APRM COUNTRY REVIEW REPORT expeditiously, will sooner or later turn into a source of conflict and pose challenges to the country's democratic policies. li. Gender, as noted earlier, is a major issue that cuts across all thematic areas and brings entrenched cultural prejudices and damaging stereotypes face to face with progressive gender equality policies and laws. In Uganda, discriminatory socio-cultural practices are such that they at times seem to override the clear statement of the law of the land, causing damage to the agenda of protection and promotion of women's rights. In many cases, these cultural prejudices ensure no progressive laws are enacted in the first place, an extraordinary example being the Marriage and Divorce Bill that has been pending before Parliament for many years. Resolution of the stalemate requires consensus building among stakeholders on the need to ensure that the dignity and property rights of women are respected and protected. lii. The State of the Public Sector remains a challenge in Uganda, as was highlighted in the 2008 review report. While the challenge applies to public services generally, its impact is particularly severe at local government level. Local government lacks legal power to raise its own revenues, making it dependent on the centre for all its resources. To a significant degree, therefore, the poor state of the public service at all levels appears to be directly related to the amount of resources available to the sector. Indeed, this centralisation of power to raise and allocate resources is undermining Uganda's laudable policy of decentralised public service delivery. liii. Land is a critical and emotional subject in Uganda, central to its socio-economic development. Getting land policy right is an important factor in Uganda's efforts to address poverty and inequality, attract investment, tackle unemployment and enforce managed and sustainable urbanization. Land currently accounts for a substantial proportion of all conflicts and court cases in Uganda. By addressing the land issue well, Uganda will be able to advance peace and social stability. liv. Youth unemployment is a critical challenge facing Uganda. With most graduates not finding jobs in their fields of training and the official youth unemployment rate standing at 83%, it is imperative that Government and society at large devise a means of addressing this daunting challenge. To a certain extent, the unemployment is exacerbated by a mismatch between skills acquired at institutions of higher and further education, on the one hand, and skills in demand by the job market, on the other. For this, education reform to ensure education institutions respond to the demand on the market may be an area of immediate intervention. Skills development for youth and employment creation is at the core of the programme to transform Uganda from a poor agrarian economy to a modern, prosperous and skilled society under Uganda Vision 2040. This is not an issue that Government alone can resolve; the involvement of the private sector and civil society organisations is just as important. But, ultimately, this alone is unlikely to solve the problem and Uganda might need to consider more radical steps. lv. Finally, in conducting this review and preparing this report, the Panel has paid special attention to the paper on the “bottlenecks facing Africa” presented by H.E. President Yoweri Museveni to two meetings of the APR Forum held in Johannesburg in June 2015 and in Nairobi in August 2016. Most of these bottlenecks are of a cross-cutting nature and have been discussed in this report as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Ideological disorientation, discussed under “Management of Diversity” in Chapters 2, 5 and 6; Interference with the private sector, discussed under “the state of the public service: business environment” in Chapter 4; Under-developed infrastructure, discussed under “Infrastructure” in Chapter 5; Weak states, especially weak institutions such as the Army, Police, etc, discussed under “The state of the public service” in Chapter 2; Fragmented markets, market access and expansion, discussed under the same sub-heading in Chapter 3 and on “the state of the public service: business environment” in Chapter 4; Lack of industrialisation and low value addition, discussed with reference to industrial policy under “Fragmented Markets, Market Access and Expansion” in Chapter 3; The Under-development of Human Resources, discussed with reference to education for employment under “Youth Unemployment” in Chapter 4; The Under-development of Agriculture, discussed with reference to value addition and export PAGE diversification under “Fragmented Markets, Market Access and Expansion” in Chapter 3; 10 The Under-development of the services sector, discussed with reference to value addition and 13