I must admit that addressing poverty in West Nile region is a very complex issue with no simple solutions. If you go to www.tualu.org, search documents, there was a high powered conference on MAYAN districts organized by the local authorities in these districts. Many of the issues facing people in these districts have been identified. a) Our school sytem is chunning out thousands of school drop out youth from the elementary, secondary, colleges and universities. There are hardly any creative programs to engage these youth into productive life. The days of finding work after high school are gone. These youngmen and women are lousing/idling everywhere because their choices are very limited. What can we do as a society to address this problem? If we do not confront this problem, there is no way to break the vicious cycle of poverty in our society. Soon or later, some of these people will turn into criminal gangs in order to survive and destroy what we all strive to achieve. As some has pointed out, some of these young men have resorted to chewing "Marungi", which used to be a Somali stuff. b) In early 1990,Somali immigrants in Canada started importing "Marungi" and chewing it in the malls. The govenment of Canada did a study on "Marungi" and classfied it as an addictive narcotic drug. They banned import of "Marungi". Should we encourage "Marungi growing and chewing? This is a problem that requires local govenment intervention & ordinance. c) Today going to a university is not a ticket to finding a job. It is not surprising to find young graduates tarmacking the roads looking for work they cannot find. As the government remains the main employer in Uganda, it has very limited capacity to create new jobs. The civil service is almost saturated. Getting jobs in the civil service is becoming increasingly very complex and difficult unless you are well connected. d) As the private sector is poorly developed, what options are available? A few business in the region are family businesses that can only employ a handful of people, usually relatives. We seriously need to find ways and means of training these young men and women to run their own small business. Organization like West Nile Chamber of Commerce should seriously look into solving this problem. e) People in MAYAN districts used to depend on cotton and tobacco as cash crops. The collapse of cotton Industry in the 1970's left tobacco industry to thrive. We have all seen the disaster it is causing. What options are left for the village person? Cotton sells at USD 60.00 /KG today. Should we not encourage it again? f) I am advocating the growing of GRAPES. Fr. Penino has been growing grapes at Ediofe. His small farm is producing wine for the churches. What will it take to expand grapes as a cash crop? If grapes grow and produce fine fruits at Ediofe, can it be grown anywhere in the region? Our agricultural experts can advise us on this venture. West Nile region could be exporting grapes to super markets in Kampala and Eastern Africa, Sudan, Dr. Congo. g) West Nile has been exporting the best "Honey" to Europen Union. I understand the enterprenuer(s) who have been distributing beehives have been chased away by the people because they do not come from the region (correct me if I am wrong). The hilly areas of the region would be perfect for this industry. Is there a way we can aggressively promote bee keeking industry? h) Various fruit trees grow well in the region e.g lime, oranges,lemon,mangoes, avacadoes, etc. I understand the President one day told the people in West Nile to grow a lot of mangoes. People were mad at him. The truth of the matter is our people are not looking at commercial value of these trees. We seriously need to look at Food Processing Business oppportunities. Fruits can be processed into natural Fruit Juices for export. India and Latin America are leading exporters of natural fruit juices. How can an we emulate this example? i) Diversifying the economy in the region beyond subsistence farming is probably one of the alternative solutions to poverty that has not been taken seriously. Economists and agricultural experts from this region could save us with their knowldge and wisdom. Exploring and exploiting mineral resources has never been taken seriously by the people of this region or govenment for many decades. What resources do we really have? Oil? or nothing? j) Local govenment authorities should look at promoting tourism. For instance many of us have not seen the commercial benefit of promoting "The Belgian Tombs" at Alikua. These tombs tell our history from World Wars. Although these tombs may be meaningless to our people, we are hiding & burrying our history for the strugle for independence.
John J Avudria
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