The potential gains from geographical targeting of anti-poverty programs in Uganda
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Date
2006
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Abstract
Governments do not have enough resources to make anti-poverty programs available to everyone in many
African countries. Targeting the poorest populations could increase the efficiency of available program
resources. Anti-poverty programs could target either households or geographical areas. This study
compares the potential poverty reduction impact of these two approaches in Uganda. The impact of various
policy changes on the poverty rate in Uganda is simulated using the estimated parameters of an
econometric model of household consumption. The policies examined are family-planning, increased
primary school attendance, increased secondary school attendance, expansion of formal employment and
micro-enterprise expansion. The results reveal gains in poverty rate reduction from program targeting as
compared to randomly allocating finite program resources to a sub-sample of the population. Furthermore,
geographical targeting is shown to be more effective than household targeting for most of the six policies
examined in the study.
Description
Keywords
Poverty, Geographical targeting, Household targeting, Policy simulation, Uganda
Citation
Kraybill, DS, & Bashaasha, B. (2006). The potential gains from geographical targeting of anti-poverty programs in Uganda. African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics , 1 (311-2016-5505), 37-48.