Ugandans don’t know they are rich – study

Twaweza report shows the government needs to rethink how it pulls the poor from poverty

Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | President Yoweri Museveni likes to hand out cash. He splashes on anyone lucky enough to cross his path. It could be a person or group in the low income settlements around towns, a peasant farmer in the countryside, or a leader, bishop, sheik, bereaved widow or out of job youth. Museveni also likes to set up agencies and programmes to hand out cash. There is the Poverty Alleviation Department (PAD) he set up at State House in 2000, then Prosperity for All, Operation Wealth Creation, Youth Livelihood Programme, and recently the Ghetto Initiative. The President appears convinced that throwing money at people will somehow lift them out of poverty. According to a new study, however, that approach is not working. In fact, even the targeted recipients of the money do not support the President’s approach.

According to a survey by Twaweza, an East African region non-governmental organisation that does surveys of people’s opinions on social and economic issues, Ugandans are not convinced that the government is treating poverty and inequality as a serious issue.

Up to 70% of those interviewed said leaders are not treating poverty with the urgency it requires and up to 40% of Ugandans say Museveni’s handouts make people lazy and that it is shameful to receive handouts without working.

A day before the Twaweza report was launched on Sept.26; Museveni had sent the Deputy Government spokesperson, Col. Shaban Bantariza, to hand Shs100 million to youths in Kamwokya low income suburb of Kampala city. In the same week, the news featured a public ruckus over Shs20 million that Museveni sent to the family of the slain driver of the controversial Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine. It is believed that President Museveni’s guards shot the driver dead in Arua, West Nile, while Kyagulanyi and Museveni were campaigning for opposing candidates in a by-election.

Twaweza’s latest survey focused on public perception on poverty, fairness and inequality. The survey, which is the second this year, roped in their view on other issues like health and education.

Dubbed, ‘The haves and the have nots’, the report of the results of the survey showed that up to 95% of Ugandans believe that there is huge and growing gap between the rich and the poor. The Twaweza report based on data collected from 1925 respondents who they called through their mobile phone panel ‘Sauti za Wananchi’ between May 12 and 30, 2018.

But Marie Nanyanzi, the Sauti za Wananchi Programme Director at Twaweza told The Independent in an interview that many of those they interviewed also had a false perception of the levels of poverty.

“95% of Ugandans think the gap between the rich and the poor is too big but

“Many of them also have an unclear sense of relative poverty and where they might rank,” she said.

According to her, according to national statistics, up to 80% of people in towns are considered to be among the 40% richest people in Uganda. But, when Twaweza asked people in towns whether they consider themselves rich, only 5% said they consider themselves rich.

Nanyanzi says when people in the rural countryside were asked the same question, 10% said they see themselves to be in the richest 40% of the population. Based on official statistics, however, up to 30% of rural folk are among the 40% rich quartile.

The survey also shows over half; 54%, of Ugandans say that the reason people are poor is because of laziness or lack of personal effort. Other factors such as social injustice, luck (16%) and unemployment (11%) were mentioned by fewer people; 29% and 11% respectively.

Twaweza asked people it interviewed questions like – why do you think households in Uganda are poor? What is the most important thing that one needs in getting ahead in life? Do you agree or disagree that the gap between the rich and the poor is too large? Is it a responsibility of government to reduce this gap? What are the three most important things for the government to do to reduce income inequality in the country?

A new interesting finding in the report is that while 80% believe that hard work makes it easy for one to acquire wealth and improve their status, 81% also think that it is the responsibility of government to get them out of their situations.

Nanyanzi said they were also asked who, between a boy and girl child should be taken to school if there is only enough money to take one child to school and 53% said the boy should go to school instead of the girl. This showed the persistent unequal treatment of girls, contrary to the continuous push by the government and rights organisations for equal rights for all sexes.

The findings in the current report are not very different from the poverty and financial inclusion report that Twaweza launched in March.

Even back then, respondents said government is not doing enough to fight poverty. The majority said there are no formal safeguards for people hit by financial hard times and they rely on family, friends and other informal groups instead of established institutions, to borrow. When that fails, many of them completely run out of business in case of an emergency or a calamity.

So what does the government do with reports from surveys such as this? Do government official pore over them and use them as a basis for future interventions?

Mayanja Gozanga, the Commissioner in charge of Monitoring at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), says the surveys should not target the central government only. He says since Twaweza captures voices of the people at the grassroots, their recommendations can be used for engagements at both community and parish levels. He says everyone and all organisations and government agencies need to be involved to fight poverty and reduce inequality.

“Government can come up with all these social safety nets proposed like access to credit, reductions in taxes and insurance but the majority have told you its hard work that does the magic,” he said, “What to take away from this is that even if you give them money that won’t help much if you don’t sensitise them on how to use it.”

But, Christopher Musoke, an Inclusive Financial Sector Specialist says the claim that laziness is the reason people are poor is a false generalisation. To him, there is a significant percentage of citizens who remain poor because of other barriers such as lack of access to capital to start or expand their income generating activities and legal barriers to running their income generating activities.

Musoke says it is the duty of the government to put in place an enabling legal framework to allow all businesses to start, run, and expand in a fair manner.

“What is required is that there are no barriers to some and open gates for others,” he says.

He says with fair competition, the best business gets ahead of the pack.

He says even when the government has good intentions in its attempt to alleviate poverty, it has not used a sustainable solution to solve the problem.

“Poverty is not uniform and is not caused by the same factors,” he told The Independent, “Secondly poverty needs a holistic approach and not provision of free funds. Thirdly government alone cannot reduce the incidence of poverty.”

The general view appears to be that tackling inequality is a complex challenge. But as the Twaweza survey clearly shows that Ugandans are not satisfied with their government’s approach, it is time for a rethink.