Question

Discuss the challenges faced by disadvantaged groups in Uganda.

Answer 1

Answer:

The need for social protection is motivated by two factors: poverty and vulnerability. Poverty

describes a low level of income or consumption, while vulnerability refers to the risk of falling

into poverty. The extent of poverty – headcount numbers, severity and trends – indicates the

extent of the need for social protection; unfortunately, poverty also restricts the tax base and

limits the potential for formal social protection measures to be extended to all poor citizens.

Uganda’s Participatory Poverty Assessment Project (UPPAP) has emphasised the multidimensional nature of poverty and vulnerability across different locations and social groups

in Uganda. Lack of basic commodities (consumption poverty) is one dimension, but other

self-reported aspects of living in poverty include: lack of productive assets; lack of social

networks and informal support systems; ill-health and illiteracy (35% nationally, but 50%

among the poor); powerlessness; lack of access to markets and community-level

infrastructure; lack of productive employment opportunities (especially for the youth);

vulnerability to shocks; and domestic problems such as alcoholism and domestic violence.

UPPAP found that Ugandans draw a distinction between individual and community-level

poverty. At the personal level, poverty in Uganda is defined as inability to meet the basic

necessities of life, poor access and quality of social services and inadequate infrastructure.

In other words, a person or household is considered to be poor when it is unable to meet

basic needs, such as clothing, soap, health care, school tuition, decent housing, paraffin fuel

for light, etc. Thus a poor individual or household has limited physical and economic assets

(MFPED 2000). On the other hand, community-level poverty is perceived in terms of limited

access to physical resources; adequate and good quality physical, economic, social and

political services; Importantly, communities argued that poverty goes beyond lack of income

and material assets to include non-tangible aspects: helplessness and lack of social support

and social capital (children, relatives, educated people); as well as isolation and lack of voice

(MFPED 2000 and 2001).