Households In Rural Uganda Research Articles

Community groups as an enabler for access to livelihood capitals, deprivation of which contributes to multidimensional poverty in rural Uganda

Using the 2016/2017 and 2019/2020 Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS), this study analyses the effect of saving and credit community groups, both cooperatives and associations, on multidimensional poverty. Access to livelihood capitals reduces poverty. Poverty being a rural phenomenon in Uganda, this study assesses whether households in rural Uganda with community group members have access to livelihood capitals. The study also examined the effect of non-membership in a community group on multidimensional poverty and whether being multidimensionally poor affects membership in community groups. The Alkire-Foster method is applied to calculate the Adjusted Headcount Ratio (M0), which is used in the propensity score model to establish the effect of membership in a community group on household multidimensional poverty. Analysis of how the estimated multidimensional poverty varies with the estimated propensity score is achieved using the estimated Average Treatment Effect of the Treated (ATET) obtained with four matching methods (nearest neighbour, radius, kernel, and stratification). Findings reveal that community groups enable rural dwellers to access livelihood capitals, hence enabling them to overcome their multiple deprivations and reducing their likelihood of being multidimensionally poor. Membership in community groups is robustly linked to a decreased probability of being multidimensionally poor by over 3 percentage points.

Who and Why? Understanding Rural Out-Migration in Uganda

Rural–urban migration in developing countries is considered to be a key process for sustainable development in the coming decades. On the one hand, rural–urban migration can contribute to the socioeconomic development of a country. On the other hand, it also leads to labor transfer, brain-drain in rural areas, and overcrowded cities where planning is lagging behind. In order to get a better insight into the mechanisms of rural–urban migration in developing countries, this paper analyzes motivations for rural–urban migration from the perspective of rural households in Uganda. A total of 1015 rural households located in southwestern Uganda were surveyed in 2019. A total of 48 percent of these households reported having at least one out-migrant. By means of logistic regression modeling, the likelihood for rural out-migration was assessed using household- and community-level socioeconomic characteristics as predictors. The results show that most out-migrants are from relatively wealthy households with a higher-than-average education level. Typically, these households are located in villages that are well connected with urban centers. Poor households in remote locations send significantly fewer migrants because of their limited access to migration information and poor transport networks. From these findings, the following policy recommendations are made: Firstly, efforts should be made to extend basic social services, including quality education, towards rural areas. Secondly, in order to reduce socially disruptive long-distance migration and the eventual overcrowding and sprawls of major cities, government investments should be oriented towards the upgrading of secondary towns, which can offer rural out-migrants rewarding employment and business opportunities.

The societal cost and economic impact of surgical care on patients\u2019 households in rural Uganda; a mixed method study

BackgroundThe epidemiology and cost of surgical care delivery in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) is poorly understood. This study characterizes the cost of surgical care, rate of catastrophic medical expenditure and medical impoverishment, and impact of surgical hospitalization on patients’ households at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital (SRRH), Uganda.MethodsWe prospectively collected demographic, clinical, and cost data from all surgical inpatients and caregivers at SRRH between February 2018 and January 2019. We conducted and thematically analyzed qualitative interviews to discern the impact of hospitalization on patients’ households. We employed the chi-square, t-test, ANOVA, and Bonferroni tests and built regression models to identify predictors of societal cost of surgical care. Out of pocket spending (OOPS) and catastrophic expenses were determined.ResultsWe encountered 546 patients, mostly male (62%) peasant farmers (42%), at a median age of 22 years; and 615 caregivers, typically married (87%), female (69%), at a median age of 35 years. Femur fractures (20.4%), soft tissue infections (12.3%), and non-femur fractures (11.9%) were commonest. The total societal cost of surgical care was USD 147,378 with femur fractures (USD 47,879), intestinal obstruction (USD 18,737) and non-femur fractures (USD 10,212) as the leading contributors. Procedures (40%) and supplies (12%) were the largest components of societal cost. About 29% of patients suffered catastrophic expenses and 31% were medically impoverished.ConclusionDespite free care, surgical conditions cause catastrophic expenses and impoverishment in Uganda. Femur fracture is the most expensive surgical condition due to prolonged hospitalization associated with traction immobilization and lack of treatment modalities with shorter hospitalization.

Household response to an extreme shock: Evidence on the immediate impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on economic outcomes and well-being in rural Uganda.

We provide evidence on the economic and well-being impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on a sample of households in rural Uganda. Our sample consists of 1,277 households randomly drawn from 114 rural villages in western Uganda and surveyed in-person in early March 2020, just before the lockdown. We followed up with this sample in May 2020, reaching over 85% of them by phone. We find a large decline of 60% in household non-farm income due to household enterprise profits and labour income being almost wiped-out post the lockdown. Households respond to this loss of income in three key ways. One, there is a 40% decrease in food expenditure per adult equivalent. Two, they use up nearly 50% of their savings and borrow more, but have not yet liquidated their fixed assets or sold livestock. Three, they increase total household labour supply to household farm and livestock, more than making up for the decline in supply to enterprises and labour outside the household. We find a decrease in well-being as a result of this: there is an increase in the likelihood of missing a meal, a decline in reported satisfaction with quality of life, a higher likelihood of having a major argument with their spouse and an increase in perceived frequency of intimate partner violence against women in the village. The negative effects of the lockdown are greater for households that were wealthier at baseline, since these households were more reliant on enterprise and salaried income. These results were one of the first to show a large negative impact of the lockdown for a rural population. Our findings are important to policy makers in Uganda and other developing countries as they suggest income and consumption support is needed for rural households.

Genotype by Environment interactions for egg number and egg weight of five dual-purpose chicken breeds in different zones of Oromia region in Ethiopia

The African Chicken Genetic Gain (ACGG) project (https://africacgg.net/) aims at backyard poultry optimization by commercial dual-purpose breeds introduction into Africa. To measure benefits, genotype by environment interaction (GxE) analysis provides guidance while predicting environmental effects on production traits of breeds. A survey among Ethiopian poultry smallholders showed egg sale being the most important purpose of keeping village chickens in Oromia. Data was available about laying of 894 ACGG chickens in Oromia. Hence current research questions were: 1) Does GxE take place? 2) Which breed performs best regarding laying and in which environment within Oromia? Traits investigated were egg number and egg weight of five breeds (S-RIR, Sasso, Horro, Kuroiler and Koekoek) located in three zones (East Hararge, East and West Shoa) and 5 districts (Adami Tulu, Bako Tibe, Dano, Dugda and Haromaya) in Oromia. Observations were taken as group measure performing weighted analyses. GxE was only present for egg number with magnitude strongest for zone. S-RIR performed best for both traits in both environments, except Kuroiler performing better in East Shoa for egg number and Koekoek for egg weight. This indicates success of crossbreed S-RIR. Sasso and Horro performed worst supported by previous research for Horro but not Sasso. Low precipitation in East Shoa caused bigger distance in egg number predictions, being higher for S-RIR and lower for Horro and Sasso compared to West Shoa. Apart from these final conclusions, social context of breeding and data collection difficulties should not be forgotten. Just like relevance of other performance trait analyses.

Contribution of Rainfall on Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting and Saving on the Slopes of Mt. Elgon, East Africa.

Despite the achievements reported from using rainwater harvesting systems, the contribution and drawbacks that affect their usage in mountainous landscapes have received little attention. The uptake and usage of domestic rooftop rainwater harvesting systems (RRWHS) in developing countries is on the increase due to increasing water scarcities. We explored the effect of rainfall variability on water supply and the downsides of using the systems by rural households in Uganda. The objectives were to assess the variability of rainfall (1985–2018), categorise RRWHS used, and examine the influence of slope ranges on the placement of systems and also to quantify the harvested and saved rainwater and establish the factors that affected system usage. Rainfall variability was assessed using a Mann–Kendall test, while system contributions and drawbacks were examined using socioeconomic data. A representative of 444 households were selected using a multicluster sampling procedure and interviewed using semistructured questionnaires. Findings revealed that the months of March, April, September, August, and October experienced an upward trend of rainfall with a monthly coefficient of variation between 41 and 126%. With this, households responded by employing fixed (reinforced concrete tanks, corrugated iron tanks, and plastic tanks) and mobile RRWHS (saucepans, metallic drums/plastic drums, jerrycans, and clay pots). At the high altitude, households deployed mostly plastic jerrycans and industrial plastic/metallic drums to harvest and save water. Overall, the mean annual volume of rainwater harvested on the slopes of Mt. Elgon was 163,063 m3/yr, while the potential to save water ranged from 4% to 7% of the annual household water demand. The factors that hindered the deployment of RRWHS to harvest and save water were high operational costs, price fluctuations, unreliable rainfall pattern, inadequate funds, and limited accessibility. The rainfall received if well-harvested and saved can redeem households of water insecurity, though there is an urgent need of subsidies from the government to increase accessibility of the systems.

Do household asset wealth measurements depend on who is surveyed? Asset reporting concordance within multi-adult households in rural Uganda.

BackgroundIn resource-limited settings, the Filmer & Pritchett asset index is frequently used to measure household economic status. Little is known about how its validity is affected by differential reporting or recall within households.MethodsAs part of a whole-population survey in a rural region of southwestern Uganda, we elicited household asset information from married dyads (404 men and 404 matched women) residing within the same households. We assessed the extent to which the asset index yielded differing measures of relative household wealth, depending on whether the husband’s or wife’s survey data were used in its calculation. To estimate agreement, we used Cohen’s κ for binary and categorical variables, and Cronbach’s α for continuous variables. We also assessed the extent to which asset wealth quintiles assigned based on husbands’ vs wives’ reporting were concordant, and whether discordance was related to demographic characteristics.ResultsFor most individual assets, agreement ranged from moderate to very good. Asset index scores based on husbands’ vs wives’ reporting were positively correlated (Pearson r = 0.85). Corresponding wealth quintiles were moderately concordant (weighted κ = 0.65); 171 households (43%) differed by one or more quintiles when the husbands’ vs wives’ reporting was used, and 43 (11%) differed by two or more quintiles. Concordance in asset wealth quintile could not be explained by joint educational attainment, age, or age difference.ConclusionsThere is significant intra-household variability in household asset reporting that can materially affect how households are classified on a widely used measure of relative household asset wealth.

Social-cognitive factors influencing household decisions to grow orange-fleshed sweet potato in Uganda

This study examined the role of social-cognitive factors in farmers’ decisions to cultivate orange-fleshed sweetpotato as a food-based approach to alleviating vitamin A deficiency among rural households in Uganda. Cross-sectional survey data collected from 341 randomly selected household level decision-makers drawn from two rural districts in Uganda were analysed using hierarchical regression. Perceived capability and perceived social approval significantly predicted household decisions to grow orange-fleshed sweet potato (p≤0.001). Overall, decision-makers’ subjective norms and control beliefs were found to be significant mediators (p≤0.01) of the orange-fleshed sweet potato acceptance process. These results point to a cardinal role for processes that create supportive social and cognitive environments in promoting the cultivation of bio-fortified technologies such as orange-fleshed sweet potato.Keywords: Orange-fleshed sweet potato, social approval, Uganda

Poultry Ownership Associated with Increased Risk of Child Diarrhea: Cross-Sectional Evidence from Uganda.

.Domestic animals have been associated with enteric infections in young children and can also be carriers of respiratory viruses. We conducted a cross-sectional assessment of health outcomes in children aged < 5 years associated with animal presence among 793 rural households in Uganda. We recorded the 2-week prevalence of diarrhea and respiratory infections in children, and the number of cows, poultry, sheep/goats, and pigs in the household. We used generalized linear models with robust standard errors to estimate the prevalence ratio (PR) for diarrhea and respiratory infections associated with households owning the above- versus below-median number of animals. We conducted unadjusted and adjusted analyses controlling for socioeconomic, water, sanitation, and hygiene indicators. Children in households with the above-median number (> 5) of poultry had 83% higher diarrhea prevalence than those with ≤ 5 poultry (adjusted PR = 1.83 [1.04, 3.23], P = 0.04). Children in households with the above-median number (> 2) of cows had 48% lower prevalence of respiratory infection than those with ≤ 2 cows (adjusted PR = 0.52 [0.35, 0.76], P < 0.005). There were no other significant associations between domestic animals and child health. Studies should assess if barring chickens from indoor living quarters and sanitary disposal of chicken and other animal feces can reduce childhood zoonotic infections.

The Rights of Children with Disabilities and Influence of Disability on Household Vulnerability:

Children with disabilities are an exceptionally vulnerable population. We analyzed data collected from 17,848 vulnerable households in rural Uganda over four years on vulnerable children and focuses on how those living with disabilities progress out of vulnerability. The analysis shows that whereas the children with disabilities we more likely to transition from critical vulnerability than others, they were less likely to transition out of vulnerability in general. We also found an effect of parental and guardian disability on child education. We recommend that for programs to support the realization of the right to education, more focus should be centered on households living with disabilities.&#x0D;

The contrasting effects of farm size on farm incomes and food production

Small-scale farming provides both food and livelihoods for the vast majority of the global poor. Thus, increasing and stabilizing farm incomes and food production in developing countries is fundamental to reducing global poverty. Policies for rural development such as improved access to non-agricultural incomes or land titling may benefit farmers, but they may also lead to farm consolidation with unintended consequences for aggregate food supply. Using a large panel dataset of rural households in Uganda, we parse apart how farm size affects the level and riskiness of agricultural incomes as well as of local food supply. Our findings indicate that while output per unit of land does decline with increasing farm size as suggested by previous literature, agricultural incomes increase with farm size. We show further that while the variance of agricultural incomes declines with increasing farm size, the variance of local food production increases with farm size. These results suggest that farmers benefit from larger farms, earning higher and more stable incomes while consumers suffer from lower and more volatile food supply.

Analyzing the relationship between institutional framework and financial inclusion in rural Uganda

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report the findings on the mediating effect of social network in the relationship between institutional framework and financial inclusion in rural Uganda.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a cross-sectional research design to collect data used to test for mediation under this study. Structural equation model (SEM) through use of bootstrap in the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) was adopted to establish the existence and type of mediation by social network in the relationship between institutional framework and financial inclusion.FindingsSocial network had a partial mediating effect in the relationship between institutional framework and financial inclusion. In addition, institutional framework through its regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars also exhibited a significant direct effect on financial inclusion. Besides, social network had a positive and significant effect on financial inclusion. This suggest that there exist both a direct effect of institutional framework on financial inclusion and an indirect effect of institutional framework through social network on financial inclusion.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the sample for this study was big enough, it limited itself to only poor households in rural Uganda. Besides, the current study adopted cross-sectional design, thus, leaving out longitudinal design to investigate the characteristics in the sample over time.Practical implicationsThe study makes significant empirical contribution and implications to financial inclusion policy makers on evidence of the critical role played by social network in indirectly enhancing the relationship between institutional framework and financial inclusion of the poor who are vulnerable to exclusion by main stream financial services’ providers.Originality/valueThe study recommends that social network, which acts as a conduit through which useful information flow and can be shared, plays a critical role in mediating the relationship between institutional framework and financial inclusion in rural Uganda. Therefore, the study contributes to existing body of literature by highlighting the mediating influence of social network in the relationship between institutional framework and financial inclusion, especially in rural Uganda.

"It's Like I Never Had a Child of My Own": Care and Support for the Elderly in a Changing Socioeconomic Context in Rural Uganda.

Individual households remain important for elderly care and support in resource-limited settings. Factors such as availability of young people and ownership of assets are important for care and support for the elderly. This article examines changing trends in accessing care and support for the elderly in a context of socioeconomic changes such as increasing school attendance and outmigration of youth from rural areas. Rich data from the life stories of individuals from 22 households in rural Uganda collected in 2009-2010 were analyzed. The elderly were lacking care and support, as the youth experienced increasing schooling and outmigration. The loss of young adults from HIV infection deprived the elderly of care and support, and increased their responsibilities of caring for the sick and the orphans. Mitigating factors included remittances and asset ownership. The availability of free health care encouraged people to stay in households to utilize these resources while also caring for the elderly members. With the current socioeconomic transformations, the rules and resources used in the traditional care system no longer serve as a "safety network" for the elderly. Adaptation efforts from individual households cannot deal with the multiple concurrent changes. Programs to increase education should consider investing in additional social programs, especially for those who are negatively impacted by increased access to education.

Microcredit and Food Security: Evidence from Rural Households in Uganda

Microcredit and Food Security: Evidence from Rural Households in Uganda

Institutions and Financial Inclusion in Rural Uganda: the Mediating Role of Social Capital

ABSTRACTThe study examined the mediating role of social capital in the relationship between institutions and financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda. Cross-sectional design was adopted and data were collected and analyzed using SPSS/20, MedGraph and Sobel-z test. The findings indicated that social capital partially mediates the relationship between institutions and financial inclusion. Besides, institutions and financial inclusion are significantly related. Thus, managers of financial institutions, financial inclusion working groups, and policy makers should pay more attention to the role of social capital in promoting cooperative behavior among the poor in accessing scarce resources such as financial services.

Microcredit and Food Security: Evidence from Rural Households in Uganda

AbstractThis study investigates the effect of participation into a microcredit program on household food security parameters of female borrowers in a rural setting in Uganda. We explore the modes of food acquisition, dietary diversity, caloric and protein intake, and qualitative food insecurity measures for different categories of respondents. We conduct a cross-sectional analysis comparing old clients to newly registered first time borrowers. Next, we compare first time borrowers and non-borrowers using a panel design. While the cross-sectional analysis allows the comparison of women that similarly self-selected into borrowing, the panel analysis complements by providing insights into changes of food security parameters. In both cases, we use Kernel matching, or difference-in-difference with Kernel matching, to control for potential bias in observables, and perform a sensitivity analysis with respect to unobservables using Rosenbaum bounds as well as an individual fixed effects panel analysis. Results show a decline in food security following the uptake of microcredit. In particular, the analysis reveals robustly lower dietary diversity among long-time borrowers than new borrowers, and larger reductions in dietary diversity scores among new borrowers, after 1 year, compared to controls. The reduction in dietary diversity was traced to a reduction in animal-source food, fruit and sugar intake. We find indicative evidence that this is partly explained by a shift from own production to reliance on food purchase by households. Other household members relegating the burden of food provision to women after borrowing may also help explain the observed result.

Financial literacy in emerging economies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of individual components of financial literacy in promoting financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda.Design/methodology/approachThe study was cross-sectional combined with correlation and regression analyses. Data were collected from 400 poor households drawn from four regions in rural Uganda. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test for the contribution of individual components of financial literacy on financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis was used to establish existence of convergent validity between the items used to measure the different constructs under study. Furthermore, analysis of variance was also adopted to test for variation in perceptions of poor households on being financially included.FindingsThe results generated from the study revealed that only attitude as a component of financial literacy significantly and positively predicts financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda. Contrary to previous thinking and empirical studies, behavior, knowledge, and skills are not significant predictors of financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda. Overall, the combined effect of the different components of financial literacy explains about 11.2 percent of the variance in financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was not without limitations. The study adopted only cross-sectional study design, thus, leaving out longitudinal study. Therefore, future studies employing longitudinal research design worth undertaking. Furthermore, the sample although large enough focused only on poor households located in rural Uganda, therefore, ignoring peri-urban and urban areas in Uganda. Besides, the study used only quantitative data, thus, qualitative study using key informant interviews may be considered for further research.Practical implicationsThe paper indicates that policy makers, advocates of financial inclusion and researchers, should reconsider investigating individual contribution of the different components of financial literacy in promoting financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda. For researchers, it is important to re-analyze the individual components of financial literacy of behavior, knowledge, skills, and attitude in influencing financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda.Originality/valueThis paper combines both functional components (behavior and attitude) and non-functional measures (knowledge and skills) of financial literacy to explain financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda. Most financial literacy studies have mainly adopted only non-functional measures of knowledge and skills. Besides, these studies ignore the individual contribution of functional components and non-functional measures of financial literacy in explaining financial inclusion of poor households. Thus, this study is the first to examine the impact of individual components of financial literacy in explaining financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda.

ICT for financial access: Mobile money and the financial behavior of rural households in Uganda

AbstractMobile money usage has expanded tremendously in Uganda, reaching over 40% of the adult population within 8 years of inception. We use data from 820 rural households to examine the effect of this financial innovation on their financial behavior. We find that using mobile money services increases the likelihood of saving, borrowing, and receiving remittances. The corresponding amounts of each service are also significantly higher among mobile money user households relative to their nonuser counterparts. We demonstrate that the mechanism of this impact is a reduction in transaction costs—a combination of transportation fares and service charges—associated with household proximity to mobile money agents. To illustrate the convenience of service proximity, we demonstrate that the household's likelihood and frequency of using mobile money services reduces with the distance to the nearest mobile money agent. This distance variable is then used to instrument for the potentially endogenous mobile money adoption. We finally perform propensity score matching to reinforce the robustness of our results; our results are consistent across all these specifications. The results imply that developing and enhancing access to and usage of pro‐poor financial products could be a first step to achieving greater financial inclusion.

Social capital dimensions in household food security interventions: implications for rural Uganda

We demonstrate that social capital is associated with positive food security outcomes, using survey data from 378 households in rural Uganda. We measured food security with the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale. For social capital, we measured cognitive and structural indicators, with principal components analysis used to identify key factors of the concept for logistic regression analysis. Households with bridging and linking social capital, characterized by membership in groups, access to information from external institutions, and observance of norms in groups, tended to be more food secure. Households with cognitive social capital, characterized by observance of generalized norms and mutual trust, were also more food secure than others. However, we established that social capital is, by itself, insufficient. It needs to be complemented with human capital enhancement. We recommend that development interventions which focus on strengthening community associations and networks to enhance food security should support activities which enhance cognitive social capital and human capital skills. Such activities include mutual goal setting, trust building and clear communication among actors. Education efforts for community members, both formal and non-formal, should also be supported such that they potentially strengthen social capital to improve food security in rural Uganda.

Kerosene lighting contributes to household air pollution in rural Uganda.

The literature on the contribution of kerosene lighting to indoor air particulate concentrations is sparse. In rural Uganda, kitchens are almost universally located outside the main home, and kerosene is often used for lighting. In this study, we obtained longitudinal measures of particulate matter 2.5 microns or smaller in size (PM2.5 ) from living rooms and kitchens of 88 households in rural Uganda. Linear mixed-effects models with a random intercept for household were used to test the hypotheses that primary reported lighting source and kitchen location (indoor vs outdoor) are associated with PM2.5 levels. During initial testing, households reported using the following sources of lighting: open-wick kerosene (19.3%), hurricane kerosene (45.5%), battery-powered (33.0%), and solar (1.1%) lamps. During follow-up testing, these proportions changed to 29.5%, 35.2%, 18.2%, and 9.1%, respectively. Average ambient, living room, and kitchen PM2.5 levels were 20.2, 35.2, and 270.0μg/m3 . Living rooms using open-wick kerosene lamps had the highest PM2.5 levels (55.3μg/m3 ) compared to those using solar lighting (19.4μg/m3 ; open wick vs solar, P=.01); 27.6% of homes using open-wick kerosene lamps met World Health Organization indoor air quality standards compared to 75.0% in homes using solar lighting.