- A report by the Ministry of Finance and the Uganda National Household Survey has shown that Ugandans are at risk, of regressing to poverty.
- These vulnerable Ugandans are the transient poor, who are just barely above the poverty line.
- This vulnerability increased in the two years of Covid-19 between 2019 and 2020 when the percentage of impoverished Ugandans rose from 18.7% to 21.91%.
Despite a decline in poverty over the seven years leading up to 2020, most Ugandans still face the risk of slipping back into poverty, according to research by the Ministry of Finance and the Uganda National Household Survey.
Based on the report, a significant portion of the poor has remained chronically poor, which sought to examine Uganda’s structural transformation. Meanwhile, continue to move above and below the poverty line, depending on circumstances, despite many households moving out of poverty across all four regions of Uganda, western, northern, eastern, and central.
The report reads in part, “Therefore, most Ugandans are vulnerable to falling back into poverty.” The paper indicated that the vulnerability was particularly evident in the two years of Covid-19 between 2019 and 2020 when the percentage of impoverished Ugandans rose from 18.7% to 21.91%.
The research designates 16.99 million Ugandans as insecure non-poor, which refers to households above but near the poverty line, are sensitive to shocks, and can relapse into poverty, while 8.13 million are classified as poor in the country.
According to a report released last week, the plight of the middle-class citizens in Uganda, differs slightly from the plight of the poor, in the sense that the number of middle-class citizens in Uganda trended in the right direction, while the number of the poor trended in the wrong direction.
According to the research on Uganada’s middle class, the rise represents a “good trend compatible with Uganda Vision 2040,” with the number of middle-class Ugandans rising from 14.12 million during the period ended 2017 to 15.64 million in 2022.
The study on Uganda’s poor, released a week ago but first unveiled on February 8, also says that while the percentage of poverty had climbed between 2012 and 2017, it has subsequently decreased to 18.7% by 2019.
“Had it not been because of Covid-19, poverty would likely have fallen below 20.3 percent. This is because, before Covid-19 lockdowns, poverty had fallen to 18.7 percent, but then increased to 21.91 percent during the lockdowns,” the report reads in part.
The research examines the government’s intention to shift household livelihoods from low to high-productivity occupations and industries, while simultaneously reducing vulnerabilities to poverty. The survey also revealed a change in poverty dynamics, pinpointing northern Uganda as its epicenter.
Source: CHINEDU OKAFOR