museveni’s government in improving the quality of life for Ugandans. To make a fair assessment, Museveni’s performance should be compared with that of his sub-Saharan African peers across multiple categories that reflect similar contexts.
Sub-Saharan Africa provides a reasonable comparison group because countries in the region share similarities with Uganda in factors that must be controlled for, including initial development conditions, geography, history, and structural challenges.
The HDI measures three key dimensions of human development. First is health, measured by life expectancy at birth. Second is education, measured by mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling. Third is standard of living, measured by Gross National Income (GNI) adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP).
The earliest consistent data available on Uganda’s historical progress in human development dates back to 1980. Using this benchmark helps isolate the key contributions or failures of the Museveni government in health, education, and income.
Based on the most recent 2023 data, Uganda’s HDI increased at an average annual growth rate of 1.62%, rising from 0.342 in 1990 to 0.582 in 2023. This improvement has moved the country from the low to the medium human development category.
Haq designed the HDI as a simple index ranging from 0 to 1, showing how countries perform in providing a decent quality of life for their citizens. Each of the three dimensions—health, education, and standard of living—is assigned a sub-score between 0 and 1. These sub-scores are then combined to generate a final HDI score between 0 and 1.
Countries are categorised as having very high human development (0.800 and above), high human development (0.700–0.799), medium human development (0.550–0.699), or low human development (below 0.550). Uganda’s 2023 HDI score of 0.582 places the country in the medium human development category, meaning that the average Ugandan enjoys a fairly good overall quality of life.
Compared with the sub-Saharan African regional average, Uganda performs better than many countries with similar characteristics, including exposure to tropical diseases, infrastructure gaps, governance challenges, colonial legacies, and economic dependencies.
Uganda’s HDI growth rate of 1.62% exceeds the sub-Saharan Africa average of 1.03%. Within East Africa, Uganda also outperforms most of its peers, surpassed only by Kenya, which has an HDI score of 0.628.
Turning to specific dimensions of human development, education provides a useful starting point. Access to education expanded significantly following the introduction of Universal Primary Education in 1997. While the policy was not unique to Uganda, it was aggressively championed by the Museveni government.
Even when adjusted for population growth, Uganda ranks among the countries with the highest primary school enrolments in the region. Primary school enrolment rose from 2.5 million pupils in 1997 to 9.52 million today. The number of teachers also increased from 84,825 in 1997 to 147,176 in 2025.
According to the World Bank and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the average adult literacy rate in sub-Saharan Africa stands at between 68 and 69%. Uganda performs above this average, with a national literacy rate of 74%, up from 43% in 1986. Access to higher education has also expanded, with student enrolment increasing from 4,000 in 1986 to 220,800 in 2025.
The number of universities has grown from just Makerere University in 1986 to 78 universities today. While this may appear large, it is worth noting that countries such as Japan have over 800 universities, even when adjusted for population size. There is therefore little justification for unnecessarily restricting the expansion of higher education institutions and knowledge production.
In the health sector, life expectancy at birth has increased from 44 years in 1986 to 68 years today. This is significantly higher than the sub-Saharan African average of approximately 62.6 years and is steadily approaching the global average of 73 years. Immunisation coverage has risen from 30% in 1986 to 95% today, with the remaining gap largely attributable to parental refusal rather than systemic failure.
The proportion of mothers delivering at health facilities has increased to over 80%, up from 37% in 2001. Maternal mortality has declined from 336 per 100,000 live births in 2015 to 189 per 100,000 live births. Infant mortality has also fallen sharply, from 122 per 1,000 live births in 1986 to 28 per 1,000 live births in 2024. Malaria incidence has declined from 302 to 230 cases per 1,000 people over the past five years.
Uganda has also recorded strong performance in the standard of living dimension relative to its regional peers. This indicator is measured through GNP per capita. Uganda’s GNP has increased by approximately 158% since 1990, placing it above the sub-Saharan African average. Income growth has played a significant role in lifting the country’s overall HDI score, often outpacing gains in health or education.
Overall, Uganda’s human development record under President Museveni reflects substantial improvement since he assumed power. According to Worldometer, the country’s HDI has nearly doubled, rising from 0.293 in 1980 to 0.582 in 2023.
Uganda has also transitioned from the low to the medium human development category. Life expectancy, mean years of schooling, and expected years of schooling have all increased markedly.
Economically, GDP growth averaged 7.1% annually between 1992 and 2011, well above the sub-Saharan African average of between 3.5% and 5%. Nonetheless, there remains considerable ground to cover if Uganda is to reach or surpass global average HDI levels.
Source: Nilepost News
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