Remarks at the launch of the Uganda Poverty Status Report (PSR) 2021

Acknowledgements:

Hon. Matia Kasaija, Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development,

Mr. Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to Treasury, 

Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Heads of Government Agencies and Departments,

Leaders of the Private Sector Organisations,

Representatives from the Academia,

Representatives from Civil Society and the Media,

Colleagues from the United Nations System,

Distinguished guests here, online, and viewers on television,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

On behalf of the UN system in Uganda, I am delighted to be part of this important moment of reflection, at the launch of the Poverty Status Report (PSR) 2021.

I wish to acknowledge the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, and the technical and financial support of UNDP in developing the Poverty Status Report 2021 that is being launched today. With the multidimensional shocks impacting on different parts of the world, I would like to recognize the leadership of the Government of Uganda in its response to COVID-19, impact of the War in Ukraine, Ebola, floods and climate-change disasters. These have threatened the wellbeing of Ugandans and the country’s progress on the implementation and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 2030 Agenda clearly prescribes the means of implementation and recognizes the need to improve the approach to measuring progress. On SDG 1, it implores us to look beyond income measures of poverty and ensure that other dimensions of deprivation are also considered in analysing poverty trends. It is commendable that Uganda has taken this bold step to include multidimensional poverty analysis in the PSR of 2021.

The UN system in Uganda has also remained true to its promise to collaborate with Government to address the country’s development challenges in order to deliver on the Vision 2040 and the 2030 Agenda. Currently, this joint offer is articulated through the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Uganda (UNSDCF) 2021–2025.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The presentation made by the Ministry of Finance has been clear, and challenges us to reflect more deeply on the poverty reduction efforts in Uganda. While I am fairly new in Uganda, evidence suggests that the pace of poverty reduction was very exciting during the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) era but has stagnated since 2016/17. Do we need to borrow lessons from the past? What do we learn from our former peers in East Asia, South Asia and the Pacific that have seen significant poverty reduction in recent decades? Isn’t it time to overhaul our poverty reduction approaches if they are not working?

In my observation, and this is based on my short experience in Uganda, I think we need to reflect on the following;

1. The gaps in institutional coordination among the various Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and between Government and its partners have hindered sustainable development and need immediate attention. Efforts to improve effectiveness of coordination will require clear accountability mechanisms that bind all development actors, be it the state or non-state actors.
2. Issues of accountability for development resources. The rampant reports of corruption and mismanagement of public resources do not only impact on the value for money for the taxpayers, but also discourages the inflow of other development financing for example through foreign direct investment (FDI), public-private partnerships, external grants, among others.
3. A lot of the decisions that target the poor are top-down, and this approach does not seem to be delivering the desired results. We need to start involving those we target in the design, implementation and monitoring stages of the development interventions to ensure that they are effective in addressing their development challenges.
4. Inequalities between people and geographical regions. As you have seen from the submissions made earlier, there are significant disparities between regions and between different groups of people. Some regions have continually lagged other regions for decades in terms of poverty headcount. There are also significant disparities due to gender biases that are entrenched in our communities. This implores us to avoid blanket poverty reduction approaches that may not work for all regions and groups of people because their challenges and needs could be different.

I wish to conclude by extending my sincere appreciation to the Government and all partners in development for the unwavering efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The UN system remains committed to working with you all through generation of knowledge as well as catalytic policy and programme support.

Thank you.