Citizens' manifesto: The face of poverty in Uganda

The World Bank describes poverty as the lack or insufficiency of money to meet basic needs, including food, clothing and shelter, which goes beyond the mere lack of money.

Poverty is also identified with deprivation in other important areas of wellbeing such as education, health, water and housing.

Uganda achieved remarkable results in reducing poverty from 1992 to 2013, with the percentage of Ugandan households living in poverty falling by half.

The World Bank's 2016 Poverty Assessment shows that the proportion of Ugandans living below the national poverty line declined from 31.1% in 2006 to 19.7% in 2013.

However, it also shows that vulnerability to external shocks has remained high, considering that for every three Ugandans who get out of poverty, two fall back.

The Uganda National Household Survey 2016/17 shows that 21.4% of Uganda's population lives below the poverty line and recent show a sliding trend.

In November last year, a report by the Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) showed that Ugandans were at risk of poverty in spite of progress made over the last three years.

It showed that 10.2% of Ugandans moved out of poverty between 2015/16 and 2018/19 but 8.4% slipped back over the same period, in addition to 8.5% who are chronically poor.

One in five Ugandans still live in extreme poverty and more than a third live on less than $1.90 (sh7,000) a day, with 70% still depending primarily on agriculture for their livelihood.

UBOS statistics show that the northern region is the poorest but with reducing levels, while all the other regions have registered an increase in the number of poor persons.

Busoga, Bukedi and Bugisu, along with Karamoja, Acholi and West Nile are among the poorest regions.

The National Development Plan II 2020 target to reduce the poverty rate from 19.7% in 2015 to 14.2% by 2020 will not be met as a result of the general increase in poverty.

In June, an assessment by the National Planning Authority showed that at least 40.6% of Ugandans were at risk of sliding into poverty due to COVID-19-related stress.