Government through NDP I and II undertook education as a priority; particularly primary education, to improve the literacy and numeracy rates in the country. Through initiatives such as Universal education, increased teacher training, deployment and renumeration, literacy rates have since grown to 86.1 percent nationally (UBOS 2024). 

According to the NRM manifesto 2021, the primary school enrollment had risen to 10.7 million in 2020 up from 8.26 million in 2016.

According to the World Happiness Report 2025, Uganda ranked 116^th globally, with a happiness score of 4.5. This represents a slight improvement from the previous year's ranking of 113th with a score of 4.43. The Report evaluates countries based on life satisfaction scores, social support, freedom of choice, GDP per capita and other well-being indicators. The rankings reflect life evaluations averaged over a three-year period from 2022 to 2024. 

The Human Development Report (HDR) 2025, titled “A Matter of Choice: People and Possibilities in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)”, underscores Uganda's significant strides in human development over the past three decades.

The Report provides an update on the “big catch up” activity targeted to reach children who missed vaccination during the period 2020–2024, partly due to the COVID pandemic. For example, as of 2023, the program had registered 329,359 zero dose children, with a target of reaching 95% of these children. The Report indicates that 292,907 (89%) of these children were vaccinated by the end of December 2024. The Report also provides an update on other vaccines received such as DPT1 and MR1.

Ministry of Health Uganda, February 2025

This Report provides the main findings of a decent work assessment, executed in the hospitality sector in the Rwenzori/Albertine regions in Uganda. According to the Report, the hospitality sector in Uganda shows a relatively strong labour market security, with minimal structural unemployment and irregular work. Training opportunities remain limited and workers are not sure whether they would find another job with similar or better working conditions. In addition, Income security is low, with workers earning significantly below a living wage and receiving minimal overtime pay.

The 24^th Economic Update by the World Bank emphasizes the critical importance of investing in Early Childhood Development (ECD) as a foundational strategy for sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. The Report highlights that the early years of a child's life are crucial for cognitive, social, and emotional development, which in turn significantly influence their future productivity and earning potential. Furthermore, the update discusses the role of governments and private sectors in scaling up ECD initiatives.

This Report provides an update on the performance of the Pension Sector for FY 2023/24. According to the Report, Pension Sector assets grew by 18% from Ushs 21.41 trillion in FY 2022/23 to Ushs 25.4 trillion in 2023/24, accounting for 12% of GDP. Member contributions increased by 8% from Ushs 2.20 trillion in FY 2022/23 to Ushs 2.38 trillion in FY 2023/24. In addition, the number of members subscribing to at least one pension scheme increased by 7% from 3,142,311 members in FY 2022/23 to 3,367,545 in FY 2023/24 due to improved confidence in the Sector.

This Report provides a global update on malaria prevalence. According to the Report, global malaria cases increased by 5.6% from 249 million cases in 2022 to 263 million cases in 2023. The global number of lives lost to malaria marginally declined from 608,000 deaths in 2022 to 597,000 deaths in 2023. Approximately, 95% of the deaths occurred in the African Region, with the following countries accounting for the heaviest estimated burden of malaria cases: Nigeria (26%), Democratic Republic of Congo (13%), Uganda (5%), Ethiopia (4%) and Mozambique (4%).

This brief presents key findings from a novel social-ecological model (called Promoting, Organizing, Working, Engaging and Research out (P.O.W.E.R)) implemented in a randomized trial setting to test what works to increase the share of women in paid work and hence promote their economic empowerment. Findings reveal that a systematic and sequential implementation of individual/household plus community-level interventions can increase women’s participation in paid work activities by 35 minutes more than in the control group.

The State of Uganda Population Report 2022 underscores the importance of changing the population age structure to reduce the high child dependency burden. The Report indicates that the game changers for Demographic Transition are: Promoting family planning; Improving child survival; Keeping children, especially girls, in school to completion and strengthening organized urbanization.

For further reading, the captioned Report can be accessed via the link below: