Poverty in Uganda: Causes and Strategies for Reduction with Great Emphasis on Ethics and Ecological Justice

Uganda is one of the 56 countries on the African continent and among the developing countries in the world. It is one of the poor countries in the world with poverty rates standing at 19.7 percent in 2013. The paper aimed at establishing the causes of poverty in a rich and well-endowed country, and the strategies for poverty reduction with great emphasis on ethics and ecological justice. Although Uganda is among the Sub-Saharan African countries that registered the highest rates of poverty reduction, the country remains among the poorest in the world. According to a 2016 poverty assessment, poverty in Uganda reduced significantly between 2006 and 2013. The number of Ugandans living below the poverty line declined from 31.1 percent in 2006 to 19.7 percent in 2013. However, the actual poverty situation on the ground is pathetic because of ethical, ecological, historical, political, economic and social injustices. In conclusion, Uganda remains one of the poor countries in the world despite significant poverty reduction which underscores the need for more governmental commitment, ethics and ecological justice as well as global contribution.


Introduction
Uganda is one of the 56 states in Africa. It is a land locked country neighboring South Sudan in the North, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda in the West, Tanzania in the South and Kenya in the East. It is part of the East African Community. Uganda has many potential resources for development such as land, which is self-renewing, generally no need to add artificial fertilizers. Many lakes and their products like water, fish, and rainfall formation, with Lake Victoria being 68,100sqkm thus being the 2 nd biggest lake in the world. Equally are rivers and their products with river Nile; 6,700km long. There are varied natural features like mountains, rift valleys, and forests with high implications on tourism. There are also several foods of different types and high nutritional value, medicinal plants, and animals as well as high bio-diversity and favorable climate. Although Uganda is among the Sub-Saharan African countries that registered the highest rates of poverty reduction, the country remains among the poorest in the world. According to a 2016 poverty assessment, poverty in Uganda reduced significantly between 2006 and 2013. The number of Ugandans living below the poverty line declined from 31.1 percent in 2006 to 19.7 percent in 2013, but the actual situation in Uganda remains alarming. The paper aims at establishing the causes of the continued poverty amidst resources in order to provide better lasting solutions to this monster which has kept Uganda a third world country. The persistence of poverty in Uganda, despite significant poverty reduction underscores the need for more governmental commitment, ethics and ecological justice, and global contribution. This paper exposes the causes of poverty in Uganda and reduction strategies. It further presents the conclusion and the way forward.

Methodology
The study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches of identifying the poor, the causes and the way forward with specific focus on poorest districts of Uganda. Basing on the 2016 poverty Assessment Report and Uganda Human Development Report 2007/8, these districts include; Kaabong (65.3%), Abim (65.3%), Kotido (65.3%), Moroto (60.7%), Nakapiripirit (56%), Yumbe (46.5%), Kalangala (46.1%), Kaberamaido (41.6%), Kisoro (40.2%), and Rakai (39%). Snowball sampling method was employed to identify the poor given the fact that the poverty is not a popular phenomenon in the eyes of the public. Interviews were then conducted with the selected respondents. In this paper, qualitative data analysis involved the researcher searching for patterns of data in form of recurrent behaviors or events, and then interpreted them moving from description of empirical data to interpretation of meaning. The process of data analysis involved making sense out of text data. In addition, quantitative techniques were applied to analyze data that was collected using questionnaires. It involved further moving deeper and deeper into understating the data, representing the data and making the interpretation of the larger amount of data (Amin 2005;Kaahwa, 2008). Therefore, in this paper, the process of data analysis involved editing, coding, and tabulation plus interpretation of data hence arriving at this complete researched paper.

Origin
The word "poverty" and / or "poor" originated from the Latin word pauper meaning poor, which has its roots in the words pau-and pario that is "giving birth to nothing"; referring to unproductive livestock and farmland (Westover, 2008). Historically, the idea that some people are trapped in poverty while others have spells in poverty was a central element of most analysis (Hulme and Mckay, 2005). For example, officials and social commentators in eighteenth century France distinguished between the pauvreand the indigent. The former experienced seasonal poverty when crops failed or demand for casual agricultural labour was low. The latter were permanently poor because of ill health (physical and mental), accident, age or alcoholism. The central aim of policy was to support the pauvreways that would stop them from becoming indigent (Hulme and Mckay, 2005).

Definition
Poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon whose definitions and causes vary by age, gender, culture and other social, economic and political contexts. Many of its dimensions are often hidden. Poverty is not only reflected in the lack of income that can be solved sectorally but it is a multi-sectoral problem which calls for integrated and sectoral solutions (UNDP, 2000).There are various definitions of poverty; however, the common denominator for many perceptions of poverty is often the notion of 'lack', or 'deficiency', or 'deprivation'.
Poverty is a dynamic process of social, economic, cultural, political or other deprivation which affects individuals or communities, often resulting into lack of access to basic necessities of life like food, shelter, clothing, water, medical care, education and a feeling of powerlessness, helplessness, isolation or social exclusion. In other words, poverty refers to a situation of failure to attain a given standard of living or lack of resources to acquire the basic needs of life.
However, it is important to note that the definition of poverty above rests upon some prior conception of welfare which is very broad and cover political, social and economic aspects of life. Poverty is generally classified as absolute or relative among others; Absolute poverty is a condition of life characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy and disease, so as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency. Here the level of deprivation is so severe that the basic needs of life can scarcely be met. Schubert (1993), absolute poverty may be seen from the micro and macroeconomic perspective. In micro terms, poverty refers to a situation such that the individual persons or households are not able to satisfy their basic needs or can satisfy them only to an inadequate degree. In macro terms, poverty exists when the average inhabitants of a country live below the minimum level or not far above it. It's however difficult to distinguish between cause and effect in poor economies.
Relative poverty relates to a given social way of living in reference to a particular set of values. It simply means that some people are poorer than others. It's comparative between people and societies for example Prof. Gordon Wavamuno (A rich person in Uganda)' is poor relatively to Sir Bill Gates (one of the richest person in USA). This means that one may not be poor in absolute terms but poor relative to other people.

Types of Poverty
Technically, there are two types of poverty that is transient poverty and chronic poverty. Transient poverty affects individual house hold especially through the sickness of the breadwinner, or a community facing seasonal drought or governments hit by structural changes/adjustments such as retrenched workers in public and private sectors. The magnitude of the hardship it imposes on family welfare and the community depends on the asset possession of the affected household, the existence and functioning of institutions such as welfare and credit securities which help to acquire consumption. Transient poverty can be dealt with through a clear understanding of the indigenous, institutions, market operations and relevant public policy.
Chronic poverty is reflected in terms of persistence and severity of poverty. Its root cause may be due to generalized poverty affecting all sectors of society. It arises from a scarcity of resources, lack of a sustained and secure social environment for growth and development, general backwardness of technology of production and / or inadequate motivation to take advantage of opportunities. Chronic poverty can also be as a result of institutional factors embedded within historical, social, political and economic processes. Society is structured in such a way that certain categories are disenabled from developing assets, capabilities and access to resources and skills.

Poverty Reduction in Uganda
According to the 2016 Poverty Assessment, Uganda has Sociology and Anthropology 7(1): 9-19, 2019 11 reduced monetary poverty at a very rapid rate. The proportion of the Ugandan population living below the national poverty line declined from 31.1% in 2006 to 19.7% in 2013. Similarly, the country was one of the fastest in Sub-Saharan Africa to reduce the share of its population living on $1.90 PPP per day or less, from 53.2% in 2006 to 34.6% in 2013. Nonetheless, Uganda remains one of the poorest nations in the world and is still lagging behind in several important non-monetary areas like sanitation, access to electricity, education (completion and progression), child nutrition, unethical conduct and ecological injustices.

Categories of the Poor in Uganda
According to the World Bank (1992) and the 2014 National population and Housing census results majorly identified six categories of poor people and vulnerable in Uganda as: Orphans, Street children, Handicapped, Female headed house hold/Widows, Older people and their dependents and Landless peasants and residents in the northern region.

Characteristics of the Poor in Uganda
Such poor persons identified above are generally associated with among others; small land holdings, large families, female headed households, illiterate, malnourished, limited access to credit due to lack of collateral security, limited access to basic services (electricity, medical services, and education), unemployed, political powerlessness, socially disadvantaged, and prone to diseases.

Causes of Poverty in Uganda
The findings of this paper reveal majorly six classifications of poverty causes namely ethical, ecological, historical, social, economic and political in varying degrees.

Ethical
There is great deal of unethical practices in Uganda that continue to perpetuate poverty in Uganda. These practices are majorly manifested in corruption, stealing resources, drunkenness, sexual immorality, smoking, drug consumption, tribalism and witchcraft yet the country is more than 99% religious (Christians are 86% and Muslims 13%) (UBOS, 2016).
Corruption refers to any behaviour contrary to formal duties, obligations, agreements and rules/regulations for private interests (Lubaale, 2012). This corruption cancer has created grave social-economic and political consequences mostly negative on the spheres of life and our continent Africa where Uganda is no exceptional. Transparency International has rated Uganda's public sector as one of the most corrupt in the world. In 2016, Uganda ranked 151st worst out of 176 and had a score of 25 on a scale from 0 (perceived as most corrupt) to 100 (perceived as clean) (Transparency International, 2017). The World Bank's 2015 Worldwide Governance Indicators ranked Uganda in the worst 12 percentile of all countries (World Bank, 2015). On Uganda, the World Bank's recent Worldwide Governance Indicators reflected corruption was a severe problem" and that "the country annually loses 768.9 billion shillings ($286 million) to corruption. Ugandan parliamentarians in 2014 were earning 60 times what was being earned by most state employees and they were seeking a major increase. This was causing widespread criticism and protests, including the smuggling of two piglets into the parliament in June 2014 to highlight corruption amongst members of parliament. The protesters, who were arrested, were using the word "MPigs" to highlight their grievance (Uganda News.Net, 2014).A specific scandal, which had significant international consequences and highlighted the presence of corruption in high-level government offices, was the embezzlement of $12.6 million of donor funds from the Office of the Prime Minister in 2012. These funds were "earmarked as crucial support for rebuilding northern Uganda, ravaged by a 20-year war, and Karamoja, Uganda's poorest region." This scandal prompted the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and Norway to suspend aid (Human Rights Watch, 2013). Widespread grand and petty corruption involving public officials and political patronage systems have also seriously affected the investment climate in Uganda. One of the high corruption risk areas is the public procurement in which non-transparent under-the-table cash payments are often demanded from procurement officers (Business Anti-Corruption Portal, 2014).
The Non-Governmental Organizations (Amendment) Act that was passed in 2006 has stifled the productivity of NGOs through erecting barriers to entry, activity, funding and assembly within the sector. Burdensome and corrupt registration procedures (i.e. requiring recommendations from government officials; annual re-registration), unreasonable regulation of operations (i.e. requiring government notification prior to making contact with individuals in NGO's area of interest), and the precondition that all foreign funds be passed through the Bank of Uganda, among other things, are severely limiting the output of the NGO sector. Furthermore, the sector's freedom of speech has been continually infringed upon through the use of intimidation, and the recent Public Order Management Bill (severely limiting freedom of assembly) will only add to the government's stockpile of ammunition (The International Center for Not-For-Profit Law, 2012).
Tribalism is the act of favoring people of your speech community visa via people from other speech communities and is caused by bad governance. Tribalism is responsible 12 Poverty in Uganda: Causes and Strategies for Reduction with Great Emphasis on Ethics and Ecological Justice for the political instability and conflict in most African countries evidenced by civil wars and crises in Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Ethiopia and Nigeria (Kinoti, 1997). The effect of tribalism in Uganda has been colossal in terms of death and suffering, poverty, inequalities and regional imbalances, hatred, conflicts, economic loss and under development.
Tribalism has majorly two obnoxious elements; firstly, it creates prejudice against other tribes, their customs, food, languages, abilities and physical appearances. It further creates arrogance on the part of the large tribal, which is normally oppressive to the smaller tribes, which often breeds hostility and counter hostility. Secondly, tribalism is closely associated with favoritism in terms of competition for power, property, jobs and development resources. Tribalism blinds people to the truth and justice. No doubt therefore, that the prevalence of poverty in Uganda is due to corruption and tribalism, in addition to bad governance.
De-culturation, Ethnocide, and Hegemony are the key issues that continue to perpetuate the dependency syndrome which is another major development challenge in Uganda. De-culturation is the negative way of affecting the culture/life of another people. Ethnocide is the process of one culture directly or indirectly dominating another, suppressing it, making it inferior, and "killing" it in the long run. Hegemony is the dominance of one group or state or culture over another. No doubt, Uganda is suffering from de-culturation, ethnocide, and hegemony due to slave trade, colonialism, racism, neo colonialism and globalization among others which uprooted Ugandan values, called them barbaric, archaic, uncivilized, inferior, satanic and full of evils particularly Christian missionaries who introduced new civilization which was western with many of its aspects unfit in Uganda and not sustainable. Furthermore, the western dominance and direction in the cultural, religious, social, economic and political spheres of Uganda while underrating her heritage and systems, has greatly contributed to the crises typical of violence of all kinds, inferiority complex, extermination and alienation which have eventually given birth to poverty. Uganda's underdevelopment is rooted in the denial or misconception about the humanity of African's backed up by the fact that any development that takes place in another culture is not sustainable as it is in Africa (Development in Africa is a Western concept) hence the perpetual poverty crises.
There are unresolved grievances that continuous to perpetuate violence hence poverty. These may include unemployment (32%), family dispute (27%), followed by political extremism (23%) and religious extremism (10%). Drug abuse, tribalism, injustice, land wrangles, devil worship, and unfavorable government policies were all important sources of grievances majorly in slums and the rest of the country. Individuals who earn less than 100,000 UGX a month (53%) and those with a history of violence (6.3%) were also particularly considered to be at-risk of participating in acts of violence. This baseline study was a precursor to the three-and-a-half-year project with the objective of identifying drivers of conflict and possible radicalization. It is expected that data collected will inform an important evidence based model of countering radicalization. According to the report, the main acts of violence and sources of grievances in slum populations are violence, mob justice, and rape or sexual harassment ranked 47%, 46% and 33% respectively. Other violent acts reported include human sacrifice (17%), suicide (10%) and acid attacks (7%); as reported by respondents. Mr. Thomas Tiedemann, Head of the Governance and Human Rights Section, speaking on behalf of the EU Delegation to Uganda said:" The European Union is proud to be contributing to an initiative whose end goal is harnessing the potentials of young people in slum dwellings and helping them to develop their own lives -and contribute to the development of their communities -where poverty and lack of basic resources are otherwise likely to aggravate conflict and destitution".

Ecological
Moral decay and separation of ethics from development: Ethics and development are intimately linked. You cannot have one without the other. One of the development crises in the world and Uganda inclusive is this separation. Economic growth, which is part of development, is sometimes promoted to the detriment of human values like displacement of people, high taxes, and ill health or of the environment like pollution and degradation which are now hitting hard Uganda and the world at large. Globally for example, half of the forests that originally covered 46% of the earth's land surface are gone. Desertification and land degradation threaten nearly one quarter of the land surface of the globe. Over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification and 1 billion people are at risk of the same. Global warming is expected to increase the earth's temperature by 3C (5.4F) in the next 100 years, resulting into multiple adverse effects on the environment and human society including: wide spread species loss, ecosystem damage, flooding of populated human settlements and increased natural disasters which will perpetuate poverty for a while. An estimated 40 million people in various parts of the world have been forcibly evicted and displaced from their lands (Lubaale, 2015) because of moral decay and increasing injustice.
The above are global statistics where Uganda is inclusive. However, for this paper that is particular to Uganda, reveals/ indicates more ecological injustices that are perpetuating more poverty. In the last 100 years, Uganda's forests have faced severe pressures mainly from agricultural conversion as a result of population increase, urban demand for charcoal, over grazing, uncontrolled timber harvesting and policy failures. The forestry cover has shrunk from 45% in 1890 to the present 20.3 % of the total land area in Uganda. Currently, the rate of 13 deforestation is estimated to be about 1% per annum. It is estimated that 800,000M3 of logs are cut each year. This rate of timber harvesting exceeds sustainable forests harvesting levels by a factor of four (4). The annual cost of deforestation in Uganda has been conservatively estimated at US$ 3.8 -5.7 million per year (Falkenberg et al, 2000). Currently, deforestation is minimal on gazetted forest reserves, it is mostly occurring on privately owned or ungazetted public forests. Military warfare in Uganda has contributed much to deforestation. Agricultural encroachment, logging, charcoal making, and harvesting for firewood consume more wooded area each year. Besides mismanagement, growing population, conservation, underutilization, weak law enforcement and poverty. There is growing corruption in government bodies that are mandated to conserve as well as among the citizens coupled with weak law enforcement institutions and officers, Poor planning, weak regulations and inappropriate processing technology have resulted in the unsustainable harvesting of forest products hence poverty because of low returns. There is limited institutional capacity and limited resources at both central and local government levels to regulate forests exploitation and there is limited incentive for private sector to improve its performance in the forests sector.
The current water management practices in Uganda may not be robust to cope with these challenges which impact on water resources and increase water use requirements. The Spatial and temporal distribution of water resource is uneven, which pauses a big challenge to their management. Some areas like those in north-eastern Uganda have less water resources while those in the central have plenty of water resources. This explains why there are increasing incidences of water use conflicts in the water scarce parts of the country, especially in the cattle corridor. Pastoralists migrate from place to place in search of water and vegetation. This movement not only creates a security threat; it is also a major health hazard as diseases are transferred from one part of the country to another in this process. There is also increasing pressure on water resources due to rapid population growth, increased urbanization and industrialization, uncontrolled environmental degradation and pollution.
Human encroachment on wild life habitat is one of the biggest challenges of wild life conservation due to continuous changes in land use and the increasing search for farmland. Corruption in government bodies that are mandated to conserve as well as among the citizens coupled with weak law enforcement institutions and officers. There is also limited capital for harnessing the wildlife and national parks, growing population, inadequate exposure, ignorance and poverty. Human conflicts especially wars have greatly led to destruction and killing of wild life, as well as diseases and limited ability to treat wild life hence death hence poverty due to low returns from wildlife.
Artisanal and small scale mining that dominates the mining sector in Uganda is characterized by unsustainable mining methods, dire health and safety conditions, child labour, gender inequalities, exploitative pricing and environmental degradation, among other challenges. In addition, there is corruption in government bodies that are mandated to manage the country's mineral wealth as well as among the citizens coupled with weak law enforcement institutions and officers. There is also limited capital for harnessing the mineral resources, growing population that is encroaching on the mineral areas and thus costly to displace the people besides local mining that fetches little income, inadequate exposure, ignorance and poverty.
There is growing population that is encroaching on the mountains, inadequate exposure, ignorance and poverty with poor communities using rudimentary farming techniques triggering severe soil erosion and land sliding on mountain slopes. A case in point is the recent landslides in 2016 that claimed lives of many people and properties hence causing more poverty. Given their rugged terrain, some mountainous areas are inaccessible due to poor transport networks Therefore, the above issues clearly indicate that moral and ethical failure (bad governance, tribalism, corruption, nepotism, dishonesty, laziness, and embezzlement) is at the center of the prevailing ecological injustices which are creating political and socio-economic crisis in Uganda that has given birth to poverty due to low returns from the environment.

Historical
The history of communities in Uganda can be traced from their origin, geographical location, cultures and structure indeed reinforces poverty in many circumstances. Yahie (1993) believes that the factors that cause poverty include; structural causes that are more permanent and depend on a host of exogenous factors such as limited resources, lack of skills, locational disadvantage and other factors that are inherent in the social and political set-up; and the transitional causes that are mainly due to structural adjustment reforms and changes in domestic economic policies that may result in price changes, unemployment and so on. Natural calamities such as drought and man-made disasters such as wars, environmental degradation and so on also induce transitional poverty (Narayan et.al. 2000a(Narayan et.al. , 2000b. According to Glazer (2000), culture tends to be the explanatory variable that theorists and policymakers look to when attempting to explain social dysfunction, particularly due to the sometimes visible connection between cultures and race. This may be why cultural arguments waned from the discussion and why some theorists and policymakers came to link poverty to behaviour (Mead, 1986), or to rational calculation (Murray 1984). These scholars argue that poverty is largely the result of social and behavioural deficiencies in individuals 14 Poverty in Uganda: Causes and Strategies for Reduction with Great Emphasis on Ethics and Ecological Justice that ostensibly make them less economically viable within conventional society. However, due to persistence of poverty in certain areas, the behavioural perspective is reinforced by the culture of poverty thesis, which suggests that individuals create, sustain, and transmit to future generations a culture that reinforces the various social and behavioural deficiencies (Rodgers, 2000). A corollary to this perspective suggests that government policy perpetuates poverty, and contributes to a variety of other socials ills including rising rates of divorce (Murray, 1984). The "culture of poverty" thesis, which emanated from the anthropological arguments of Lewis (1970), later came to be erroneously associated with laying blame for poverty either on the poor themselves or on a government that keeps them dependent (Patterson, 2000).Along these lines, it is the deficient character of the poor along with their deviant behaviour and the resultant self-reinforcing environment that restrict their access to economic viability and success. Rising rates of divorce, female headed single parent families, teenage pregnancy, drug/alcohol misuse, and criminal activity are said to reflect these dysfunctional attitudes and values, relative to mainstream society, about family, education and work. These attitudes are passed onto subsequent generations leading to a vicious cycle of poverty from which few escape (Rodgers, 2000). Therefore, poor areas such as Karamoja (Kaabong, Abim, Kotido, Moroto, and Nakapiripirit) is largely because of nomadic pastoralism, Yumbe, Kaberamaido and some parts of Busoga because of peasantry agriculture, Ssebei because of hilly location and pastoralism, Kalangala because of being an island and therefore historically disconnected from the Centre, among other factors indeed account for their continued poverty, diseases and ignorance from generation to generation.

Social
Social inequalities and tensions majorly steaming from gender, cultures, and religion have indeed created fighting's, violence's, resource abuse and eventual poverty. Religious differences (among Christians, Christians verse Muslims) and cultural differences in terms of speech, traditions, customs, beliefs and practices have been at the center of controversies, suspicion and counter suspicion, and violence that have led to several deaths, family breakdown, discrimination in the allocation of resources, distribution of benefits and access to services hence poverty on defeated groups. Polygamy, domestic violence, separation and divorce are cited as causes of poverty whereby many women suffer years of beatings to avoid the consequences of family break-up and the food insecurity that often follows loss of access to productive resources such as land. This paper looks at Gender Based Violence (GBV) in detail as a case in point of social relations. GBV refers to a situation of suffering, mistreatment or injury caused unto someone as a result of their gender. In other words, someone suffers because of being a male or female caused by persons of the same sex, opposite sex, society or institution. Forms of Gender Based Violence may occur in the following ways; Physical Gender Based Violence which occurs when one is harmed physically on the body like through fighting, boxing, battering, beating and canning among others.
Psychological Gender Based Violence which occurs as a result of someone's actions towards the others that harms them emotionally or mentally like keeping quiet, withholding affection, stopping to communication, coming late and abusing people/speaking vulgar language Sexual Gender Based Violence which occurs through abusing sex and harm some sexually like through rape, defilement, forced marriages, refusing to have sex with your partner, frequency of sex; too much or too little, demanding certain sex styles, duration of sex and timing of sex which may not be in favour of the other party.
Economic Gender Based Violence which occurs when one party or persons or society harms the other people financially or in economic terms generally like receiving on inheritances, being divorced with no wealth attachment, men being in charges of wealth they have not worked for at the cost of women, through stealing money, refusing to buy things at home or supporting the other financially or refusing the other to work.
Political Gender Based Violence which occurs when someone because of his or her gender is compelled or forced or coerced to subscribe to political affiliation or practice, custom or teaching not of his choice like through force, propaganda, intimidation/threats and promising favours. People refuse to vote someone because of his or her gender.
Religious Gender Based Violence which occurs when someone because of his or her gender is compelled or forced or coerced to subscribe to a religious affiliation or practice or custom or teaching not of his/her choice like through force, propaganda, intimidation/threats and promising favours. Religious marginalization of some gender like women not becoming priests or imams. Religious teaches that a man is the head of the family including his wife.
Cultural Gender Based Violence which occurs when someone because of his or her gender is compelled or forced or coerced to subscribe to a cultural affiliation or practice or custom or teaching not of his/her choice like through force, propaganda, intimidation/threats and promising favours. Cultural marginalization of some gender like women not becoming leaders. Cultural teaches that a man is the head of the family including his wife. Forced male circumcision of men among the Bagisu.
The major effect of these gender related violence's is poverty in the family, household, and the nation because families are fighting, not working together, separation, suspicion and counter suspicion of members and girls/women suffer greatly hence the whole nation.

Econ omic
There are several economic factors that explain the poverty trends in Uganda and they include high inflation, unemployment, inequalities and low economic growth. The inflation in Uganda has constantly increased hence affecting productivity, investments and purchasing power. The increasing population in Uganda to 34.6 Million (UBOS, 2016) where the youth below age 30 are over 60% coupled with low economic productivity indeed presents unemployment challenge. Available research to complement this paper affirms that poverty is a daily friend to most of the people in urban areas, and this is due to scarcity of jobs with a greater competition among the educated and the uneducated personnel. Most people are confused just because of the situation where the people are taken to be ignorant by their employers. I think this situation is brought upon by the education system, whereby it gives hope to students that success will come after graduation and that after school there is a ready job for them. It has also developed a mentality that, if you have educational documents, you can qualify for any job; just a few degree-holders think creatively in their own demographic to be self-employed. There is growing inequalities between the rich and the poor because of differences in access and control of factors of production: land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. Economic growth remains low in Uganda because productions centres, factories, and investments are not matching the international standards and the increasing population. Therefore, such economic imbalances indeed limit income increase and wealth creation hence poverty.
Uganda has a very poor social-economic infrastructure set up. There is poor transport system like roads, railways, water systems, and air; Commercial services like banks, insurances, media, Information Communication Technology (ICT) like computers, telephones, internet, and fax which are key drivers of economic development. As a result, only a few areas with better facilities (such as urban areas) have developed leaving the rural areas, which are occupied by the largest percentage of the population undeveloped.
Another leading cause of poverty in Uganda is the prevalence of diseases (such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, TB,EBOLA etc) due partly to inadequate and poor health facilities. When a household is affected by any of these diseases, the little resources are spent on treating the sick. In a worst case scenario where the bread winner dies, those who are left behind have no resources to support themselves, thus leading to poor lifestyles.
The loans given out by the World Bank and International Monitory Fund (IMF) have also contributed to the poverty in Africa. Such loans come with strict conditionalities, which usually require governments to adjust some of their economic decisions. For instance, the requirement to reduce total government spending in African countries has affected major social sectors such as education, health and infrastructure, which are drivers of economic development where Uganda is no exceptional.

Political
The political stability and the investment climate of Uganda are unpredictable. Uganda experienced a lot of political turmoil between 1964-1987 which greatly affected production, exports, and investments and tainted the image of the country outside as a bad place to invest particularly with the expulsion of Asians in 1972. From 1986-2006, the country had regained international reputation because of the political stability created by President Yoweri Museveni's for first 20 years particularly in allowing investors to come to Uganda, ending the northern Uganda war, and creating a stable constitution that guaranteed stability, security and functioning of institutions.
However, the continued stay of President Yoweri Museveni in power is increasingly creating political tensions which are not healthy for investment. For instance, amending of the 1995 constitution to remove the two presidential term limits in 2005 which selfishly granted President Yoweri Museveni a chance to stand for a third time in 2006. Continued corruption among government officials indeed has discouraged donors and investors in the country. Further amendment of the constitution occurred in 2017 which removed the age limit of the President from 75 to none in order to pave way for President Yoweri Museveni to stand again in 2021 because he was going to be barred by the constitutional presidential age limit. Increasing insecurity in Uganda with killing and kidnapping of investors, women and other people, brutal police force, have all affected investments hence low capital inflow, business, hence limited income and consequently poverty.

Conclusions
It is now clear that Uganda is among the Sub-Saharan African countries that registered the highest rates of poverty reduction, although the country remains among the poorest in the world. According to a 2016 poverty assessment, poverty in Uganda reduced significantly between 2006 and 2013. The number of Ugandans living below the poverty line declined from 31.1 percent in 2006 to 19.7 percent in 2013, but the actual situation in Uganda remains wanting if the country is to make break through. The paper has established the major causes of the continued poverty amidst resources in Uganda as unethical practices, ecological injustices or destruction, historical distortions, social tensions/conflicts, economic and political instabilities /uncertainties which among others put together have affected work, investments, capital inflow and eventual wealth creation hence poverty. The persistence of poverty in Uganda, despite significant poverty reduction underscores the need for more governmental commitment, ethics and ecological justice, and global contribution. As illustrated in the way forward below, these suggestions need to be put in practice if Uganda is to become a middle income country in 2040.

Way Forward/Recommendations to Ending Poverty in Uganda
Uganda has enough resources to deal with her poverty challenges provided the historical distortions that have caused poverty in Uganda are dealt with legally and ethically. Uganda is neither poor nor developing: It is stagnant. Therefore, poverty in Uganda is rooted in social, economic and political constructs with a historical context but not inevitable and thus can be averted. In the next 30 years, Uganda is envisaged to be a transformed society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country. This means that within the thirty years, every Ugandan citizen on average is expected to be earning an annual salary of US$ 9,500 or Ushs 25,000,000 which translate into an average monthly income of Ushs. 2,000,000. In order to achieve this economic expectation, all other aspects of the population including socio-demographic behaviour have to be improved upon to match the expected rise in income as envisaged above (MFPED, 2014). This will also depend on the efficient use of the country's natural resources (ecological justice).
Poverty can only be fought in the presence of strong institutions, and equitable distribution of resources. This requires a non-corrupt government. However, in Uganda, programmes designed to fight poverty are not fully implemented because the funds end up in the hands of corrupt individuals, who pocket the majority. Again due to poor governance, those in authority have failed to apprehend the corrupt. This creates an imbalance in society and leads to more poverty because you end up with a few influential and powerful individuals oppressing the poor (who are the majority). Therefore, the institution of Inspectorate of Government (IG), courts of laws, police, accounting officers at all levels and NGOs need to be empowered to carry their duties of ending corruption in order to pave way for equity resource allocations, distribution of benefits and access to all services hence increasing incomes to all people vertically and horizontally.
Ugandans must forgive the colonialists, historical distortions and past/present leaders who have undermined Uganda's development because of their selfish interests in order to forge a way forward. In other words, Ugandans must stop criticizing the colonialist and past leaders' activities because there is no solution in criticism and just forge a way forward. And I am firm on this position because most Ugandans (writers or teachers or politicians) spend more than 75% of the time merely talking or criticizing colonial/past leaders' activities without providing solutions because solutions are not found in criticism but only in dialogue and forging away forward. As Marc De Bodt says: "worrying is like a rocking chair, it keeps you moving, but it gets you nowhere"! Ugandans must move on and shape their course of development.
Leaders and nations which have hurt Uganda must start off by apologizing. This should be followed with making good of the resources stolen, compensation and reparations like for some of the Ugandan art found in the museums in the developed countries. Available means and forums should be used and the church should take a central role in forgiving, apologizing and reconciling Uganda and the rest of the world.
Ethics and Development must be viewed as in inseparable and thus situated in the entire development process as the core value. This will bring about cultural rejuvenation, moral rehabilitation and nationalism/Pan Africanism which is a scarce commodity in Uganda yet stands out to be the major pre-requisite for Uganda's development.
Justice, Ethics, and Moral rehabilitation is needed in Uganda. The whites and others leaders should change their attitudes towards Ugandans as being inferior to being equals as human beings searching for justice on this planet. Dialogue, in the interest of Uganda and justice, is what Uganda needs not aid. The country has been humiliated and impoverished through mechanisms presupposed to help it but only caused poverty. This must end with establishment of dialogue and justice.
Moral rehabilitation of all people across all institutions like schools, public service, hospitals, industries, families, and communities must start. This might reduce the cancer of corruption, unhealthy competition, tribalism and many unethical practices in pursuance of development, which are largely responsible for Uganda's poverty. Religious institutions should take a leading role in moral rehabilitation and the Government should set up tough sanctions for immoral people with firm implementing agencies.
Religious leaders must teach and promote stewardship that is, proper care of natural resources like the mountains, rivers, lakes, wildlife and forestry through compelling government to enforce the laws on encroachers and abuse of resources. Engage in mass mobilization and sensitization about the need for proper conservation and utilization of resources and implications of mismanagement. Form coalitions to monitor the resources and work with the state to prosecute those who violate conservation regulations. Lobby the state and the international community to implement of a system of incentives and dis-incentives and research.
Religious leaders should also lead by example by getting involved in sustainable resource management projects and activities. Demonstration projects can be pioneered by religious institutions as afforestation projects to slow down forest depletion, aquaculture projects to limit depletion of fish, conservation farming involving crop and livestock projects, efficient water utilization projects. For purposes of illustrating example prudent and efficient resource utilization is possible and profitable. Besides creating awareness about natural resources management and development, this can be done by sensitizing the masses about the need for sustainable resource utilization by emphasizing the socio-economic and environmental values of natural resources such as land, soils, forests, water and wildlife among others. Such sensitization should be aimed at influencing attitudes and choices that the religious make about the use of resources.
Religious leaders and organizations actively should engage in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs, in their communities, in their own organizations, and in cooperation with each other. Religious scholars should continue to engage in dialogue amongst themselves and with the scientific community, to continue to support the progressive evolution of religious thinking and scientific discovery. Furthermore, by building guidance for sustainable development that addresses the moral, ethical, spiritual, and practical responses needed to transform the paradigm for a shared destiny.
Promotion of Gender Equality is urgent in all sectors of the economy, private and public service so that women and men's similarities and differences are recognized and equally valued. This will enable both men and women enjoy equal status, recognition and consideration as well as equal conditions to realize their full potential and ambitions which will enable them contribute and benefit from society's resources and development. This will eventually guarantee equal freedoms and quality of life hence equal outcomes in all aspects of life.
In addition, Gender equality promotion will lead to no discrimination on grounds of a person's gender in the allocation of resources, distribution of benefits and access to services. In other words, there will be equality of opportunities in the allocation of resources, distribution of benefits and access to services. The above will lead to equal rights to all males and females in the allocation of resources, distribution of benefits and access to services.
In doing the above, there is need for Gender Equity which is the process of being fair to men and women -such as equitable allocation of resources and opportunities. Equity will lead to gender equality hence growing stable gender relations that will lead harnessing wealth from people's effort.
Ugandans must know their cultures and history very well, which will serve as a basis for designing educational, economic and political systems relevant to Ugandan context. Ugandans must stop relying on foreign solutions and aid to their challenges. They should remember some of their sayings like "borrowed water does not quench thirst" (In Lusoga, one of the languages in Eastern Uganda, it is rendered thus: "Amadiamasabbetigawonyandiwo"). I do not mean to stop completely from borrowing because it is not health but such borrowing should be conditioned to holistic development of Uganda. Ugandans must reject aid, ideas, theories, models, policies and programmes from the West that humiliate and create dependence.
Uganda must take stock of and use of its resources in order to end the disasters and exploitations it has undergone. The resources must be studied and theorized in schools in order to come up with economic and political solutions and systems that will exploit them well for the benefit of Uganda. Uganda must produce a good part of their needs locally in order to break the dependence syndrome from the West. It should develop industries that provide essential inputs to agriculture, process agricultural products and develop small scale industries. Thus applying the unbalanced growth theory advanced by Hirschman, which is to start with one period, and the rest will follow in the next period because Uganda has no capacity to massively invest in every sector in one period as the balanced growth theory suggests. Consequently, integrating fully from the production of raw materials to the local processing and fabrication will be possible thus meaningful and sustainable industrial development will take place relevant for Uganda. Therefore, industrial development based on imported basic metals (iron, and steel, copper and aluminum) and basic chemicals (acids, gases, and intermediates), which lead to continued dependency, must be rejected. This will be possible if Uganda together with other Africans speak with one voice through the African Union (AU) which will have a bargaining power in the International organizations and be able to regulate trade exchange like the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Ugandans must identify allies outside the country who are in for Uganda and work together for the good of Uganda. Therefore, Ugandan institutions like education, health, government, army and civil society like the church must identify similar, related or sympathetic bodies to partner with and dialogue with in the interest of Uganda.
The assumption here is that not all West is against Uganda and not all Uganda is in for Uganda. In addition to identifying allies, Uganda must identify Ugandans (persons or organizations) against Uganda and rebuff/rubbish them as worthless and nonsense. Meetings/conferences where Ugandans are lectured to and given recipes for their poverty challenges in the end which prolong the suffering, must be rejected and protested. In the process/effort of dialogue, exchange and collaboration of whatever level and nature, Ugandans need to be vigilant with groups, which come up with the best intentions of helping but end up reinforcing prejudice against Ugandans, which leads to underdevelopment instead of development.
Uganda could benefit from South-South cooperation, regional and sub-regional economic integration as one of the answers to Africans exploitation from the North and economic disorder. Economic integration will enable 18 Poverty in Uganda: Causes and Strategies for Reduction with Great Emphasis on Ethics and Ecological Justice Africa as a whole and her regions in particular: East, West, Central, South North East and North Africa and other nations of the South to exploit economies of scale, use maximally their resources, capital, markets, increase on the bargaining power for better prices and engage in better research for development. Africa will be in position to reduce poverty, disease and ignorance, end exploitation from the West and unemployment and thus be able to provide basics needs (food, shelter, clothing, health services, education, and clean water) to her people. Furthermore, such cooperation will reduce the effects of balkanization (conflicts and wars) because of desire to promote economic interests and in the long run "de-balkanization" can start off with countries like the proposed East African Federation (combining Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwandan, Burundi and South Sudan) hence bringing unity on the continent. African Union should take a leading role in promoting unity.
African Union (AU) should work towards achieving greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and the people of Africa. A.U must put in place measures to resolve conflicts, and to prevent more from occurring. AU must put in place sanctions for those who violet peace and democracy as it was in Togo upon the death of the national President early 2005, H. E. Gassingbe Eyadema, when his son took over presidency in a less democratic way, he was forced to resign and general presidential elections were held where he worn democratically. A.U should ensure that the immense resources of Africa are used properly to satisfy the basic needs of all Africans. AU should put sections on leaders like President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda among others who have overstayed in power illegitimately which is affecting development, causing poverty in Uganda and on the African continent.