Today, President Clinton spends the day in Uganda. During the day, President Clinton announces a series of initiatives designed to underscore the new US-African partnerships, particularly the desire of African nations to invest in a better and healthier future for its children. Included in today’s announcement are three new initiatives intended to improve educational standards and access to technology, ensure adequate food and agricultural production fight deadly infectious diseases that claim the lives of too many African children. Major events of the President’s day include:

Bilateral Meeting with President Museveni
Remarks to the People of Uganda on Investing in the Future
Visit to the FINCA Women’s Project

Bilateral Meeting with President Museveni

President Clinton’s bilateral meeting with President Museveni takes place in the Nile Hotel and Conference Center complex. Center’s 1700-seat main hall is the largest covered meeting place in Uganda.

Remarks to the People of Uganda on Investing in the Future

President Clinton visits the Kisowera Primary School, located in the village of Mukono about 25 minutes outside of Kampala, to speak about the importance of investing in a better, healthier future for children.

The government of Uganda has made expansion of primary education one of its highest national priorities. It recently established Universal Primary Education (UPE), guaranteeing free primary education for up to four children per family. The result in 1997 was a doubling of the school population to 5.3 million students, most in first and second grade.

Located on a rise of land in a rural area, the Kisowera Primary School provides an example of Uganda’s currently crowded primary education facilities, with over 100 students in some classes. The school has 760 students and 17 teachers. While national school completion rates for girls are less than half those for boys, Kisowera graduates as many girls as boys.

The U.S. government provides approximately $10 million per year to support the government of Uganda in its efforts to improve literacy as well as the quality of primary education. The success of USAID-led reforms in basic education has drawn additional support from international donors.

In his speech at the school, President Clinton announces a series of initiatives designed to underscore the new US-African partnerships, particularly the desire of African nations to invest in a better and healthier future for its children. These include:

The Education for Development and Democracy Initiative seeks to boost African integration into the global community by improving the quality of, and technology for, education in Africa. The President’s announcement calls for approximately $120 million in FY’98 and ‘99 funding and is centered around three principal strategies: community resource centers, public-private partnerships, and educating and empowering girls. Key components include:

Primary and Secondary Education

• Pilot schools will be selected as community resource centers to provide educational materials and serve as bases to improve local teachers preparation and training for out-of-school youth. Centers will provide computers with access to the Internet, CD-ROM resources, better educational material, in-teacher training and desktop publishing capability. Peace Corps volunteers will provide staffing and continuity at the centers.
• School-to-school partnerships between the United States and Africa and among African schools will be promoted through access to computer technology and from exchanges. Education Initiative efforts will be coordinated and integrated with Leland and GLOBE and other efforts in this area.
• Improving girl’s education through leadership identification and scholarships, raising community awareness and support for educating girls, strengthening school nutrition and lunch programs and mentoring by older girls and women.

Higher Education

• U.S.-African linkages at the university-to-university level will be built through assistance with curriculum development aimed at training in labor-market relations, business, health, science, math, technology and engineering studies. In addition, there will be a strong focus on improving teacher training, linking universities and their local communities, appropriate skills training, and encouraging stronger community college resources.

Professional Training and Civil Education

• The education initiative will fund partnerships between U.S. and African government institutions and civil society organizations. The exchanges are designed to better promote understanding, cooperation and integration of public-private efforts through NGOs, independent media, rule of law programs, and health and science organizations. Exchanges will be supplemented by in-country training projects to enhance policy and operational skills and promote networking across the political and civil society spectrum.

A key part of the President’s announcement today is ensuring that while we improve the educational standards of Africa’s children we also ensure adequate and proper nourishment and provide assistance to enhance agricultural production.

Current food security trends project that by the year 2020, 25 percent of Africa’s children will suffer from malnutrition, already the cause of over a third of deaths of children under the age of five in Africa.

The Africa Food Security Initiative (AFSI) is designed to assist African nations to strengthen and protect agriculture and food security in a number of key areas, including:

• ensuring healthy and alternative crop production;
• better market efficiency and distribution of existing crops;
• increased trade and investment in agricultural industries;
• attacking crop diseases;
• and increasing access to modern agricultural technology systems to assist with increased crop production and distribution.

The pilot budget for the first two years of the initiative will be $61 million, which compliments USAID’s current investments in these efforts. Funds will be channeled to the appropriate government and private sector organizations.

Promoting Stronger Health Care

The third element of the President’s program of investing in the future of Africa’s children is combating the infectious diseases that claim so many young lives.

To help combat malaria, which accounts for 1.5 - 2.5 million deaths per year, the President announces an additional $1 million grant to the National Institutes of Health in order to provide further assistance to the Multilateral Initiative on malaria (MIM). The grant will focus on continuing educational seminars and will support the Regional Malaria Lab in Mali to reinforce its position as a regional center of excellence in Africa. This effort will complement an ongoing FY’98 $16 million Infectious Disease Initiative for Africa that focuses on surveillance, response, prevention, and building local resistance capacity for infectious diseases throughout the continent.

Visit to the FINCA Women’s Project

President Clinton visits the FINCA Women’s project in the village of Wanyange, near Jinja. The project reflects the efforts of the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA), which over the last four years has established 340 village banks in Uganda through a $1.7 million USAID grant.

Ugandan women have traditionally borne the major share of the nation’s burden -- quite literally on their heads and backs. New programs, such as the FINCA Women’s Project, seek to make women’s work less burdensome and more rewarding.

Near the dirt square in the village’s market area, four businesses operated by women are located in brick or mud-wattle structures. The businesses, including a bakery, tailor shop, small store, and rabbit-production scheme, received loans averaging $120 as part of a microcredit program that boasts a 97% repayment rate. The incomes made possible through these loans have allowed the owners to move their businesses from structures with walls of woven mats or mud to more permanent buildings.

Through their newly strengthened economic position, the market women of Wanyange are gaining self-respect and confidence, improved status, and the ability to pay education and health costs for their families. They express their appreciation of these opportunities in traditional dances.