Nature, Distribution and Evolution of Poverty & Inequality in Uganda

Distribution and evolution of poverty and inequality in 1992 - 2002Eastern RegionEastern Region is made up of 15 districts, 43 countiesand 270 sub-counties. Among districts, the ruralpoverty incidence ranged from 28% in Jinja to 64%in Soroti District. County level variations were evenhigher, particularly in the rural areas. The poorestcounty Kasilo (Soroti District) had a poverty rate of66%, and in the wealthiest county, Butembe (JinjaDistrict) 19% percent of the population was belowthe poverty line.Variation was also high at the sub-county level,ranging from 13% to 71%. The poorest sub-countywas Gweri (Soroti County, Soroti District) andthe richest was Kakira (Butembe County, JinjaDistrict). In urban areas, the least poor divisionwas Central Division in Jinja Municipality, JinjaDistrict, with a poverty rate of 5 percent. Wesee high heterogeneity of poverty among subcountieswithin the same county, district or region.It is evident that the poorest county does notnecessarily have the poorest sub-county.In terms of rural poverty density, at the district levelin 2002, Mbale District had the highest povertydensity (with 207 poor per km2) and Katakwi hadthe lowest (36 poor per km2). By sub-county,Bufumbo in Bungokho County, Mbale District(347 poor per km2), was the highest and Ng’eng’e,Kween County, Kapchorwa District (2 poor peopleper km2) was the lowest.The lowest poverty gap ranged from 4 percent to27% in rural sub-counties and from 1 percent to12% in urban sub-counties. The rural sub-countywith the least poverty gap, i.e. the one requiringthe least amount of resources to reach thepoverty line was Kakira, Butembe County in JinjaDistrict (4%). Meanwhile, Ngariam Sub-county inUsuk County, Katakwi District, had the highestpoverty gap (27%) implying the poor here have aconsiderable distance to go to close the gap andescape poverty.The inequality levels found in Eastern Regionwere higher than those in the Central Region.Urban inequality was higher than rural inequalityat all administration levels, i.e. district, countyand sub-county. The ranking by district, countyand sub-county of the highest inequality areaswas Jinja (0.50), Butembe (0.50) and Kagulu (0.55)in Budiope County, Kamuli District, respectively.The least inequality was in Kaberemaido County(0.35), Manjiya County in Mbale District (0.33)and Banasafiwa, Budadiri County, Sironko District(0.30). Again, significant variation in inequalityexists between and within districts and counties.Maps 3.7 to 3.11 represent different poverty andinequality measures for Eastern Region.32 Nature, distribution and evolution of poverty and inequality in Uganda, 1992 - 2002