Livelihoods and Rural Poverty Reduction in Uganda
Abstract
Uganda has put in place a comprehensive framework for poverty reduction known as the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP). A sub-component of the PEAP, the Plan for the Modernization of Agriculture (PMA), is designed to address one of its four main objectives: increasing incomes of the poor. This paper utilises research on rural livelihoods in three rural districts to derive policy inferences relevant to this framework. Research findings show that rural poverty is strongly associated with lack of land and livestock, as well as inability to secure non-farm alternatives to diminishing farm opportunities. Meanwhile rural families encounter an institutional context that is basically inimical to the expansion of monetary opportunities in rural areas. This is manifested especially by the system of rural taxation that has emerged with fiscal decentralisation to local governments. A fundamental contradiction between the goals of PEAP/PMA and decentralised rural taxation is revealed.
Citation
Ellis, F.; Bahiigwa, G. Livelihoods and Rural Poverty Reduction in Uganda. (2001) 29 pp. [LADDER Working Paper No.5]
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