Karamoja, Bukedi top poverty charts

PHOTO: Bahati, the junior finance minister

David Bahati, the junior finance minister has revealed that Karamoja, Bukedi, Busoga, Teso and other areas whose poverty levels are above the national average will get tailor made affirmative economic programs in the National Development Plan III.

Speaking to lawmakers sitting on the presidential affairs committee on Wednesday, Bahati revealed that a survey done in preparation of NDPIII indicates that Karamoja at 60% has the highest poverty levels followed by Bukedi at 47%.

Bahati, with a number of ministers representing entities under the President's office was at Parliament to harmonize with lawmakers on how best resources can be allocated to unfunded priorities in the next financial year.

Other regions afflicted with high poverty levels include Busoga at 42% and Teso at 40%.

"We have two months to take a clear look at the unfounded priorities. But the situation is so tight regarding resources," Bahati said.

Uganda will in late May this year rollout NDP III, which is part of a series of five-year development plans tailored to realizing Vision 2040 - the country's development blue print.

For some time, the aforesaid regions have battled high poverty levels.

In Karamoja for example, the high numbers of Karamoja children and young adults roaming streets in Kampala, Jinja, Soroti and Mbale are an enduring reminder of the poverty in the region.

In Busoga, the high poverty levels have proved an irony for an area with one of the most fertile arable lands, hemmed in between two lakes - Kyoga and Victoria, and never blighted by the ravages of instability.

Policy honchos have over the years attributed the poverty to people in Busoga surrendering their land to sugar cane out growers feeding the many sugar factories in the region.

Sugarcane growing has turned out to be a double whammy in Busoga - fanning poverty and undermining food security.

Last year, Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga launched an initiative tailored to make people in Busoga swap sugar cane growing with animal husbandry and dairy farming.

If followed through, the economic affirmative action programs under NDPIII will mirror earlier ones for Acholi sub region in the wake of the protracted insurgency that laid waste most of Northern Uganda. Ends.