Contents - Previous - Next

This is the old United Nations University website. Visit the new site at http://unu.edu

The R&D institutions

As in the preceding three chapters, so in this chapter on Uganda's efforts to advance science and technology we shall begin with the individual institutions. Once we have described the individual institutions, we shall aggregate their activities, using the common denominator of budget allocations. When we have an estimate of the amount of R&D carried out within Uganda, we shall move on to the university, within which scientific and technical education takes place. Combining university expenditures on the pursuit of science and technology with those in the R&D institutes yields a measure of the contribution of government. This will be augmented by small amounts to allow for scientific and technical activities carried out within productive firms, mainly those within the state sector, but also in the private sector.

Table 6.5 Uganda: government revenues, expenditures and investment 1969-1991

Sources:
1987-1990 columns 1-4, Government of Uganda, Background to the Budget 1990-1991, Tables 12a and 12b, p. 167 (for the fiscal years 1986/7 through 1989/90)
1969-1990 remainder, World Bank, World Tables 1991, 1993
1991, 1992: Government of Uganda, Ministry of Finance, Financial Statement of Revenue and Expenditure 1991/2 (1991 approved estimate, 1992, estimate)

Table 6.6 Uganda: debt 1970-1991 (millions current US dollars outstanding at end of year)

Source: World Bank, World Tables 1991,1993

Table 6.7 Uganda: debt servicing 1981-1986

Sources:
Strack and Schonherr, 1989. (There are discrepancies between these figures and those in Table 6.6, chiefly in the volume of private sector debt)

Table 6.8 Uganda: balance of payments 1970-1991

Source:
Exports, imports, balance: World Bank, World Tables 1991, 1993
Coffee, tea: Government of Uganda, Ministry of Agriculture, Secretariat for Research

The first institutes that we will consider are those devoted to advancing science and technology in agriculture. (The background is provided in the comprehensive study of Opio-Ogongo, 1992.) Administratively, these are not separate research institutes, as they are in the other three countries, but dependencies of the Ministry of Agriculture. (This Ministry is called the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forest, and is an amalgamation of the three former separate ministries. Using shorthand, we shall call it the Ministry of Agriculture.) Within the Ministry of Agriculture, there is a Secretary for Research, under whom the various research divisions are located. The Research Secretary and the majority of the research activity are located at the campus of the Ministry of Agriculture on the outskirts of Entebbe. There the most important research activities are carried out, commencing with coffee.

Research on coffee represents the largest single allocation of funds and of personnel to a single commodity. Aided by funds from abroad, the programme employs approximately 20 persons, led by the Coffee Coordinator. The projects bear considerable resemblance to the projects carried out by the sister Coffee Research Foundation in Kenya: research into the coffee berry disease, into other viruses that afflict the coffee plant, and into alleviating problems arising during planting, cultivation, harvesting, processing, storage and shipment.

Of the other research programmes undertaken within the Ministry of Agriculture some are new programmes, some are extensions of existing programmes, but the majority have prospered in recent years with the influx of foreign assistance. Tables 6.9 and 6.10 illustrate the increases that have occurred. We see that during the years of Uganda's turmoil, expenditures on research in coffee and other crops remained minimal, covering no more than the salaries and the wages of the employees, as the low amounts allocated to Development items indicate. It was only after the initiation of the Structural Adjustment Programme, and the arrival of funds supporting research, that expenditures were able to increase. The bulk of the foreign donations have still to be expended, so expenditures can be expected to increase substantially in the next few years (raising the estimate for 1991/2). Since substantial funds are allocated to the scheme for replanting coffee trees that had outlived their useful life, or had been destroyed during the chaotic decade (see Tables 6.12 and 6.13) not all the expenditures can be counted as R&D. Nonetheless, if the research into coffee is effective, the new trees should be yielding larger crops, which will increase Uganda's output and exports.

Table 6.10 also gives an indication of the relation between requests for funds for research in agriculture and actual expenditures: the last two columns summarize the figures. Within these averages for the entire Ministry there are considerable variations by project: the greatest variation occurs between the Coffee Research Group and the Appropriate Technology Group. Commencing with the requests of the research officers, one can follow the sums subsequently recommended by the Director of Research; the sums accepted and recommended by the Research Secretary of the Ministry; the sums accepted and recommended by the Minister; and finally the sums approved by the Economic Planning Board. The contrast between the figures for the two research groups is quite startling: the Coffee Research Group has received funds equalling approximately half the original requests of the research officers, whereas the Appropriate Technology Group has received only 5 per cent of the funds its research officers requested.

Table 6.9 Uganda: public expenditures on agricultural R&D, as percentages of government revenues and GDP arising in agriculture 1981/2-1991/2

Source:
Government of Uganda, Background to the Budget 1991/2
Note:
^a signifies Approved Estimates

Table 6.10 Uganda: Ministry of Agriculture requests and expenditures for agricultural research 1968/9-1991/2 (thousands current USh)

Sources:
1968/9-1989/90: Government of Uganda, Draft Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure (recurrent and Capital). (After 1981/82, includes research on animal industries and fisheries)
1990/1, 1991/2 Government of Uganda, Ministry of Agriculture, Secretariat for Research
Notes:
P signifies preliminary, superceded by the figure 612,ODO in Table 6.12

Table 6.11 Uganda: budgets for R&D and reconstruction by Ministry and project 1990/1 (millions of current USh)

Source:
Government of Uganda, Ministry of Finance, Estimates for Recurrent and Development Expenditures for 1991/2

Table 6.12 Uganda: budgets for R&D and reconstruction by Ministry and project 1991/2 (millions of current USh)

Source:
Government of Uganda, Ministry of Finance, Estimates fat Recurrent and Development Expenditures for 1991/2

Table 6.13 Uganda: estimated expenditures on science and technology, total and relative to GDP and to government revenues 1990/1 and 1991/2

Source:
see Tables 6.1, 6.4, 6.11 and 6.12. Expenditures on science and technology are assumed to consist of recurrent expenditures for the Ministry of Agriculture and Industry, and development expenditures for agriculture, industry and Makerere University. Public expenditures consist of all of Section 1 and the Ugandan government's portion of Section 2 of the accounts
GDP estimates, reported for calendar years in Table 6.1, are for the fiscal years
Note:
^a: Total expenditures on science and technology include public expenditures, foreign donations, and private expenditures

Other, domestically consumed, crops seem also to be discriminated against. We have called this lack of attention to important, non-exportable crops the 'Banana Syndrome', because R&D on bananas, such a vital food in Uganda, is so neglected. Why should there be a 'Banana Syndrome'?

The explanation lies almost entirely in the support that research on coffee has drawn from foreign donors, and the lack of support for locally-consumed crops or for appropriate technology. Of the reasons suggested by Ugandans involved in the research, the chief one is based on the locus of decisions on research fundings; decisions are made chiefly in the aid agencies in the developed countries and reflect the priorities of the agencies and the beliefs of their employees. With these bodies Ugandans have relatively little contact and even less influence.

R&D in industry is the responsibility of a new Industrial Research Institute, established in 1990 and located administratively within the Ministry of Industry. So new is this industrial research institute that it is only just acquiring facilities and staff. A capital grant from the German government is permitting the design and construction of research laboratories; when they are complete research will be undertaken. The research agenda has not yet been fully established, but it appears that some activities will be directed towards improving the production of textiles, Uganda's largest industry and employer, and the processing of primary commodities.

As of the present, no overall agency exists within the Ugandan government to which the coordination of its R&D activities is assigned. However, most R&D expenditures are made by the government ministries, so an aggregation of data on expenditures on advancing science and technology can be drawn from the government's budget figures. This is done in Tables 6.11 and 6.12, the first for the fiscal year 1990/1 and the second for 1991/2. The fact that all the data are drawn from a single source is appropriate, for it symbolizes the importance of central government in determining how resources are to be allocated amongst different activities. In the other three countries that we studied, some research institutes had a considerable amount of freedom, both in soliciting funds and in determining how those funds should be allocated; in Uganda, the equivalent research bodies have less independence and authority. The major decisions on which activities are to be stimulated, and which curbed, is made at the ministerial level, upon recommendations from the Economic Planning Board (EPB). It is the EPB which has taken upon itself the responsibility for determining the structure of Uganda's economy in the future, through its current expenditures on advancing science and technology, as well as in the present, through its allocation of recurrent funds.

Contents - Previous - Next