Uganda’s excellent record in reducing the national incidence of monetary poverty
over the 1990s is widely known. However, longitudinal household survey data reveal
that this net aggregate reduction was accompanied by substantial mobility into as well
as out of poverty [Okidi and McKay, 2003]. A majority of those that were poor in
1992 had escaped by 1999, but a substantial minority were left behind and many
others fell into poverty. Against a background of strong macroeconomic performance
in Uganda over this decade, there was a significant variation in individual experiences
of poverty movements, and it is important to understand the factors, many of which
are individual or local, that contributed to this