Lessons from Uganda on Strategies to Fight Poverty

Countries receiving debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative will be among the first to benefit from the new World Bank -- International Monetary Fund approach to strengthening the impact on poverty of concessional assistance in low-income countries. The new approach features a more inclusive and participatory process for helping recipient countries develop poverty reduction strategies. From these strategies, joint Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) will bring together the country's own priorities and Bank-Fund assistance to the country. In Uganda, such a strategy has existed for several years. Uganda was one of the first low-income countries to prepare a comprehensive national strategy for poverty reduction using a participatory approach. Indeed, its experience contributed substantially to the design of the PRSPs. Uganda's top leadership is heavily committed to poverty reduction. Formulation of Uganda's Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) in 1996-97 was the executive branch's effort to make that commitment and vision operational. The authors draw lessons from the drafting of Uganda's PEAP. First, the plan made extensive use of existing data and research about Uganda to refocus a range of public policies and interventions relevant to poverty reduction. Second, the government's approach was highly participatory, with central and local governments, the donor community, nongovernmental organizations and civil society, and academics invited to contribute. Third, the government was quick to translate the plan into its budget and medium-term spending framework. Public expenditures on basic services were significantly increased after adoption of the PEAP in 1997. The authors discuss the general characteristics of a poverty reduction action plan, drawing on Uganda's experience; discuss what is known about poverty in Uganda and identify shortcomings in the data; examine the macroeconomic and fiscal policies that were considered most important to poverty reduction during the participatory process; discuss the delivery of public services, especially those that directly affect the poor; and highlight problems associated with land issues, including problems with access to credit and financial services and with the security of productive assets.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Mackinnon, John, Reinikka, Ritva
Language:	en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2000-09
Subjects:	absolute poverty, absolute terms, adjustment policies, agricultural exports, agricultural extension, agricultural production, agricultural trade, assessing poverty, budgetary commitments, capital goods, civic education, civil society, clinics, commercial banks, commodities, CPI, debt, debt relief, development indicators, Development Research, distributional pattern, donor agencies, donor community, economic analysis, economic consequences, economic growth, economic reform, economic reforms, economic sectors, economic structure, Economics, employment, equilibrium, Eradication Action Plan, exchange rate, expenditure data, export taxes, financial assets, financial liberalization, financial services, fiscal policies, fish, foreign exchange, gender inequality, Gini coefficient, growth rate, growth rates, health services, Health Survey, health workers, high growth, high inflation, home-produced food, household behavior, household income, household level, household survey, human development, Import liberalization, income countries, income growth, income taxes, Infant mortality, inflation, input use, institutional reforms, labor market, Life expectancy, living standards, Local people, long-term trends, low-income countries, macro stability, macroeconomic policies, macroeconomic policy, macroeconomic stability, market power, mean consumption, mean incomes, medical services, nongovernmental organizations, participatory approach, participatory methods, participatory poverty, participatory poverty assessment, per capita income, policy changes, policy objective, policy research, political stability, poor community, poor countries, poor households, poor people, Poverty Eradication, Poverty Eradication Action Plan, poverty impact, poverty issues, poverty line, poverty profile, poverty reduction, poverty reduction strategies, Poverty Reduction Strategy, poverty trends, price changes, primary education, private consumption, producers, productive assets, productivity, public action, public enterprises, public expenditure, Public expenditures, Public health, Public health services, public information, public policies, public policy, public sector, public sector management, public service, public service delivery, public services, public spending, quantitative analysis, real exchange rate, real terms, reducing poverty, reform program, representative sample, rural areas, rural households, sampling method, savings, service delivery, Social Indicators, social sectors, structural adjustment, Tax reform, tax regime, tax system, taxation, tertiary education, trade liberalization, Trade policy, transport infrastructure, urban areas, urban ones, water supply, youth, access to credit, fiscal policy, primary health care, education sector, transport, legal services, land rights, land titles,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21352
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