Running head: POVERTY PROFILE 1

Uganda Poverty Profile

Student’s Name

Institution Affiliation
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Cultural background of the people of Uganda

The Ugandan culture is very diverse and consisting of various ethnic group. The

country has about 40 distinct languages divided among the Nilotic and Bantu tribes

living in the country, however, the national language of the country are Swahili and

English (Hoekema, 2019). Notably, English is not often spoken among the illiterate and

poor people of Uganda. Swahili is the lingua franca of the east African region and a

major language for trade. Uganda made Swahili the official language in 2005.

Concerning religion, about 85% of the country’s population are Christians, Muslims

make up 12% of the country’s population the other percentage are represented by the

Sikh and Hindu religion (Hoekema, 2019).

Traditionally, the gomesi is a unique dress won by the women in Uganda during

events and ceremonies while the men wear kanzu. The attires represent formality and

decency as all the attires are long and cover up to the toes (Hoekema, 2019). Etiquette

forms part of the unique Ugandan custom, the practice of etiquette is mostly common

during meal times whereby the where everyone is required to sit on mats and after

washing their hands (Hoekema, 2019). The sitting position is also important because it

is disrespectful to sit while leaning, to sit while stretching the legs or to leave the dining

area before others have finished eating.

Historical and political context of the people of Uganda

In the historical and political context of the country Uganda underwent 4 major

events in the last century the part of the paper will discuss significant historical events.

The colonization of Uganda was the first major event .Uganda was a protectorate of the

British Empire in 1894, the governor who was a British appointee (Sejjaaka, 2004). The
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first coup d’état was the second major event in the country. Milton Obote under the

support of Iddi Amin would overthrow the government of King Mutesa and suspend the

constitution thus declared himself the self-executive president (Sejjaaka, 2004). Obote

used soldiers from his own ethnic background to solidify his stance on power. Iddi Amin

coup d’état and economic war A significant event in the political history of Uganda was

the Amin economic war.

Iddi Amin came to power in 1972 after he orchestrated a coup d’état against the

government of Milton obote. Consequently, Amin created the conditions for economic

decay for example he declared economic war against the imperialist and the large Asian

community in Uganda who held a lot of business (Sejjaaka, 2004). Lastly the economic

recovery under Yoweri Museveni was the last significant event. When the government

of Museveni came to power in 1986 the government rejected IMF programs and favored

revaluing the Ugandan shilling and distributing commodities equitably. The current

president Yoweri Museveni initiated a presidential republic in which the president is the

head of state and the head of government (Sejjaaka, 2004). Although there is a

multiparty system which is grounded on a democratic parliamentary system, the regime

in Uganda is considered a hybrid regime.

Resources and distribution of wealth in Uganda

Uganda has abundant natural resources such as copper, cobalt, limestone and

salt. Moreover the country has several deposits of lucrative minerals such as gold

nickel platinum and marble, however the resources remains untapped (Trading

Economics, 2018). In the last decade the mineral and metal sector was a large

contributor of the country’s economy. Recently the country has started prospecting in
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the oil and gas sector. Most of the countries are situated in the countries agricultural

sector, which is subsistence farming. Private corporations hold control over all of the

countries mineral wealth. Moreover, the country has underdeveloped, only 16 % of the

population has access to the internet which they access through the mobile phone

subscriptions.

Distribution of Labor force by occupation in percentage

 Agriculture: 71%

 Industry: 7%

 Services: 22%

Distribution of wealth in Uganda

With a GDP of about 29 billion dollars Uganda is one of the poorest countries in

the world. The majority of the Ugandan people are small scale farmers, farming on

small plots of land. However most of the land is owned by government officials. The

disparity in the ownership of land reflects on the inequality of wealth and distribution of

income (Trading Economics, 2018). The poorest 20 % of the population have a limited

control to 7 % of the country’s wealth while the richest 20 % have control over 46% of

the country’s wealth. The situation of income inequality is aggravated by the fact that

69% of the population live on less than a 1 dollar a day.

Economic and non-economic indicators of well-being in Uganda

In Uganda the economic indicators of wellbeing in the country can be measured

in 3 overreaching indicators that are income per capita, income poverty line and income

inequality (Sumner, 2006).

Income per capita

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Under the umbrella indicator of income per capita the measurement of economy

looks at the country’s GDP, real wages and unemployment rates (Sumner, 2006). In

2019 the GDP of Uganda was worth 28.50 billion dollars according to the official data

from the World Bank. The GDP of Uganda is a representation of 0.002 of the economy

of the world (World Bank, 2016). The GDP of Uganda is 30% larger than it was ten

years ago and the increase in the GDP is largely driven by the growth of the

manufacturing sector. The share of the manufacturing sector jumped from 8% to 16 %

of the GDP. While the services sector was affected and it share of the GDP reduced to

46% from 58% of the GDP and the agricultural sector rose by 2 percent to represent

24% of the GDP (World Bank, 2016). The GDP per capita which is the GDP divided by

midyear population of the country to give a measurement of the standard of living in the

country. The last recorded GDP per capita for Uganda was 709 us dollars which is

equivalent to 6% of the global average.

Unemployment rates

Another critical economic indicator measurement is the unemployment rate. In

Uganda the unemployment rate is measured by the percentage of population that is

actively looking for a job. Based on the definition the unemployment rate in Uganda

stands at 1.8% (World Bank, 2016). While the rates show low levels of unemployment

the key indices are those who are actively searching for form al employment as the

majority of the population are self-employed in small scale business or working in the

agricultural sector. About 70% of Ugandans are employed in the agricultural sector. The

living wage per family which is the cost of living for a standard food basket in Uganda

stands at 367 dollars (World Bank, 2016).

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Income poverty lines

Within the income poverty lines the focus is on the percentage of people living in

less than dollar, the percentage of people living under the national poverty lines and the

percentage of population vulnerable to poverty (Sumner, 2006). The population of

people living on less than a dollar a day significantly reduced from 53.2% of the

population in 2006 to 34% of the population in 2014 and the number is expected to

reduce. According to the latest data on the country’s poverty assessment the

percentage of Ugandan population living below the national poverty line is 19.6% in

2014. This is improvement form the 31% of the population who lived below the national

poverty lines in 2006 (World Bank, 2016). However, the vulnerability to poverty

remains high with statistics stating that for every five people who are lifted from poverty

2 people enter back into poverty.

Income inequality

Concerning income inequality the focus is on the poverty gap, expenditure of the

bottom quintile and the Gini coefficient. The gini index measures the level at which the

distribution of income among individuals or household in the economy changes from the

perfect equal distribution. It is a strong measurement of income inequality. According to

the poverty status report in 2015 the country registered a decline in overall inequality

which stood at 0.395 in 2014 as opposed to 0.426 in 2009. The registered changes in

inequality might have been driven by changes in the consumption pattern within the

household. However, inequality in Uganda remains substantial in urban than rural

areas. Also grounded by the relative mean measure of inequality the, the welfare of the

average rural family has not changed.

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Non-economic measures of poverty in Uganda

According to Sumner the non-economic measures’ of well-being have dominated

discourse on the definition of wellbeing (Sumner, 2006). 4 common indicators have

been globally applied to measure well-being from a non-economic perspective. The

indicators include education, health and nutrition, environment and empowerment and

participation.

Education

Under education as a measurement of wellbeing the focus is on the education

enrolment rates, the literacy rates and survival to the final grade completion stage in

school (Sumner, 2006). According to the World Bank data on the Uganda the countries

enrolment rate have increased substantially and currently stands above 85%. This is a

positive change from the 67% in 1995. However the enrollment rates for children

especially girls is susceptible to external shocks that have negative impact on schooling.

For example a decrease in rainfall is associated with the reduction of enrolment among

girls in grade 7 (World Bank, 2016). Moreover, the countries adult literacy rates are high

compared to countries with similar GNI level. The literacy rates among adults in the

country stands at 68%, however the adult literacy rates are higher among male than

female (World Bank, 2016). The government of Uganda has achieved much success in

enrolling children in schools but the completion rates are lower, a trend showing the

deteriorating level of education. Uganda’s gross primary completion rate was 54% in

2012 and this can be factored to the high primary school dropout rates which stand at

75% (World Bank, 2016).

Health
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A significant way to measure the well-being of a country is through observing the

countries health apparatus especially infant and maternal mortality. Infant mortality rates

are the measure of probability of infants dying before their first birthday per 1000 live

births. The infant mortality rates stands at 54 per 1000 births an improvement form 76

per 1000 births (World Bank, 2016). In Uganda the under-five infant mortality rates was

90. It can be objectively stated that the infant mortality rates in Uganda have

significantly reduced from ten years ago due to improvement in the neonatal and

postnatal services. The chance of being underweight in Uganda is significantly lower

compared to other low income countries. Poverty and malnutrition in Uganda has

declined in the recent decades with the current number of 19.5% which is an

improvement for a country with such income per capita (World Bank, 2016). The level of

percentage of children who are underweight in Uganda stands at 14%, the country’s

progress in addressing nutrition can be due to the action plan the country adopted in

2011.

Environment

The aspect of the environment will focus on the housing condition as an indicator

of wellbeing. For example the share of household in Uganda using improved roofing

systems have gradually improved within the last decade. The share has gone up by 7 %

currently at about 69% of the population (World Bank, 2016). Moreover, the access to

clean and healthy water has improved in the last ten years. In the capital city Kampala

about 85% of the residents have access to improved water sources. The access to

water in urban areas greatly contrast the access to water in the rural areas which stands
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at about 64% of the population able to access water in the rural areas(World Bank,

2016). The inequality highlights the structural poverty in the urban rural divide.

Analysis of data

The statistics from the economic indices show that within the last decade Uganda

has witnessed unprecedented economic growth with a focus on the manufacturing

sector which as key area of industrial growth. Moreover poor households were able to

have above average consumption of growth and the poverty reduction efforts did not

reduce (USAID, 2016). A key factor for the economic growth is the rise in agricultural

income governed by improved regional markets for Ugandan agricultural products. The

gains the country has had in education has also contributed to the economic growth as

the literacy levels rise meaning that the growing manufacturing sector will in future have

a labor force (USAID, 2016). Consequently, the average Ugandan urban household has

performed much better than the average Ugandan household by 1.9 times in 2014. The

narrowing inequality in Uganda suggest that the observable income growth in Uganda

was pro poor with individuals from the bottom of the income distribution registering a

decrease in poverty compared to higher income people.

The differences in poverty by gender and geographic location in Uganda

About 80% of the population and 90% of the population live in rural areas; one in

four people in the rural areas in Uganda are more likely to live in poverty compared to 1

in ten people living in urban areas. Moreover there is a regional aspect to poverty in

Uganda, the most poor people in Uganda live in northern and eastern Uganda which

represent about 68% of the poor (World Bank, 2016). The poverty in the regions

represents the social and political instability rife in the northern and eastern Uganda.
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Additionally, concerning gender, the households in Uganda which lie in the bottom 405

are more likely to be headed by women. While female headed households are no less

likely to be poor the households headed by female widowers 18 % more likely to be

poor compared to household with male widowers who are 11% more likely to be poor.

Poverty relief efforts in Uganda

Innovation for poverty action is a multinational NGO that is focused on alleviating

world poverty through conducting randomized controlled trial research. The organization

aims to establish local body of evidence on poverty reduction mechanism through cash

transfer programs (Dietrich et al., 2019). Moreover in 2011 the government of Uganda

launched the cash transfer program named the social assistance grants for

empowerment which had two components that is a social pension program for Ugandan

citizen above the age of 65 and a poverty targeted transfer. Lastly, the organization

Give directly is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in Uganda that that works on

the philosophy of donors sending money directly to the poor.

Consequently, the organizations and governed programs discussed above focus

their effort on cash transfer programs. The aid programs founded on unconditional cash

transfer focuses on creating resilience by giving the individual power to asses and

address their own poverty (Dietrich et al., 2019). However, there has been research that

the cash transfer programs have been ineffective on the young male population.

Therefore, most of the cash transfer programs in Uganda target individual’s especially

female house hold heads that are believed to be more focused on alleviating poverty

within the family (Dietrich et al., 2019. The cash transfer programs are a top down

approach, given that the money comes directly from the government and donors.
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However the solution to poverty is more individualized some of the organizations only

train recipient of the money on basic business skills otherwise the power of how to use

the money is left on the individual.

Comparison to poverty reduction efforts in the U.S

Temporary assistance for needy families is a federally financed program run by

states within the U.S. The program provides assistance to families with children when

other members of the family are unable to meet the family’s basic needs (U.S

Department of health and Human services, 2018). The goal of the program is to

provide assistance to families in need so that the children may receive care in their own

homes and not in welfare homes The second program that the U.S government applies

to fight poverty is the unemployment insurance which is a type of insurance provided by

the state that pays individuals who meet the set criteria’s money when they lose their

jobs (Kagan, 2010).

The Uganda cash transfer programs and the programs discussed in the USA

have some similarities given that they are both cash based. And the focus is on the

individual who receives the money with the hope that the money will significantly

contribute to poverty alleviation (Dietrich et al., 2019). However, the difference of the

cash transfer programs is that in the U.S the programs are temporary based and not

long term. Moreover, the programs in the U.s are more conditional such as the

unemployment benefits which ensure that as the individual is receiving support he or

she is actively seeking for work.

The US government can learn something from the poverty reduction

efforts in Uganda. Although the amount of money given to the beneficiaries is

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comparably low the impact of the direct cash transfer is more impactful in Uganda with

individuals using the money to set up small scale business and step out of the poverty.

While the poverty reduction efforts in the US seem to reduce the individual to a constant

state of dependence on federal funds. The U.S can provide unconditional loans and

business lessons to marginalized communities to enable them escape the poverty trap.

References

Dietrich, S., Malerba, D., Barrientos, A., Gassmann, F., Mohnen, P., & Tirivayi, N.

(2019). Human capital returns to cash transfers in Uganda: Does it matter in the

long run? Journal of Development Effectiveness, 12(1), 54-

73. https://doi.org/10.1080/19439342.2019.1691626

Hoekema, D. A. (2019). Religion and culture in Uganda. We Are The Voice of the

Grass, 99-118. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190923150.003.0004

Kagan, J. (2010, May 24). Unemployment insurance.

Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unemployment-

insurance.asp
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Sejjaaka, S. (2004). A political and economic history of Uganda. International

Businesses and the Challenges of Poverty in the Developing World, 98-

110. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522503_6

Sumner, A. (2006). Economic well-being and non-economic well-being. Inequality,

Poverty and Well-being, 54-73. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230625594_11

Trading Economics. (2018). Uganda GDP per capita | 1982-2018 data | 2019-2020

forecast | Historical | Chart. TRADING ECONOMICS | 20 million INDICATORS

FROM 196 COUNTRIES. https://tradingeconomics.com/uganda/gdp-per-capita

U.S Department of health and Human services. (2018). Temporary assistance for

needy families (TANF). Office of Family Assistance |

ACF. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/tanf

USAID. (2016). ENSURING ESCAPES FROM POVERTY ARE SUSTAINED IN

UGANDA (27).

World Bank. (2016). The Uganda Poverty Assessment Report 2016. world Bank.
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