Uganda: What is the Opportunity Cost of Hosting Chogm?

Earlier today, I read this article by Sam Akaki of The Monitor regarding Uganda and its hosting of Chogm (which stands for Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting). In short, Chogm is a biennial summit meeting of the heads of government from all Commonwealth nations hosted by a different member nation each meeting. The purpose and the theme of Chogm has been "Transforming Commonwealth societies to achieve political, economic and human rights" but the article expresses the irony that arises from the said goals and with Uganda being the host country this year.

The intention of the event itself is perfectly acceptable as it is a time to meet with the commonwealth nations to debate, negotiate and discuss issues that affect various member nations. While that may have been easier in practice in its earlier years, with the growing number of members (there are over 50 member nations in Chogm) and leniency/relaxation in its agendas, there have been questions raised about not only its relevance but also its ability to establish any sort of political consensus.

A fact that gets lost in the shuffle is that Uganda is the host country for the 2007 Chogm conference. With the budget for the conference rising above 1 trillion schillings for the nation of Uganda and asked in the parliament how much the UK government would provide of that total, the Foreign Office Minister Ian McCartney replied, "The government of Uganda will meet the full costs of hosting Chogm. The [British] government will [not] contribute [anything] to these costs". And in this is where the contradiction lies, the fact that a nation whose history has been plagued by economical, political and social problems that needs help more than anyone else has been asked to help in solely hosting its events and the financial costs that come with it. The article states my thoughts perfectly:

Given that Uganda is facing catastrophic social, economic and political crises including explosive population growth; rapid deforestation; falling food production; violent scramble for land; increasing unemployment among graduates; growing rural-urban migration; power shortages; crumbling health, education and road infrastructure; over one million citizens who have been living in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps for the last 20 years; louder and wider complaints about ethnic marginalisation; political opponents dying or disappearing in detention; non-existent prospect for peaceful change through free and fair elections; calls for secession in Buganda and the north - all making lethal cocktail that will sure tear Uganda apart; one would expect hosting Chogm at a cost of one trillion shillings to be the last thing in the minds of Ugandan rulers and its western backers.

The irony cuts deep in that while Uganda hosts Chogm, an event that promotes the well being of the commonwealth nations, the host country is receiving a lack of help in these times when they need assistance in all those said areas. Regarding the title of the article, the opportunity cost of an action is defined as "the monetary cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue another action; or the benefits you could have received by taking that alternative action". This refers to what could have been if the responsibilities and burdens placed on Uganda could have been lightened or redirected. The article, in fact, mentions several of areas of benefits that could be realized if an alternative action was taken.

Why didn't we spend that money to resettle over one million men, women and children who have spent 20 years in camps; or create decent jobs for tens of thousands of graduates and other professionals who are working as security guards, hotel waiters, petrol station attendants, international drug traffickers, mercenaries in Iraq, or walking the streets looking for employment?

Why not spend the money to renovate Mulago Referral Hospital, and provide equipment and staff for the badly needed specialist units for treatment of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, neurological disorders and burns?

How many more new doctors, nurses, primary and secondary school teachers would be trained with this amount of money? What if some of the money had been spent on increasing the salaries for doctors, nurses, teachers, policemen, civil servants and university lecturers?

Why not spend the money on building one first class primary school in every parish, fully staffed with properly trained and remunerated teachers, and build one first class secondary school in every county, well equipped with science laboratories and fully staffed with properly trained and remunerated teachers?

Why not spend the money on providing descent accommodation for our police officers who are sharing one room with married colleagues?

Why not properly maintain or purchase brand new military transport vehicles to avoid frequent needless deaths in freak accidents?

Why not spend the money to recruit and train more judges and other judiciary officials to deal with the huge backlog of cases in which thousands of Ugandans are on remanded for alleged defilement, murder and treason without trial for decades?

Why not use the money to build at least two water boreholes in every parish throughout the country; or renovate the Owen Falls Dam and accelerate the construction of two or more hydro power stations to arrest the terrible power shortage?

Why not use the money to organise an effective population control programme including reproductive health education, safe pregnancy termination clinics, cash rewards to families with fewer than three children and imposing taxation on those with more?

Why not use the money to implement the recommendations of the Commonwealth Observer report to ensure free and fair elections in 2011 and avert the prospect for violence?

For myself, this is an issue that is a personal burden for me, having gone to Uganda this summer as part of an short term summer mission with my campus Christian ministry, Korean-American Campus Mission (KCM). Personally seeing with my own eyes the poverty, the homeless and ill kids, the pain and just the lack of help and resources was a humbling experience. Realistically, change won't occur at a miraculous overnight pace, but things could be done better in helping this nation stand for itself. The one enduring and unfortunate fact that was evident in my month-long stay was the fact that there is a pervasive beggar culture. Just seeing so many beggars, homeless and people who would offer me their children for money made me realize that even if there is foreign aid, it's not enough to just donate, but to take initiative and help them to stand on their own. Unfortunately, as this article indicates, there has been more that's been hurting rather than helping the people of Uganda.