Nature, Distribution and Evolution of Poverty & Inequality in Uganda

Chapter 3Distribution and evolution of povertyand inequality in 1992 - 2002In this chapter we provide an overview of the state and changes in poverty and inequality conditions inUganda between 1992 and 2002 (the year for which the most recent data are available at national level).We present poverty and inequality measures for 2002 and examine how these figures have changedsince 1992. In Uganda, because the administrative boundaries have changed significantly from 39 districtsin 1992 to 56 districts in 2002, we cannot precisely analyse the changes in poverty at district level. However,we can analyse the changes at the county and sub-county levels, since these administrative units have notchanged significantly. This chapter presents a summary of the estimates for each region and the completeset of poverty and inequality measures for each county and sub-county are presented in Tables A3 and A4in Appendix 2.3.1 Poverty and inequality in Uganda in 2002We construct poverty and inequality measuresfor 2002 using the 2002/03 Uganda NationalHousehold Survey (UNHS II) and the 2002Population and Housing Census following themethodology described in the previous chapter.We use consumption-based measures sinceconsumption fluctuates less than income duringthe course of a particular year or month, andpeople tend to report on their consumption andexpenditures more accurately than they reportincome.In this analysis, poverty measures are constructedas a function of the poverty line, among otherthings. The poverty line for 2002 is set to 1997prices so that it is comparable to that of 1992. 6This allows us to produce comparable povertyestimates for the decade 1992–2002. The valuesof the poverty lines presented here are adoptedfrom the official monthly per capita poverty linesused by UBOS (also summary in Table 2.1) andare strictly comparable with the ones presentedin earlier reports by the same institution. Povertylines for 1992 are presented in the earlier seriesof this report (see UBOS and ILRI 2004).The previous poverty and inequality estimatesbased on surveys were designed to berepresentative at the regional level. Both ouranalyses using the 1992 household surveyand 1991 census and the 2002 data are able toproduce poverty estimates at the regional leveland lower administrative levels. In 1992, theestimates were at the county level for rural areaswhile for the urban areas the estimates were atsub-county level. This current analysis goes astep lower and produces poverty and inequalityestimates at all levels from the region to the subcounty.The 2002 poverty and inequality estimatesare entirely consistent with the earlier surveyestimates because of the similarities in the surveyand census questionnaires in both years and thedemonstrated robustness of the method.At national level, our analysis leads to anestimated national poverty head count of 38.8%in 2002. The poor, however, were not uniformlydistributed across areas and regions. Povertywas more prevalent in rural areas. Poverty wasalso deeper in the rural areas than it was in theurban areas (as measured by the poverty gap).In contrast, the level of inequality of income(represented by consumption expenditure) washigher in urban than in rural areas. These broadpatterns are consistent with those reported inprevious poverty reports (see UBOS 2003).6Both the poverty lines for 1992 and 2002 have been adjusted to 1997 prices (see UBOS 2003).Nature, distribution and evolution of poverty and inequality in Uganda, 1992 - 2002 23