A section of minority groups and Indigenous communities in Uganda has urged the government to expedite the implementation of the 2022 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations aimed at enhancing service provision to Minority Indigenous Peoples (MIPs) nationwide.
The recommendations included social service delivery in health and education. The government has been implored to establish schools and health facilities closer to MIP communities to ensure that all individuals can exercise their rights.
This would be achieved by eliminating the barriers that such communities face when traveling long distances to access education and medical services.
Speaking at a national advocacy meeting on minority and Indigenous peoples in Uganda held in Kampala, Deus Mucunguzi, the Executive Director of African International Christian Ministry, an Indigenous non-governmental organization that mobilizes and empowers marginalized groups in Africa, said that significant gaps persist in access to health and education among ethnic minorities.
“We conducted research in 2020 ad found out that 50.8% of the MIP communities drop out of school. They do not complete P7 and there are many factors, one of them being lack of schools close to them,” he said.
