Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC)

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Browsing Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) by Author "Kasirye, Ibrahim"
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    Food insecurity in Uganda: a dilemma to achieving the hunger Millennium Development Goal
    (Economic Policy Research Centre, 2010-07) Ssewanyana, Sarah ; Kasirye, Ibrahim
    The status of food security in Uganda is worrying. The share of Ugandans suffering from food insecurity measured in terms of caloric intake is alarmingly high with low rates of income poverty. Based on the 2005/06 Uganda National Household Survey data, the study provides insights into access to food at household level. More importantly, the study shows that average caloric intake stood at 1,970 calories per person per day, which is below the minimum caloric requirement of 2,200 calories. As such, a population of 17.5 million Ugandans in 3.1 million households were unable to meet the minimum caloric requirement in 2006. This raises questions on whether Uganda will be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1: halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. While Uganda is on track to halve extreme poverty, it is less likely to halve extreme hunger by 2015. Yet the results suggest that food insecurity and income poverty are closely linked. Similarly, food insecurity at household level is closely linked to child nutrition status. In other words, antipoverty interventions and interventions to address food insecurity and child nutrition status have to be closely linked. The results further suggest that income growth, land under cultivation, changes in food prices and education attainment of household head significantly impact on caloric intake. There are significant seasonal fluctuations in dietary intakes – calories and protein. Improving post-harvest storage technologies and preservation methods; creating remunerative employment especially for the urban population; and strengthening the food distribution mechanisms would go a long way in addressing these seasonal fluctuations. Food insecurity is also marked with significant spatial variations that need to be taken into account in designing anti‐food insecurity interventions. The famine that hit some districts during 2009 demonstrates that adverse effects on the agricultural sector directly increase vulnerability to food insecurity. At the same time, increasing land under cultivation improves food security at household level. This suggests that improving agricultural productivity is a key to long‐term food security.
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    Impacts and determinants of panel survey attrition: the case of Northern Uganda survey 2004-2008
    (Economic Policy Research Centre, 2010-04) Kasirye, Ibrahim ; Ssewanyana, Sarah
    The paper analyses the impact of household attrition in the Northern Uganda Survey panel of 2004 and 2008. These surveys were designed to evaluate the performance of the first phase of the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF). The first survey was conducted in 2004 when the region faced heightened levels or rebel insurgency and the subsequent survey in 2008 when rebel hostilities had ceased. As such, the panel survey was plagued by a high level of attrition—at least 25 percent of the households could not be resurveyed in 2008. The paper examines the impacts of attrition on determinants of household welfare as well as household experience of insecurity shocks. The pattern of attrition is not random with households in urban areas and those that were resident in internally displaced person camps (IDPs) were more likely to be lost during the follow-up survey. Furthermore, residence in West Nile and Acholi sub-regions were key determinants of household attrition. Within these sub-regions, households with younger heads were more likely to be lost in Acholi while households with teenage children are more likely to be lost in West Nile. Finally, the attrition tests confirm that the regression coefficients differ significantly between households resurveyed and lost during the resurvey.
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    Institutional constraints to agriculture development in Uganda.
    (EPRC, 2013-05-11) Kasirye, Ibrahim ; Kiiza, Julius ; Bategeka, Lawrence
    Since the early 1990s, Uganda has implemented a number of reforms in the agricultural sector. However, in the past 10 years, the performance of the sector has lagged behind other sectors particularly services and industry. There are concerns among researchers and policy analysts that institutional constraints in agriculture play a central role in the lacklustre agricultural performance registered during the 2000s. This study examines the institutional constraints affecting agricultural production in Uganda. We recommend reforming the land tenure system as well as the architecture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries as means of dealing with the major constraints.