SPEECH BY BEATRICE MUGAMBE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH AND TRAINING (DRT) AT THE OPENING OF THE REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON “FINANCING SOCIAL PROTECTION IN EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE” VENUE: Lake Victoria Serena Resort, Entebbe Uganda Date 22 nd /10/2013 It is a great pleasure and honour to welcome you all at Lake Victoria Serena Resort in Entebbe, Uganda. In a special way, I welcome guests from Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mauritius, South Africa and Malawi. This is the regional conference on “Financing Social Protection in East and Central Africa: Learning from Experience”. Purpose of the conference We are gathered here to stimulate discussion and learning about various options of financing of social protection programmes, particularly in low income count...

Charles Lwanga-Ntale is the regional director for Africa Development Initiative. He has carried out extensive research on Social Protection, chronic poverty, disability and development and community participation. Charles Lwanga-Ntale speaking at the conference Shifa Mwesigye talked to him about Social Protection and its feasibility in Uganda during the Conference on ‘Financing Social Protection in East and Central Africa’ held at Lake Victoria Serena Hotel, Lweza and organized by Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) Qn. What is social protection and why should countries have social protection programs? Social protection is policies or programs, which help people, avoid the negative impacts of shocks and help them to bounce back when these shocks strike. For example when a breadwinner dies in a family, the family needs to be protected against sinking into poverty or if they are already in poverty from becoming more deeply poor or destitute. Countries must have social pr...

Dr Ezra Suruma speaking at the conference on Tuesday.  Dr. Ezra Suruma, the Economic advisor to the President of Uganda, has said his views on social protection have changed after listening to a discussion at the conference on ‘Financing Social Protection’ in East and Central Africa at Lake Victoria Serena Resort in Lweza organized by the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC). The former minister of Finance told delegates from across Africa that when he was still minister, he had opposed the idea of cash transfers to poor people under the social protection programme. “In 2005, one of the junior ministers in the Ministry of Finance traveled to a conference and came back with the idea of social protection. He wanted us to adopt the idea of some donors making cash payments to our vulnerable people. I had spent 20 years in government trying to bring about poverty alleviation and we had some degree of success. Having donors pay our people seemed unsustainable. I was not convinc...

Speech by the Executive Director, EPRC (Dr. Sarah Ssewanyana) during the opening of the regional conference on “Financing Socio-Protection in East and Central Africa” Lake Victoria Serena Hotel,  October 22nd 2013  It gives me great pleasure and honour to welcome you all to this very important two day conference focusing on financing socio-protection in East and Central Africa.  EPRC and Development Research and Training (DRT) are honoured that you all accepted our invitation. This is a clear demonstration of your institutions' appreciation of the critical importance meeting socio-protection needs in the region. Attending this conference, are participants from Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and the host Uganda. We had invited participants from Rwanda and Ethiopia who unfortunately could not make it due to lengthy clearance procedures. We are also grateful to renowned socio-protection experts from outside Africa (Italy) who have accepted to par...

Some of the participants at the conference at the Lake Victoria Serena Resort in lweza A two day conference focusing on financing social protection in East and Africa opened today 22nd October 2013 in Uganda at the Lake Victoria Serena Resort in Lweza. Organised by the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), a think-tank research oriented centre based in Uganda, the conference seeks to stimulate discussion about various options of financing of social protection programmes, particularly in low income countries, especially in Eastern and Central Africa. Speaking at the opening of the conference, Dr Sarah Ssewanyana EPRC’s executive director said the high population growth rate in Africa is increasing the demand for social protection programmes but the budgets allocated to it have declined as governments focus on infrastructure development. “The conference is very important and timely partly because populations affected by poverty and destitution remain very large in the region ...

BY  ZEINAB SABET [This is a cross-post on a comparative study conducted by Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) as part of the Global Development Network's project ' Strengthening Institutions to Improve Public Expenditure Accountability '] Despite all the efforts deployed in the fight against it, Malaria still represents a major burden in Uganda as it is one of the main diseases responsible for illness and death throughout the country. According to the  Malaria Control Programme of Uganda (MCP) , pregnant women, children under five years and HIV-positive people represent the most vulnerable segment of the society due to their low immunity. In an attempt to add to the tremendous efforts directed at improving health system performance and increasing public awareness about the disease, a new nationwide indoor residual spraying program was announced by the  Ministry of Health  on September 2nd, 2013. Such program would cost the Government of Uganda around US...