Kenyans poorer than Ugandans

Kenya has poorer people than Uganda despite having a far larger economy, according to a new report by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Uganda’s poverty rate stands at 38.01 per cent compared to Kenya’s 43.37 per cent and Tanzania’s 67.87 per cent, using the poverty cut-off point of $1.25 per person (Sh105), says the Global Monitoring Report 2013.

In Rwanda, poverty stands at 63.17 per cent compared to Burundi’s 81.32 per cent. Previous studies have used $1-a-day as the cut-off point but that has since been replaced with the higher amount.

According to the report, sub-Saharan Africa has lagged behind the rest of the world in attaining the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including reducing poverty levels by half.

“In 1990, with poverty rates of about 55 per cent, sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia were at the same starting position in battling to achieve the development goals to halve the number of people in extreme poverty,” the report reads.

“By 2010, East Asia made spectacular progress and reduced extreme poverty rate to 12 per cent compared to sub-Saharan Africa which still had a poverty rate of 48 per cent.”

The report suggests that an increase of people living in towns helps to reduce poverty. In Africa urbanisation has increased from 30 per cent of the population in 1980 to 50 per cent in 2011. “Urbanisation helps pull people out of poverty and advances progress towards the UN goals but, if not managed well, it can also lead to burgeoning growth of slums, pollution and crime,” says the report.

Urbanisation has been a major force behind poverty reduction and progress towards other goals, says the report, which notes that more than 80 per cent of global goods and services were produced in cities such that countries with relatively higher levels of urbanisation such as China, and those in East Asia and Latin America, had played a major role in lowering extreme poverty worldwide.

“The two least urbanised regions, South Asia and sub-Sahara Africa have higher rates of poverty and lag behind on the goals,” the report adds.