ABSTRACT
Poverty reduction has been uneven across economic sectors, with those engaged in cash crop farming especially coffee, manufacturing and trade gaining most. This chapter examines the extent to which Structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) in Uganda have affected the poor, and discusses government efforts to tackle the poverty problem. While SAPs may have created some new groups of poor, the endemic poverty in Africa is the result of previous years of economic stagnation in years of poor policy environment and governance. Several anti-poverty programmes relying heavily on donor funds have been implemented due to the failure of SAPs to fully and directly address the poverty problem. The chapter outlines economic performance and poverty in Uganda. Though Uganda's macro-economic performance since the initiation of structural reforms has been impressive, poverty and human suffering still persist. The benefits of economic growth have yet to translate into measurable improvements in the standard of living for the majority of people.
