Uganda and Tanzania: Which Country has a Better Economic Future?

Uganda v/s Tanzania: Which Country has a Better Economic Future?
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Uganda v/s Tanzania: Which Country has a Better Economic Future?
Introduction
The two countries of Uganda and Tanzania form part of East Africa. Unfortunately, this is also the part where economic development has been slow, and the rewards of globalization can hardly be felt. One can get many ideas about the situational development within this region, and the possible limiting factors, by comparing the two countries of Uganda and Tanzania. The reason is that they both gained independence in essentially the exact times, the former in 1962 while the latter became the United Republic by the year 1964. The essay exposes the economic and development indicators for the two countries and mentions globalization and cross-country migration in developing such nations as Uganda and Tanzania.
Malthusian Trap and its Role
It is a theory that points to a dilemma in the demography of any region. It suggests that as countries begin to improve their production processes (agriculture and industries) and their living standards, their population increases simultaneously. With the increase in population, the resources ultimately become fewer for compensating the new population members. These resources include food, cultivatable land, skilled and educated labor, and capital. When these resources become scarce and the adaptive mechanisms, including outpacing the population growth and regulating population growth, are not in place, countries like Uganda and Tanzania are left behind in the global race for development and prosperity. Malthusian theory underpins the development, or lack thereof, in the two countries. The economic indicators which can assist in the judgment of whether the two countries have escaped the trap successfully or not are given below:
Population Growth Rate
The population growth rate is an essential factor in assessing or predicting demographic transition. In Uganda, most of the population lives in rural areas and grows crops. The number of these people has been increasing on the back of declining quality standards of life or life expectations. The result of which is that they lack the education or do not have access to birth control in their region (Dent, 2007). The same goes for Tanzania as well (Fayos-Solà et al., 2014). This shows that both countries have never fully satisfied their people's needs since the degradation of natural resources and the continuous wipe-out of the agricultural land due to settlements have meant less food production. While the population growth rate is declining in both countries, the population growth is an alarming situation, as discussed earlier, because of the declining food production due to the overall decline in cultivatable land (Wanyama et al., 2013).
Uganda population growth rate: Data Source: (Macrotrends, 2020a)
Tanzania population growth rate: Data Source: (Macrotrends, 2020b)
Fertility Rate
It is the number of births per woman of reproductive age.
Uganda fertility rate: Data Source: (Macrotrends, 2020a)
Tanzania fertility rate: Data Source: (Macrotrends, 2020b)
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