Uganda’s anti-poverty drive has ‘failed’

from the Nation

By JULIUS BARIGABA
Special Correspondent

Uganda may boast a number of government and donor funded programmes to fight poverty but they are deficient, inadequate and do not reach the most needy of the poor, a new study reveals.

The study, titled Social protection in Uganda: A call for action by private firm Development Research and Training, focuses on the Programme for Modernisation of Agriculture, National Agricultural Advisory Services and the Poverty Eradication Action Plan.

Areas affected include water and sanitation, infrastructure, universal primary and secondary education as well as primary healthcare.

The study says about 26 per cent of Uganda’s 30 million population is “chronically poor.” It adds that the government has failed to include 7.5 million poor people in its budget.

In this group are found the elderly and orphans, who do not benefit from government’s anti-poverty programmes.

The research firm wants the government to take radical action or risk failing to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

The gaps, for instance, in the case of Universal Primary Education are disturbing. While the 2007/08 budget allocated Ush417.7 billion ($238 million) to finance UPE, a big chunk of this — Ush342.5 billion ($195 million) — is spent on salaries, leaving a slim balance of Ush75.2 billion ($42.9 million) to implement the rest.

But the government is silent on the plight of more than 1.3 million children who are still excluded from UPE because of failing to meet the additional non-tuition costs and requirements namely uniforms, educational materials and examination fees. Even for Uganda, that has done very well on the MDG of universal primary education, high dropout rates, could this extension, combined with dent the country’s rating by 2015.

Last year, the government announced a social protection scheme that would ease pressure on poor families. The UK’s Department for International Development committed $8.9 million for the design and implementation of a pilot scheme, in which the bottom layer of the poor would be given monthly stipends of $10 per household in cash transfers. The scheme, covering 9,000 households in six districts, was slated to start this year.

“The matter is still with the Cabinet. I can’t say when it will start,” said Stephen Kasaija, assistant commissioner in the Gender Ministry.

Development Research executive director Charles Lwanga-Ntale told The EastAfrican that many children of school-going age cannot make it to school as they face hunger, lack of clothing and simple school items.

The report is also sceptical of “Prosperity for All,” the 2006 slogan on which President Yoweri Museveni’s re-election campaign was built and on the basis of which the government has allocated $42 million to bring Ugandans out of poverty. More than two years since he was re-elected, Museveni’s plan is yet to bear fruit.

According to the report, “Prosperity for All,” unlike cash transfers, targets people who already have assets, but only need to further stimulate their investments, following the format of microfinance — to lend to those who are expected to repay their loans after making a profit with the borrowed cash.

Cash transfers, on the other hand, target the type who are unable and do not even have physical assets to enable them to benefit from mainstream development interventions.

The same inadequacy applies to Programme for Modernisation of Agriculture and National Agricultural Advisory Services. Covering just 29 districts, these programmes are owned by communities, but the downside is that they target the economically active, are demand-driven and market-oriented.

The study also points out that at the moment there is no intervention plan on the table despite the government being aware that the north and northeastern regions, which were hit by floods in September last year, face a harrowing period of hunger.