By Dipo Olowookere
Government of Uganda under the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, has said it will launch the Social Protection Investment Case Report, calling for sustained investments in social protection, in order to reduce poverty levels and improve livelihoods of vulnerable groups such as children, women, youth, older persons, and persons with disabilities, in the short, medium and long run.
This is expected to take place on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 from 8:30am to 1pm at the Golf Course Hotel, Kampala.
According to a statement obtained by Business Post, the guest of honour for the launch is the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Janat Mukwaya.
The Ugandan government explained that despite the remarkable accomplishment of halving poverty between 2000 and 2015 in fulfilment of the first Millennium Development Goal, almost 20 per cent of Uganda’s population still falls below the poverty line, challenging the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) target of reducing this rate to 10 per cent by 2017.
Worse still, 55 per cent of children in Uganda under 5 years of age – 3.7 million – along with 38 per cent of 6-17 year olds live in poverty.
The investment case therefore is an important step and calls for integrated and inclusive social protection initiatives that will contribute to the government’s goal of reducing poverty and vulnerability in the country as stated in the Poverty Eradication Action Plan and in the National Development Plans (NDP) I and II.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Adedapo Adesanya