What Type of Spending is Good for the Poor and how should it be Managed? The Ugandan Experience

The experience of attempting to ensure the allocation of resources to poverty reduction by ex ante designation of certain categories of spending as "pro-poor" poses important questions about both the analytical foundations of such an expenditure policy as well as the institutional arrangements by which such expenditure is to be managed. Uganda, arguably one of the more successful examples of effective poverty reduction over the past decade, provides an interesting case study of this problem: while it may be possible to use a virtual poverty fund to ensure that resources earmarked for poverty reduction are effectively channeled through the budget system without creating a parallel and potentially distorting arrangement, it is far more difficult to determine what kinds of public expenditure will best contribute to poverty reduction over the medium to long term.
 
Speaker: R. Sudharshan Canagarajah (Senior Economist in AFTP2, former Country Economist for Uganda)

Discussant: Linda Van Gelder (Lead Economist, PRMPR)
 
The session was facilitated by Anand Rajaram (Lead Economist, PRMPS) and Vera Wilhelm (Senior Economist, PRMPR)

Presentations

• Lessons In Pro-Poor Public Spending Reform; The Poverty Action Fund in Uganda (140kb PPT)
• Lessons In Pro-Poor Public Spending Reform in Uganda and Tanzania (117kb PPT)

Further Reading

• "Is There a Place for Virtual Poverty Funds in Pro-Poor Public Spending Reform? Lessons from Uganda’s PAF." Development Policy Review Vol. 21 No. 4 (449-480): by Williamson, Tim and Sudharshan Canagarajah (2003) (292kb PDF)

Summary of the Discussion

• Lessons in Pro-Poor Growth Spending (38kb PDF)

Participants

• List of participants (23kb PDF)

Back to Poverty Reduction Strategy Implementation Series