Uganda's Economic Reforms: Insider Accounts

Following the eight year rule of Idi Amin, then several years of war and civil war, the Ugandan economy was in ruins by the time peace was restored in 1986. Since then Uganda has consistently been one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, leading to a substantial reduction in poverty. Its economic success has attracted considerable attention and has arguably had more influence on development thinking and on the international aid architecture than any other country. The HIPC debt relief initiative, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, and the growth of budget support have all been strongly influenced by Ugandan experience and thinking. Ugandan innovations such as poverty reduction strategies, public expenditure tracking surveys, and virtual poverty funds have been widely adopted elsewhere.
Most of the reforms which transformed the economy originated within the Uganda government during the 1990s, rather than being imposed through donor conditionality. In this book, for the first time many of the architects of those reforms give their personal accounts of the thinking behind the reforms, how they were implemented, and their impact. Since measures that work well in one environment may fail when transplanted to a different environment, the authors identify factors that were critical to the success of Uganda's reforms. While a number of individual reforms have been the subject of academic study, this book represents the first consolidated account of the economic reforms undertaken by the Uganda government and their impact on growth and poverty reduction.

Florence Kuteesa is a Public Expenditure Management Advisor in the East Africa Regional Technical Assistance Centre of the International Monetary Fund, Dar es Salaam. From 1983 to 2004 she worked for the Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, rising from the level of Economist to Director Budget. She was a senior manager in PricewaterhouseCoopers, Nairobi from 2005 to 2006. She was a founder member of the Collaborative African Budget Reform Initiative.

Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile has been Governor of the Bank of Uganda since January 2001. His previous appointments include: Permanent Secretary / Secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, 1998 to 2000; Secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of Finance, 1996 to 1998; Permanent Secretary / Secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, 1992 to 1996; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, 1986 to 1992. While President of the Makerere University Students' Guild he was forced to flee from the Idi Amin regime in 1972, completing his education in the UK. After lecturing at the University of Dar es Salaam he returned to Uganda in 1979, working at State House before joining the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development in 1981.

Alan Whitworth is an economist in the Zambian office of the British Government Department for International Development. He was an adviser in the Ugandan Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning between 1990 and 1995. As well as working for DFID in the UK, South Africa, and Malawi, he has lectured at Glasgow University and has worked for the governments of Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, and Jamaica. Tim Williamson is an independent economic consultant based in Kampala, and a Research Associate with the Overseas Development Institute, London. He worked at the Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development between 1998 and 2002, first as an ODI Fellow, then as an advisor on the Poverty Action Fund and on Fiscal Decentralisation. He continues to work regularly with the Ministry on aspects of budgetary reform and public financial management.