Despite several development projects rolled out by the government and donors in the past decade, a sizable number of households in eastern and northern Uganda continue to suffer chronic poverty, findings by the Uganda Bureau of Standards (Ubos) indicate.
According to the findings, contained in a report released last Thursday, the poverty indices for northern Uganda have worsened over the past 12 months, with 23.9 per cent of the households in the region being classified as chronically-poor.
“Majority of the chronically-poor are from households where the household heads have no education,” said Vincent Ssennono, a principal statistician at Ubos, who presented the findings of the report.
The report adds that 17 per cent of the people in the north moved out of poverty, 12.3 per cent slipped into poverty, while 46.5 – the lowest percentage – are classified as “never poor.”
Second to the north is eastern Uganda, where 15.5 per cent of the population is chronically-poor, 22.7 per cent moved out of poverty, 10.3 slipped into poverty and 51.4 per cent are never poor.
In western Uganda, only 3.7 per cent are chronically-poor, 7.9 per cent moved out of poverty, eight per cent slipped into poverty while 80.5 are never poor.
Central Uganda has the lowest percentage of chronically-poor people at 1.2 per cent, while 6.7 per cent moved out poverty, 2.5 per cent slipped into poverty and 89.5 per cent are never poor.
The Ubos report, titled the ‘Uganda National Panel Survey 2015/16,’ also reveals that despite interventions by the government to reduce poverty, those born into poverty were still unlikely to escape it.
Government is running a series of anti-poverty programmes in both the north and east, such as the World Bank-funded Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF), which is intended to provide effective income support to and build the resilience of poor and vulnerable households.
Other programmes include the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP), the Northern Uganda Agricultural Livelihood Recovery Programme (ALREP), and Karamoja Livelihood Programme (KALIP).
Despite the wide range of the projects, the report shows that poverty levels are, instead, going up. For instance, the report shows that about that 13.1 percent households had moved into poverty compared to 7.7 percent households that moved out of poverty between the 2013/14 and 2015/16 financial years.
“Nine per cent [of the] male-headed and 11 per cent of female-headed households remain chronically-poor. And we found out that the households headed by women are unlikely to get out of poverty,” Ssennono said.
According to the World Bank, chronic poverty is a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, education, information and health. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.
The study is part of Ubos’ long-term census plan covering a 10-year period, which is in turn part of the national development statistical development that provides a framework for statistical improvement across government ministries, departments and agencies.
Of the 17,495 individuals from a survey conducted in 2013/2014, a sample of 3,200 households was selected for the panel survey. At least 16,748 (96 per cent) were traced and interviewed while 747 (four per cent) had dropped out.
Ubos follows up the same households and the individuals for some years to understand the variation over the years in their livelihoods in terms of income and expenditure.
The findings indicate that the highest share of household expenditure was on food (46 per cent) followed by rent, fuel, energy at 20.2 per cent, and education at 12.9 per cent. Unlike the previous report the latest survey shows a decrease in the share of household expenditure on health from 4.4 per cent in 2013/14 to 3.3 per cent 2015/16.
OTHER FINDINGS
Nationally, the survey shows there was a 13 percent increase in drug stockouts of “tracer drugs” at health facilities during the survey period, with the current rates standing at 74 per cent compared to the 61 per cent stockout rate recorded in the 2013/14 survey period.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines tracer medicines as drugs that satisfy the health care needs of majority of the population. While hinting on the way forward, the director social survey at Ubos, James Muwonge, explained that the agricultural sector plays a critical role in poverty reduction, stating that it deserves a re-examination to focus on extension services, inputs availability and access to credit.
“The immediate way of entering the job market is through self-employment. People in agriculture are likely to remain in their jobs,” Muwonge said.
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