Publication: Uganda Poverty Assessment Overview: Strengthening Resilience to Accelerate Poverty Reduction in Uganda
Date
2023-06-01
ISSN
Published
2023-06-01
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
The share of Uganda’s population that
lives below the poverty line has fluctuated over the last
seven years, greatly influenced by shocks that have tested
the resilience of the people. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed
both urban and rural residents into poverty. Inequality,
which reflects the extent to which different population
groups benefit from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, and
affects the transmission of growth into poverty reduction,
remained largely unchanged over this period and may even
have worsened in urban areas. The findings of this report
show that previously identified patterns and drivers of
Uganda’s poverty changes persisted well into 2020 – shaped
by low productivity and high vulnerability. Identified
inequality of economic opportunities and unequal
accumulation of the human capital could hold back structural
change in employment. Accelerating poverty reduction in such
a setting requires a two-pronged strategy. While at the
macroeconomic level, policies addressing growth fundamentals
are important for reducing poverty, from a microeconomic
perspective, the report’s analysis shows that two strategies
will be crucial. The first strategy is to lift the
productivity and incomes of poor households in both rural
and urban areas. While tackling agricultural productivity
and job creation are at the top of the agenda here, making
mobile phone services more widely accessible and affordable
is a potential opportunity. The second strategy is to
strengthen people’s resilience to shocks, particularly in
rural areas. To have an impact, policies in both these areas
will have to address the inequality in opportunities
analyzed in the report. This document provides an overview
of key report findings and identifies priority actions.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2023. Uganda Poverty Assessment Overview: Strengthening Resilience to Accelerate Poverty Reduction in Uganda. © Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39855 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”