The State Minister for Finance Planning and Economic Development, Henry Musasizi launched the 2021 Poverty Status Report (PSR) indicating a decrease in Poverty in Uganda.
The launch was at imperial Royale Hotel on Thursday, 9th February under the theme “Jobs, informality and Poverty in Uganda: Insights on performance before and during Covid-19.”
In his speech, Musasizi called upon Government Departments, Development Partners and Private Sector to take keen interest in this report to address causes of poverty.
He said Government of Uganda in FY 2021/22 consolidated it’s strong poverty reduction record (championed since 1990’s) by embarking on implementation of the Parish Development Model(PDM).
“Targeting agriculture will uplift 2.2 million households from subsistence farming, generating resilience among households to natural shocks such as climate and pandemics,” he said.
The key findings of the PSR 2021 show that approximately 10% of the population had attained NDP II target of a per Capita income of USD 1,039, education remains the key route out of poverty.
Major drivers of poverty include drought, crop pests and diseases, floods and Covid-19.
According to the report, few districts met NDP II poverty reduction target of 14% by 2019/20.
“Highest poverty was registered in Acholi (67.7%) and Karamoja (65.7%). Also subsistence economy is highest in Acholi (78%),” the report indicated.
Ramadan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Finance, said the government remains committed to providing a conductive environment for citizens to be productive as well as appropriate interventions for sustainable economic transformation including Parish Development Model-PDM.
“This PSR has introduced a national multi–dimensionalpoverty index to compliment the income measure of poverty in Uganda. Vulnerability to poverty has also been extensively analyzed in this report,” Ramathan said.
He added that findings from the PSR 2021 show that poverty in Uganda decreased from 56.4% in FY 1992/93 to 20.3% in 2019/20.
The report is a significant milestone as it continues to generate discussion and inform action in drivingpoverty eradication, wealth Creation, social protection and economic growth for the people of Uganda.
The report builds on previous ones to provide analysis and insights into notion of subsistence agriculture and measures for socioeconomic transformation.
