Contribution of social protection in interventions in Uganda during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to find out the contribution of social protection intervention, considering the recently implemented safety nets programme in Uganda. The study mainly focused on those that received the assistance that is the poor vulnerable who were the prospected beneficiaries from the programme. However, there was no universalizable definition of poor especially for this season since the lockdown caught everyone unawares, it didn’t spare any irrespective of the working status. The survey was specifically emphasized to focus at the point of receipt of the support, the questions included impact of the intervention, employment status, income change and level of vulnerability, and each recipient received an average of 91,000 shs. Descriptive analysis on the factors that affected the giving of assistance was analyzed and a logistic regression on the basis of receipt of safety nets was analyzed. Multivariate analysis, indicated that residence, highest level of education, ability to eat healthy food and employment status are significant predictors of receipt of safety nets. In conclusion, safety nets were only received by 4.06% of the total respondents and those in rural areas constituting a percentage of 74.13%. However, according to feedback from the survey, government should allocate more funds to the program in line with the economic realities prevailing the country at that moment, they should ensure to have an accurate and updated data system in order to facilitate the disbursement of relief funds and safety nets.