Publication

This paper explores the poverty agenda in Uganda, its drivers and its effects. It shows that transforming the economy by increasing productivity was initially considered more important than reducing poverty through redistributive policies. The authors describe how, around the multi-party elections in 2006, policy priorities changed towards more focus on agricultural production, agro-business and infrastructure. The government thus moved to a two-edged focus: poverty reduction through economic transformation and poverty reduction through social services. However, the authors argue, there is also a political agenda about remaining in power which threatens to undermine the results achieved so far.