Journal of Social Development in Africa (1995), 10,2,5-12 
The Role of Social Protection in the 
Socioeconomic Development of Uganda * 
STEPHEN O A OUMA + 
ABSTRACT 
This article examines issues concerning social protection in the context of the 
socioeconomic development of Uganda. The author emphasises the critical importance 
of social protection in a situation where the previous supportprovided by the 
extended family and kinship systems has broken down. The erosion of traditional 
forms of social protection has been exacerbated by political turmoil, violence and 
HIV/AIDS which have created serious insecurity in the country. Although there is 
great need for modern social security schemes to protect the population, in reality 
only the formal sector is protected through the Provident Fund, which also has its 
own weaknesses. The authorproposesthedevelopmentofinnovative development 
policies and programmes and a strengthening of traditional forms of social support 
systems, along with a more comprehensive social insurance scheme. 
Introduction and Background 
Prior to the colonisation and gradual modernisation of Uganda beginning in the late 
19th century, Ugandans lived as ethnic nationalities in specified geographical 
areas on the basis of kith and kin. Traditional authority, exercised through a system 
of clan elders and heads of household, was very effective in maintaining social 
control and order in a situation where there was no distinction between home and 
place of work. Everybody knew each of his neighbours sufficiently and intimately. 
Clan organisation and authority were reinforced by the system of extendedfamilies 
in ensuring area-based development through the exercise of collective responsibility 
in such areas as housing, creating and maintaining access roads, farming, food 
harvesting and its storage, hunting down wild animals and destroying vermin that 
were a potential danger to both human security and food crops, caring for the 
elderly and the sick, consoling and assisting the clan/family members in bereavement 
to mention but only a few of the instances based on mutual-aid assistance and 
* A Paper Presented to the Social Security National Conference at the Kampala 
Sheraton Hotel, Kampala, Uganda, 18-19 May, 1994. 
+ PhD, Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Work and Social Administration, 
Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
6 Stephen Ouma 
reciprocity (Chileshe,1989; Brooks & Nyirenda, 1987). In the circumstances, these 
acts of reciprocity, altruism, social cohesion and personal intimacies were sufficient 
to guarantee social protection in both good and bad times to all members of 
any ethnic nationality by ensuring equity and social justice. There was thus no talk 
of famine or homelessness in precolonial times. Social protection was total, 
resulting in extensive local commitment to culture and tradition and indeed areabased 
development 
However, colonisation and its version of modernisation destroyed this serenity 
and indeed the mutual social support systems. The destruction took three forms: 
(1) the dispossession of the local populations (ethnic nationalities) of the political 
power to manage their own affairs and determine their own destinies, and the 
transfer of this to the relatively inaccessible, alien and bureaucratic Protectorate 
Government with its headquarters in Entebbe; 
(2) the introduction of money as the sole medium of exchange for goods and 
services: transactions which had previously been rendered on the basis of (a) 
bartering; and (b) mutual-aid benefit support schemes, in turn inspired by reciprocity, 
altruism and social cohesiveness; and 
(3) the promotion of the distinction between home and place of work through the 
introduction of towns as administrative and commercial centres, besides the other 
centres of concentrated activity such as mines and plantation agriculture. 
These various measures had far-reaching implications for the kind and level of 
social security (protection) that local populations had hitherto enjoyed. For 
instance, the removal of political power from the villages inevitably undermined 
the authority of the kinship system in matters of socialisation and social control - 
thus in turn undermining its ability to protect socially vulnerable groups such as the 
aged and the sick. It also undermined the innate social commitment of local 
populations to area-based development, and in matters of collective responsibility 
aimed at sustaining the common good especially when it became clear that the real 
political power resided elsewhere outside the jurisdiction of the ethnic boundaries. 
This position was exacerbated by the introduction of money as the medium of 
exchange and with it, new responsibilities and demands such as taxation and 
foreign merchandise that could only be paid for or acquired through the sole use 
of this currency. Reciprocity and social cohesion, the two pillars of traditional 
social protection, were no longer relevant in meeting the needs ushered in by the 
era of modernisation. The sale of labour rather than the rendering of a community 
service such as helping the aged or the sick, or simply clearing an access road for
Role of Social Protection in the Development of Uganda 7 
the good of the community quickly became the rule and not the exception. There 
was a quick inversion of priorities in response to the new challenges. 
The erosion of traditional social protection was almost made complete with the 
rapid movement of especially the more energetic sections of the population to the 
new urban areas in search of remunerated forms of employment and new lifestyles 
befitting the modernisation era. The use of money and the lifestyle in the new 
settlements (towns) introduced some economic rationalisation and led to fewer 
trips to the villages and discrimination of who should or should not live with an 
individual in the town on more or less permanent basis. This in turn led to the 
gradual trimming of the extended family, decreasing commitment to one's area of 
origin and declining commitment to the care of the aged and the sick as many of 
these (especially with regard to sickness) began to be considered as matters for the 
state to be taken care of by, for example, public hospitals. As the influence of the 
kinship system went down the drain with the traditional forms of social protection, 
the new urban workers in turn increasingly looked to their jobs and earnings for 
their social protection in the event of death, injury, old age, sickness or other 
contingency. In short, new forms of social protection had to evolve in response to 
this externally-inspired modernisation. 
This paper examines the concept of social protection in a changing society and 
the roles that an effective system of social protection can play in the socioeconomic 
development of Uganda as well as the broad challenges posed by the latter. 
Social Protection in Changing Uganda 
Uganda has certainly undergone a series of transformations since her political 
independence in 1962 in all conceivable dimensions: social, economic, political 
and natural. On the political dimension, Uganda has gone through a period of 
relative political stability in the 1960s, through the turmoil of 1971-1985, to the 
present period of political reforms and rejuvenation. During the 1971-1979 period 
most families and social institutions, such as ethnic organisations aimed at promoting 
culture and self-help, endured anxiety and decimation arising from stateinspired 
violence or civil strife, often being caught between the crossfire of the 
adversaries. Many of these social support systems ceased to exist due to political 
persecution and repression, while many families lost their breadwinners in coldblood. 
The effect of this political turmoil was to render local populations vulnerable 
and insecure as their sources of social protection were being obliterated. In 
consequence, the population became very insecure, impoverished and too intimidated 
to invest either in social infrastructure such as housing, or overall development 
of their areas due to too much uncertainty in the air. Life lost meaning leading
8 Stephen Ouma 
to general socioeconomic decay of the whole country, hence the notion of 'a lost 
decade' (Jamal, 1987). Though the present political era offers hope of reorganising 
social protection within the informal sector (the family and mutual-aid benefit 
groups mainly), the atmosphere is loaded with hazards that threaten to defy the 
contemporary technological capacities to keep under control. The chiefmost of 
these is HIV/AIDS which is robbing populations of their most energetic and most 
productive members capable of guaranteeing others' social protection. These 
include those sections of the population that may be placed in the catalogue of 
social poverty: women, children, the infirm, the chronically sick and the aged. 
These large sections of Uganda's population (more than 50% according to the 1991 
census) are at great risk potentially without any form of social protection. 
Vulnerability and therefore social insecurity in the population (both urban and 
rural) threatens to reverse the otherwise positive trend of socioeconomic development. 
In the circumstances, it is not surprising that there are increasing problems 
of 'street children', orphans and school-dropouts. These are early manifestations 
of social insecurity. 
Besides these political 'quasi' natural factors, there is the economic dimension. 
There is no doubt that Uganda has had its share of ups and downs in the path of 
economic transformation. The trend has been similar to that of political development 
alluded to above. Though Uganda still remains a rural-based country, 
virtually all formal-sector employment is urban-based, benefiting probably less 
than 10% of the population. About 90% of the population continues to derive its 
survival through the exploitation of nature: farming, dealing in forestry products, 
brick-making, charcoal burning, etc. What this means is that the vast majority of 
Ugandans continue to remain at the mercy of nature owing to our relative 
technological underdevelopment. For instance, we have no early warning systems 
against impending droughts or torrential rains. Metereological weather forecasts, 
which usually hardly reach rural populations, are most often at great variance with 
the realities on the ground. Above all, rural areas lack such infrastructural services 
as electricity, inter alia, to facilitate storage facilities to preserve and stockpile and 
in turn influence the prices of agricultural produce. Equally important is the 
inability of rural populations (and in effectrural producers) to organise themselves 
into viable bargaining forces to promote their interests against those of the usually 
better organised and politically influential urban-based interests. The result is the 
enhancement of centre-periphery trade between rural and urban areas of the kind 
that concentrates economic benefits, enhanced incomes, employment and improved 
welfare in the latter. The vulnerability of nearly 90% of Uganda's 
population to both natural and economic forces has the effect of perpetuating the 
socioeconomic decay of the countryside and rendering non-formal social support 
systems increasingly more fragile - thus leaving the population without any 
meaningful form of social insurance.
Role of Social Protection in the Development of Uganda 9 
However, the social protection of urban populations in general and those in paid 
employment in particular is not much better, especially in absolute terms. The 
economic decay of the 1970s, the mismatch between demand and supply leading 
to inflationary pressures, and the present structural adjustment programmes 
involving price decontrols, privatisation, withdrawal of public subsidies on social 
services and the slimming of public-sector employment (retrenchment) has rendered 
fixed income-earners particularly vulnerable (Banugire, 1987). They are not 
only threatened with unemployment through retrenchment but are also faced with 
a situation where their real purchasing power is continually eroded, meaning that 
they are unable to save either for the development of their families (such as the 
payment of school dues for their children) or for unforeseen contingencies such as 
sickness or death. It is in these circumstances that the present Provident Fund (the 
National Social Security Fund) has found itself unable to live up to its challenges. 
Since its establishment by Act of Parliament (Act 21 of 1967) and its operationalisation 
in 1968, the Social Security (Provident) Fund of Uganda has, like those 
of many other countries in the region (ACARTSOD, 1986), remained urban-biased 
and in favour of wage earners. In addition to old age benefits, the Fund also at least 
in theory provides sickness, invalidity and survivors' benefits. However, the extent 
to which the Fund provides social protection to the small number of workers that 
subscribe to it is severely constrained by the fact that it is not founded on the 
principle of resource-pooling and risk-sharing. Rather it is contributory with the 
employer paying twice the beneficiary's monthly deductions (ie, employeremployee 
contributions to the Fund are by law in the ratio of 2:1). Because it is 
contributory, it excludes non-contributors and is, therefore, based on "...the accumulationofindividualcontributions 
[togetherwiththose of'hisemployer]andwith 
no insurance element" (Jacques, 1993). It is more or less like a thrifty savings club 
with members' deposits presently attracting interest at the rate of 14 percent per 
annum. At the end of the day a member gets out his accumulated savings with the 
accrued interest in the form of specified benefits. However, the process of getting 
out the various specified benefits is often complicated by: 
(a) distance of individual members to the Fund's offices; 
(b) ignorance of the subscribers' entitlements; and 
(c) excessive bureaucracy which is exacerbated by members' high levels of 
illiteracy and unfamiliarity with the red tape. 
Further, this system of social protection tends to pay benefits in lump sum. These 
do not offer meaningful protection as these are often inadequate to protect the 
beneficiaries (especially survivors' benefits) for the rest of their lives. A final and 
significant weakness of a Provident Fund as a system of social protection is that 
contributors' savings are not protected against inflation and, sometimes, even by
10 Stephen Ouma 
currency reforms designed to reduce the volume of money in circulation as was the 
case in this country in 1986. The effect of inflation and reforms of the kind cited 
above is to demean the whole scheme and consequently diminish the security of 
those who are purportedly protected. In the circumstances, contributors begin to 
view deductions from their wages to the Fund more with hostility and despair than 
with appreciation and hope. The Fund is seen as 'theirs' and not 'ours'; in the same 
way there is less commitment to one's wage employment which is perceived as 
useless in ensuring social protection. The tendency is to fall back to the already 
fragile traditional social support systems for social protection. 
The Role of Social Protection in Uganda's Development 
Like most other developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda will, for quite 
some time to come, remain poor and largely rural in character. This has implications 
for approaches to the design and evolution of a social protection system 
sufficiently effective to support the process of the social and economic development 
of Uganda. One of the greatest challenges in this process will continue to be 
the subtle relationship between social protection and socioeconomic development; 
they have either a mutually reinforcing or mutually deleterious impact on each 
other. 
An effective system of social protection must be capable of pooling resources 
and fostering risk-sharing in the event of such contingencies as sickness, unemployment, 
invalidity, survivors' benefits in the case of death, homelessness, etc. A 
system such as this must be comprehensive in the coverage of the national 
population and operated by some central authority on the basis of well established 
criteria. Such criteria must embrace considerations of equity and social justice to 
avoid the system being operated as a club of those who happen to be in the formal 
wage sector. The developed countries of the west have been able to operate what 
is commonly known as the welfare slate and demonstrated that effective social 
protection can play a major role in the socioeconomic development of a country. 
Functions of social protection in this regard include: 
(a) the improvement of the general situation through the provision of basic social 
and health care (ACARTSOD.1986) such as unemployment services and benefits, 
rent rebates, health insurance, child/dependents' benefits, etc; 
(b) the redistribution of command of resources from the wealthy to the more needy 
social groups and individuals in distress (Titmuss,1974) through an appropriate 
system of taxation. However, both (a) and (b) which involve sharing risks and
Role of Social Protection in the Development of Uganda 11 
pooling resources respectively are possible only in a situation where the tax base 
is wide and where the majority of the adult population earn taxable incomes; and 
(c) the nurturing of harmony and warm relationships among people of different 
social and economic groups, as citizens of the same country begin to see themselves 
as having one common destiny. This in itself has the advantage of fostering 
citizenship and commitment to the socioeconomic development of one's country. 
The central redistribution of national resources also has the advantage of reducing 
the dependency burden on individuals whose resources can then be released for 
investment in more productive ventures. There is no doubt that Uganda can 
immensely benefit from a system of social protection so well organised. But what 
is also clear is that a functional system of social protection can only be supported 
by a sound socioeconomic framework. 
However, as already observed elsewhere, less than 15% of Uganda's population 
is in remunerated employment while the majority still remain in the rural and nonformal 
sector. The tax base, therefore, is small which in turn constrains the national 
capacity to evolve an effective system of social protection based on direct delivery 
of benefits to the potential beneficiaries. This also means that the potential role of 
modern social protection of the kind discussed above in national development 
cannot be fully realised. Nevertheless, since a modest start was made way back in 
the mid-1960s through the creation of a Provident Fund to benefit a small number 
of workers in the wage sector with their families, it can be improved to provide the 
nucleus for a more comprehensive social insurance scheme as the economy gains 
the capacity to sustain it. 
Although the numbers to participate in, and benefit from, a contributory social 
insurance scheme are small, an effective scheme can easily increase commitment 
to jobs in the wage sector, boostproduction and forestall the possibility of this small 
group of employees falling back on the fragile non-contributory traditional social 
support systems (Kaseke,1993). 
In the long-run, however, arrangements for modern social protection will have 
to be broadened and extended to the more populous countryside in general and the 
non-formal sector in particular. This is the only way social protection can be 
facilitated to play a significant role in the development of Uganda. In the meantime, 
however, socioeconomic development must precede the emergence of a comprehensive 
social insurance scheme through innovative rural development programmes 
designed to broaden the rural economic base, stabilise rural populations 
so that they can concentrate on productive ventures, and strengthen the capacities 
of the extended family, the clan and the tribe which for many years to come will 
continue to provide the most effective social insurance to the majority of the 
population.
12 Stephen Ouma 
Conclusion 
Social protection and the socioeconomic development of Uganda are inextricably 
linked, mutually reinforcing each other. If properly organised, schemes for social 
protection can promote the redistribution of resources, improve the provision of 
basic social and health care, increase national pride and commitment and narrow 
the gap in states of welfare between different social groups. Thecriticalimportance 
of social protection in national development requires that it be extended to cover 
the more heavily populated rural areas. The overall effect is to augment the process 
of social and economic development at both local and national levels. However, an 
effective system of social protection can only thrive within a framework of a sound 
social and economic environment, hence the need for more innovative development 
policies and programmes, especially for rural areas where about 90% of the 
population reside. Finally, owing to the present poverty of the state and the narrow 
tax base, it will be necessary to encourage the revival and augmentation of 
traditional social support systems alongside any modern infant social insurance 
scheme that may be conceived. 
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