The Lango sub-region is currently divided into 9 districts of Alerting, Amolatar, Apac, Dokolo,Kole, Lira, Oyam, Otuke and Kwania. It’s a relatively urbanized region with one city in Lira and one municipality in Apac. The region is situated within the annual cropping and cattle-farming systems that are primarily found in Northern Uganda. The region is dry compared to the rest of the country and experiences one long rainy season also called the unimodal type of rainfall, yet farmers can still grow crops twice in a year. Lango is the country’s grain basket and in fact contributing significantly to the GDP.
The Lango sub region land area is approximately 12,800Km2. Youth in the age bracket of 15-30 years predominate. Based on the 2014 Population and Housing Census, Lango population at a time was 2 million people and growing at a rate of 3.5% per annum, other things equal, the current population estimate should be 2.43 million people. Adding the number of Lango living in other regions estimated at 0.3million, the total current population estimate of Lango is2.8 million people making 5.8% of Uganda’s population of 48.5 million people. Lango population is growing above the national average population growth of 3.2%. On a negative note,
Unemployment is high amongst young people; poverty rate is high at over 60% compared toa national average of only 34 percent. Under 5-year child mortality rate is 177 against 134 nationally. Similarly, primary school enrolment is low with high school dropout rates. There are many reasons for this poor state of the region; some of it centered around war in the past. The key thing to note is that Lango has a strong growing population base with a lifestyle that is potentially linked to economic activities.
The Lango Cultural Foundation in bid to contribute to development through its 2021-2025 strategic plan identifies the Key areas for social transformation that include
- Mobilize the Langi in diaspora to invest domestically especially in Lango sub region
- Enter into partnerships with National and international social Economic actors to address short term and long-term development needs of Lango
- Mobilize all the clans in Lango to effectively engage in agricultural production,agro-tourism, agroforestry and agro-industrialization
- Promote the Lango Cultural Enterprises
- Promote holistic social sector development
- Map and profile potential investment drivers for Lango
- Mobilize Langi communities for acceptance of cross cutting issues/themes like Digitalisation, Financial literacy, Gender and Health
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