Kasirye, Ibrahim2022-06-052022-06-052012https://nru.uncst.go.ug/handle/123456789/3718Uganda has made tremendous progress in improving welfare outcomes in the past 20 years, some key welfare outcomes especially regarding nutritional status have performed dismally. For instance, the proportion of poor persons reduced from 56% in 1992 to 25% by 2010. Also, the infant mortality rate (IMR) reduced from 81 to 54 death per 1000 live birth during 1995-2011. Similarly, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate reduced from 30% in the early 1990s to 6.7% by 2011. On the other hand, Uganda continues to maintain a large population of malnourished children and women and this dents the country’s impressive human development record. According to population based data from Uganda Demographic and health Surveys (UDHS) of 2006 and 2011, 2,314,620 children under the age of five are too short for their age (stunted). An estimated 250,000 children under the age of five suffer from severe acute malnutrition annually and are in need of medical treatment. However, the most recent estimates from the 2011 UDHS indicate that child stunting rates have declined in the past five years. The proportion of children aged below 5 years classified as stunted declined from 38% in 2006 to 33% by 2011 (Figure 1). Furthermore Figure 1 shows that Uganda has registered mixed progress regarding child nutritional health indicators and the country may not meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 target of halving Uganda’s underweight levels from 25% in 1990 to 12% by 2015. Worse still, Uganda appears to off the mark with regard to the target of halving the population below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption— the level of food insecurity has remained above the 60% mark since the 1990s.enOther