Poverty Eradication: Innovative Approach to Accelerate Poverty Alleviation in Uganda, Africa

Abstract

The International Monetary Fund, a fiscal cooperative of 190 countries, asserts that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused the world’s deepest recession since the Great Depression. According to David Malpass, the President of World Bank Group, this international recession may push over 1.4% of the global population into extreme poverty. This is disastrous to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating extreme poverty from the globe by 2030. The recession prediction is especially concerning for sub-Saharan Africa where 40% of her population lives under the international poverty line of $ 1.90 per day. Already, the pre-pandemic projection of poverty by World Bank showed that by 2030, 84% of the estimated 6% of the global poor will be concentrated in the fragile contexts of sub-Saharan Africa. Using Uganda with 41.7% of her population living below $1.90 per day as a case study, this article argued that poverty eradication from below is an innovative approach with a great potential to accelerate poverty alleviation in the region. The researcher used documentary analysis research methodology to obtain relevant literature from secondary sources. The findings from the research proposed that the United Nations, development agencies, regional bodies, and state actors, among others, must appreciate, adopt, and implement responses with relevance such as paradigm shift from aid to supporting community-led social enterprise, strengthening infant industries, investing in an innovative research that applies local knowledge in developing solutions to socio-economic problems, effectively using pro-poor monetary and fiscal support and policies that accelerates economic recovery, stiff policies against base erosion and profit shifting, and finally engaging multinational enterprises in building the resilient of the local population against multidimensional poverty. However, the researcher faced the following challenges: (i) inadequate scholarship on the subject from sub-Saharan Africa especially from Uganda and (ii) scanty evidence about the practicality of the discourse of poverty eradication from below. These challenges were overcome through the following: (i) maximizing on both local and international scholars who have authority on the subject and (ii) utilizing the available example of an organization modeling the discourse of poverty eradication from below in Northern Uganda.

Methodology

In this research, the researcher used documentary analysis research methodology, and data from secondary sources such as textbooks, journals, articles, and others from reputable websites were used. These resources were purposefully identified. The methodology has the following limitation: (i) overdependent on foreign voices speaking on behalf on the poor due to inadequate literatures on the subject matter from the native scholars and (ii) wide gap between the researcher and the study population. Hence, the researcher suggest that future searchers should prioritize on fieldworks and hearing the voices of the poor from the grass roots. Asking them questions such as “What is their understanding of the discourse of poverty eradication from below (PEFB)?” and “What advantages does PEFB have over the conventional top-down approach to poverty eradication?” will facilitate a deeper understanding of the discourse of PEFB from the poor themselves.

Contributions

This paper will offer the following contributions to the field of poverty study:

• (i) Reinforce the already existing voices from the global south arguing for a paradigm shift from top-down approach to poverty eradication to bottom-up

• (ii) Challenge the poor in Uganda to become more active in the discourse of poverty eradication (iii) Provide tools to counter-challenge the conventional dependency mentality common among many poor people

• (iii) Provide a revolutionary strategy to break the bureaucratic tendencies of top-down approach

• (iv) Accelerate demand for mutual critical dialogue between the development agencies and the poor communities

• (v) Set the grounding for further research to better understand both the validity and pragmatism of this discourse of poverty eradication from below