UNICEF, UBOS launch first child survey to uncover hidden struggles
A new agreement between UBOS and UNICEF promises to shine a light on the lives of millions of children who have long gone uncounted in national data.
The signing took only minutes, but the promise it carried stretched far beyond the walls of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics conference room on December 1, 2025. As the ink dried on the Memorandum of Understanding between UBOS and UNICEF, the murmurs in the room faded into something quieter: the realization that, for the first time, Uganda was preparing to count every child’s story, not as a statistic, but as a life that matters.
UNICEF Country Representative in Uganda, Dr Robin Nandy, sat beside Dr Chris Mukiza, the Executive Director of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, as the two prepared to sign the document. The Memorandum of Understanding marked Uganda’s first child-focused Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, a technical name for what is, at its core, a profoundly human undertaking.
This survey, Dr Nandy explained, is meant to “collect statistically sound and comparable data on children and women,” information that will shape policy, guide programmes, and help the country track its progress toward key development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals.
The signing took only six minutes. But the moment marked something far larger: the start of a national effort to understand, with rare precision, how children and women across the country are living, growing, and struggling.
For years, Uganda has relied on Uganda Demographic and Health Surveys (UDHS), which are focused on the population health and living conditions and not designed to tell the story of its youngest citizens. On Monday, December 1, 2025, one document promised to change that.
‘This is more than the formalization of an agreement,’ Dr Robin Nandy said moments after signing the Memorandum of Understanding with Dr Chris Mukiza, the Executive Director of UBOS. ‘It is a powerful testament to our shared vision for evidence-based decision-making, accountability, and meaningful progress for every child in Uganda.’
A survey built around people, not numbers
The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, developed by UNICEF in the 1990s and used in more than one hundred and twenty countries, is one of the most trusted tools for understanding children’s lives. It gathers detailed information on health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation, protection, disability, and household conditions.
Uganda has run other surveys, including the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey, but never a full MICS. For Dr Nandy, the gap is not technical. It is human.
‘Let us remember that behind each statistic is a human story,’ he said. ‘A child who deserves to grow up healthy and educated, a mother seeking safe water and nutrition for her family, a community aspiring for a brighter future.’
MICS is designed to capture those stories with care. Not as averages, but as lived realities, household by household.
Why Uganda needs this data now
Uganda’s population has passed forty-five million. Nearly half are below the age of eighteen. The country is young, fast-growing, and increasingly unequal. In some districts, children thrive; in others, schools are crumbling, malnutrition remains stubborn, and clean water is still a distant promise.
National averages hide this unevenness. In some communities, climate shocks have wiped out harvests. In others, children walk long distances for water, or mothers struggle to afford basic meals. Stunting rates remain high in certain areas, and school dropout rates vary widely.
‘Data that speaks,’ as Dr Mukiza calls it, is the only way to understand what children are facing, and why some are falling behind.
‘This survey will have all elements required in the Uganda Demographic Household Survey,’ he said. ‘You will have a very strong UDHS within the MICS. The MoU we have signed with UNICEF will address several technical and financial issues we have been having.’
The survey will cost more than US$2 million or UShs 7 billion. ‘We shall account for every coin, and the survey will be very credible.’
Mapping the invisible
Many parts of Uganda remain unseen in planning documents: the crowded slums of Kampala, small villages beyond the main roads, refugee settlements, and families living through quiet, persistent poverty.
MICS is built to reach them.
Enumerators will knock on doors, sit with families, and ask questions that capture the details hidden behind official statistics. They will record conditions room by room, child by child—not estimates, but experiences.
The survey is timed to help Uganda prepare for the next decade. The country is still reckoning with the effects of COVID-19, facing rising living costs, and planning future investments in health, education, and social protection. Evidence is no longer optional. It is essential.
‘The insights gained will help us understand today’s challenges, measure the impact of our initiatives, and shape the future direction of policies,’ Dr Nandy said.
A partnership built on shared responsibility
At the centre of the ceremony was a belief shared by both institutions: that a country cannot protect its children if it cannot see them clearly.
‘I wish to recognize the leadership and dedication of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics,’ Dr Nandy said. ‘Our goal is unwavering: to ensure every child is counted, and no one is left behind.’
For UBOS, the survey is an opportunity to strengthen national planning and ensure that decisions reflect people’s lives, not assumptions. For UNICEF, it is part of its long-standing work to support governments to use evidence to improve the lives of children.
“Because UNICEF’s main calling is the welfare of children,” Dr Mukiza said. “We find that child poverty persists in Uganda and needs to be tackled. But tackling poverty, we need facts and figures, where are these children, who are they, the conditions they live in, and what could be causing their predicaments.’
Beyond the conference room
The signing ceremony ended with applause. Yet the real work, the work that will shape this survey, will unfold far from the tables and microphones.
It will take shape in places like Bwaise, a densely populated city slum, where parents balance daily pressures with quiet hopes for their children. It will take shape in villages where the nearest health centre is hours away. It will take shape in households that have never been counted before.
MICS 2026/27 will not solve every challenge facing Uganda’s children. But it will do something the country has struggled to do for years: build a clear, honest picture of childhood in Uganda.
