Re-strategizing Uganda at Fifty; the Case for Economic Development

Journal of Student Research

Prior to the covid-19 pandemic, Uganda was growing steadily, with a GDP growth of 7.5 per cent in 2019 (World Bank 2020). However, the consistent growth has not changed the economic conditions of the people. There comes a time when African scholars must look past the common remedy which suggests only improving governance will stimulate further economic development; they must address the real issues hampering further economic development. How can Uganda ensure that economic development is increased by the Government to a point where it reflects in the life of the everyday Ugandan? In this essay, I will discuss the necessary steps Uganda must take to increase economic development to promote the economy's and its participants' economic well-being.

A simple guiding tool on the background on Uganda's Economy .

Development and Change, 1990

This critique of the Structural Adjustment Programme in Uganda is argued at three levels. A discussion of the immediate consequences of SAP is based on empirical data on economic performance compiled by the Government of Uganda, IMF and World Bank. Second, information for a longer-term historical analysis is culled from the author's own research. Its purpose is to raise more fundamental issues of social transformation. Finally, these perspectives are reinforced through a comparative discussion using South East Asian development experience. The author argues that there are diverse paths to capitalist development, with diverse and contradictory social and political consequences. The real issue in contemporary Uganda is not one of the state or the market, but of the transformation of relations internal to both from the point of view of democratization.

Firimooni Rweere Banugire and Betrum Namanya. (2018). Towards Good Economic Governance of African Economies with Special Reference to Uganda. Journal of African Interdisciplinary Studies (JAIS) ISSN 2523-6725 (online), Volume 2, Number 5, May 2018, pages 4 - 17

The aim of the essay is to develop the concepts of economic governance and good economic governance as principles of economic management of Africa economies. It answers the questions; (1) Why do we need good economic governance (GEG) mechanisms as foundations for economic policy management and (2) What are the potential best practices for operationalizing them. We conceptualize economic governance as a multi-level concept for improving the management of economies at global, regional, national and local levels. It argues that global economic governance driven by globalization is a major constraint on African countries capacities to reform their economies towards industrialization and endogenous development. Hence the need for institutionalized good economic governance mechanisms for collective self-reliance at African Union level; for structural transformation for endogenous development at national level; and decentralized economic governance (DEG) at local and community level. It concludes by identifying a framework for operationalizing decentralized economic governance for sustainable rural development, and the relevant research agenda

Journal of African Economies, 2001

2005

Uganda has been challenged to translate recovery-based economic buoyancy into sustainable growth with poverty reduction in pursuit of national and international development targets. As the country weighs various options for stimulating an appropriate response to the economic slowdown of the recent years, it is important that policy considerations be informed by a review of the difference growth strategies and episodes that the country experienced. This paper therefore, provided an overview of the broad economic strategies that have been implemented in Uganda since 1962 when it attained Independence. By focusing on what transpired during the 1990s into the 2000s, the paper aims to assess the extent to which recent development strategies promoted the participation of poor people in Uganda's growth process. Furthermore, the paper highlights the tradeoffs associated with policies that emphasize growth versus those that emphasize distribution in pursuit of poverty reduction.

1980

Of course I cannot forget the academic staff of the Development Studies Centre. They have helped to keep my morale throughout. I am also grateful to Tony Vale of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs for his immediate delivery of the report by the Commonwealth team of / experts on the rehabilitation of the Ugandan economy after the fall of Amin's government.

The Developmental State Perspective: Relevance for Uganda’s Post-Independence Political Economic Crises, 2022

The paper discusses Uganda's political and economic circumstances while providing lessons from the viewpoint of a developing state. It takes into account the decolonization phase that followed independence and explains why Uganda, like other newly industrialized nations, never took the developmental state path as a means of quick and simple development. On the other hand, did Uganda still achieve the same results as nations like Malaysia and Taiwan, for example, or was there a lag that may have been caused by the developmental state perspective that was adopted by nations like those of East Asia, which are now regarded as states that perform like miracles. Uganda's triumph in gaining independence occurred in a highly challenging political and economic situation, hence from this point forward. Since (October 9, 1962), the state has gone through a number of crises, the effects of which cannot be overstated. This perspective as worked for countries especially the East Asian states however,the adoption of the same perspective in Africa has been questioned and there is even a debate as to whether the absence of the same is what accounts for our development statuses in Africa or not.

American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 2018

Uganda aspires to become "a transformed society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years". This aspiration and the targeted steps to be taken to achieve it are laid down in a document titled Uganda Vision 2040. Industrialisation is considered to be one of the avenues to use to achieve this Vision, despite the fact that the country has made a number of efforts to promote industrialisation in the past, which have not yielded positive results. Reviewed here are the efforts that have been made to this regard since its independence and short falls highlighted. These efforts are compared with the East Asian countries' efforts towards industrialisation to note what policy makers and investors can do better in order to have industrialisation work for a country like Uganda. The comparison is based on the fact that these countries were at almost the same economic level of development in the 1960s and therefore there is a need to learn lessons of what was done differently. The country needs to develop a stepwise approach to industrialisation that can guide all efforts towards a common agenda.

2008

Attempts to correlate increases in aid with economic growth have persisted in research and policy circles for over five decades to justify foreign assistance from rich to poor countries. While the vast majority of studies find no causal connection between them, some argue that there is a correlation between aid and growth for certain countries having strong policies and institutions. It is this argument that has the greatest significance for Uganda’s aid infrastructure in today’s socio-economic climate. Uganda has come a long way from the aiddependent post-civil war economy of the late 1980s, where aid levels once reached 30 percent of GDP (Roberts & Fagernas, 2004). Pertinent questions have to be raised that take into account the improved level of economic development and institutional capacity of Uganda. Now that Uganda is on a sustained economic growth path with sound fiscal, monetary, and trade policies, will increasing aid flows have an important impact on growth? Or, is there ...