The Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced the closure of its offices for two days to enable passport system upgrade.

In a statement issued on Wednesday January 18, 2023, the ministry said the closure will take place on Thursday and Friday, after which the issuance of the passport books will resume on Monday next week.

This upgrade will affect all passport services; applications, scheduling appointments, enrolment (interviews), printing and collection.

“All our offices in Kampala at the Ministry Headquarters, Kyambogo, Mbarara, Mbale, Gulu; and diaspora offices in Washington, London, Ottawa, Copenhagen, Pretoria and Abu Dhabi will be shut down,” the ministry announced.

“Passport applicants will not be able to access our online services at http://passports.go.ug or schedule appointments for these two days. Enrolment and collection of passports will also not be possible,” it added.

Upon completion of the upgrade and maintenance works, applicants who had already scheduled appointments on Thursday, 19th January and Friday, 20th January 2023 will be served alongside those already scheduled on Monday 23rd and Tuesday, 24th January 2023.

“Once the upgrade of the system is complete, the Ministry promises a much more efficient system with improved services to the users. Those meant to collect passports on those particular days will also be able to pick them after. We apologize for the inconveniences caused,” they added.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has disbursed a loan worth $240 million (about Shs880 billion) to Uganda after its Executive Board completed the combined second and third reviews under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF).

The facility is part of the $1 billion (about 3.547 trillion) that IMF extended to Uganda in 2021 under the Extended Credit Facility programme.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the IMF Board said it was pleased that Uganda is implementing several structural reforms to promote economic growth.

“The Ugandan authorities remain committed to their economic program amidst a challenging environment. Most quantitative targets were met in 2022. Six of the twelve structural benchmarks due between March and December 2022 have been completed,” IMF said.

“A structural benchmark on the asset declaration regime was converted into a prior action for the review and has been met. Sound program implementation in the period ahead remains important to ensure economic resilience and support the country’s social and developmental objectives,” it added.

According to the IMF, returning to the programmed fiscal consolidation path and reserve cover remains essential to keep debt sustainable and maintain external buffers.

“Enhanced domestic revenue mobilization, including via the elimination of inefficient tax exemptions, rationalization of non-priority spending, and shifting the composition of spending towards priority social areas will help achieve the fiscal objectives and address large development needs. The introduction of the Parish Development Model was a welcome development,” IMF said.

In a meeting last month, IMF said its staff and the Uganda authorities had reached a staff-level agreement on economic policies to conclude the combined second and third reviews of the 36-month ECF-financed program.

The money is a huge relief to Uganda which is heavily indebted and struggling to finance its budget.

According to the Bank of Uganda Monetary Policy report for December, Uganda’s public debt stood at Shs78.89 trillion, as of June 2022, of which Shs48.21 trillion is external debt, and Shs30.661 trillion is domestic debt.

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Children from the poorest households benefit the least from national public education funding, UNICEF said in a new report released, while calling for additional and more equitable investment to lift millions of children out of a learning crisis.

The report, Transforming Education with Equitable Financing, notes that on average, the poorest quintile of learners benefit from only 16 per cent of public funding for education, compared to the richest, which benefit from 28 per cent. Among low-income countries, only 11 per cent of public education funding goes to the poorest learners, while 42 per cent goes to the richest.

“We are failing children. Too many education systems around the world are investing the least in those children who need it the most,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Investing in the education of the poorest children is the most cost-effective way to ensure the future for children, communities and countries. True progress can only come when we invest in every child, everywhere.”

The report examines data on government spending across pre-primary, primary, secondary, and tertiary education from 102 countries. It found that a one percentage point increase in the allocation of public education resources to the poorest 20 per cent may pull 35 million primary school-aged children out of learning poverty. The study noted that around the world, public education spending is more likely to reach learners from wealthier households in both low- and middle-income countries.

The gap is most pronounced among low-income countries. In several examples, the data showed that learners from the richest households benefit from over six times the amount of public education funding compared to the poorest. Meanwhile, in middle-income countries, the richest learners in places like Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal receive around four times more public education spending than the poorest. Though the gap is smaller in high-income countries, with the richest usually benefitting from 1.1 to 1.6 times as much public education spending as the poorest, France and Uruguay fall at the higher end of the gap.

According to the report, children living in poverty are less likely to have access to school and drop out sooner. In addition, children from poor households are less represented in higher levels of education, which receive much higher public education spending per capita. They’re also more likely to live in remote and rural areas that are generally underserved and on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, education systems around the world were largely failing children, with hundreds of millions of students attending school but not grasping basic reading and mathematics skills. Recent estimates show that two-thirds of all 10-year-olds globally are unable to read and understand a simple story.

According to the report, a key step to addressing the learning crisis is for governments to provide equitable financing and prioritize public education resources, including increasingly focusing on foundational learning. This entails securing public funding for pre-primary and primary education for all and targeting the poor and marginalized at higher levels of education.

In the past decade, public education spending has become more equitable in 60 per cent of countries with data.

However, nearly one-third of countries spend less than 15 per cent of their public education funding on the poorest. Among low-income countries, this share of countries is strikingly high at 80 per cent.

In 1 out of 10 countries, learners from the richest households receive four or more times the amount of public education spending compared to learners from the poorest households in 10 percent of countries.

Appeals for education in emergencies often receive just 10 to 30 per cent of the amounts needed, with significant disparities across countries and regions.

Urgent action is needed to ensure education resources reach every learner. The report sets out four key recommendations: unlocking pro-equity public financing to education; prioritizing public funding to foundational learning; monitoring and ensuring equitable education aid allocation in development and humanitarian contexts; and investing in innovative ways to deliver education.

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