Uganda

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Results in this brief are from an analysis of the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey. Information on methodology is in the main text of the report and in the method briefs. Additional results are available in results tables on the DDI website.

In Uganda, the share of adults aged 15 and older with any functional difficulty stands at 32.8%. As shown in Table 1, it varies from a low of 17.5% in Kampala to a high of 45.6% in Kigezi. In all regions, seeing is the most common type of functional difficulty; communication and self-care are the least common.

Region	Any	Seeing	Hearing	Mobility	Cognition	Self-Care	Communication
Acholi	41.2	21.4	10.4	18.5	15.2	2.7	2.7
Ankole	35.8	21.0	8.2	14.4	18.4	5.2	1.2
Bugisu	29.2	17.7	7.8	13.2	12.9	1.9	3.0
Bukedi	34.4	20.3	9.6	13.5	13.3	4.0	2.6
Bunyoro	30.3	18.5	6.9	11.0	11.0	2.9	1.5
Busoga	33.9	21.2	8.2	13.1	14.1	2.7	3.5
Kampala	17.5	10.1	2.1	5.6	4.5	1.1	1.2
Karamoja	22.9	12.0	7.8	11.0	7.6	4.7	1.9
Kigezi	45.6	26.1	11.5	21.9	28.1	8.0	2.9
Lango	45.1	27.1	11.8	17.8	18.9	3.6	4.2
North Buganda	30.1	19.3	5.9	12.4	9.9	3.1	2.1
South Buganda	27.1	17.2	5.5	11.2	8.6	3.0	1.8
Teso	27.8	16.9	7.1	11.4	9.2	2.3	1.8
Tooro	41.7	21.3	11.2	17.7	22.9	7.0	2.5
West Nile	31.6	18.9	6.4	14.8	10.0	3.0	1.9
National	32.8	19.5	7.8	13.6	13.3	3.6	2.3

Notes: ‘Any’ is the share of adults with any level of difficulty (some difficulty, a lot of difficulty or unable to do in one or more functional domains. For instance, ‘Seeing’ is the share of adults with difficulty in seeing of any level. Shares for the six domains do not add up to the share of any difficulty as some individuals may have functional difficulties in more than one domain. Source: Own calculations based on Uganda DHS data.

Multidimensional Poverty

Multidimensional poverty captures an individual’s experience of multiple deprivations (e.g. low educational attainment, having inadequate living conditions). In Uganda, the shares of persons with at least a lot of functional difficulty and some difficulty who are multidimensionally poor stands at 91% and 85.9%, respectively. This is higher than that of persons with no difficulty at 74.2%.

Thus, there is a disability gap in multidimensional poverty between persons with at least a lot of difficulty and no difficulty (16.8 percentage points) and between persons with some difficulty and no difficulty (11.7 percentage points). In other words, persons in Uganda with functional difficulties more frequently experience multiple deprivations than persons without difficulty.

As illustrated in Figure 1/Table 2, multidimensional poverty is common in all regions among adults with functional difficulties. Multidimensional poverty is least common among persons with functional difficulties in Kampala.

Figure 1: Uganda: Multidimensional poverty headcount among adults with no, some and at least a lot of difficulty (%)

Figure 1a: Adults with no difficulty

Figure 1a maps the share of adults with no difficulty at the regional level in Uganda

Figure 1b: Adults with some difficulty

Figure 1b maps the share of adults with some difficulty at the regional level in Uganda

Figure 1c: Adults with at least a lot of difficulty

Figure 1c maps the share of adults with at least a lot of difficulty at the regional level in Uganda

Legend of Figure 1 This is the legend for different categories of the multidimensional poverty headcount from a low of 20 to 29.9% to a high of 90% and above.
Source: Own calculations based on Uganda DHS data (2016). The notes of Table 1 apply.

Table 2 (Supporting Figure 1): Uganda: multidimensional poverty headcount among adults with no, some and at least a lot of difficulty (%)

Region	No difficulty	Some difficulty	At least a lot of difficulty
Acholi	88.5	93.2	95.5
Ankole	83.5	92.5	95.0
Bugisu	88.2	92.6	97.0
Bukedi	87.6	89.4	94.6
Bunyoro	84.6	89.2	94.2
Busoga	69.7	81.6	88.3
Kampala	23.9	36.5	43.9
Karamoja	98.9	98.4	100.0
Kigezi	81.4	91.9	95.7
Lango	93.9	95.2	97.5
North Buganda	68.0	81.4	81.7
South Buganda	46.6	67.1	83.8
Teso	84.9	89.4	88.4
Tooro	85.0	90.6	95.2
West Nile	94.7	96.6	97.2
National	74.2	85.9	91.0