World Bank’s report on Policy Improvement shows Uganda's ‘above average’ performance

The international financial institution, World Bank has released an annual Country Policy and Institutional Assessment report 2019 in which it has stated that Uganda has scored above average in raising the quality of the institutions and policies posting a score of 3.7.

The score for Uganda that was above 3.1 average scored by 38 surveyed sub-Saharan Africa countries against a measure of zero to 6 was not adequate to raise sustainable growth, reduce poverty and make effective use of development assistance. The report pointed out the declaration in growth across sub-Saharan Africa with most weaknesses recorded in macroeconomic management. It (the report) covers the period between January and December 2018.

According to the World Bank's recent report of Country Policy and Institutional Assessment, the ranking represented net gains for Uganda and Cape Verde but a downgrade for Senegal, while Kenya's was unaltered, while Burkina Faso maintained its 2017 score of 3.6 and other African countries like Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Benin each scored 3.5. Alternatively, the African nations like Niger, Mali, and Mauritania, according to the report, scored 3.4 and Zambia, Cameroon, Lesotho, and Madagascar scored 3.3.

On the other hand, Africa's largest economy, Nigeria scored 3.1, a tad less than over half of sub-Saharan Africa (21 nations) that scored an average of 3.2. South Sudan scored the lowest figure on the continent with a mark of 1.5.

Here's a glimpse to the scores in diverse sectors Uganda has scored higher than sub-Saharan Africa:

Indicator	Uganda	Sub-Saharan Africa
Economic management	4.2	3.1
Monetary & exchange	4	3.4
Fiscal policy	4	3
Debt policy	4.5	3.1
Structural policies	3.8	3.2
Trade	4.5	3.7
Financial sector	3.5	2.8
Business regulation	3.5	3
Social inclusion policies	3.5	3.3
Gender equality	3	3.2
Equity of public resource use	4	3.3
Building human resources	3.5	3.6
Social protection & labor	3.5	2.9
Environmental sustainability	3.5	3.2
Property rights	3.5	2.8
Quality of budgetary management	3.5	3
Efficiency of revenue mobilization	3.5	3.4
Quality of public administration	3	2.9
Transparency & accountability	2.5	2.7
Overall score	3.7	3.1

Slightly more than half of sub-Saharan Africa (21 countries) scored 3.2 or less, including Nigeria, the region's largest economy, with a score of 3.1. South Sudan continued to be the weakest country in the region, posting the lowest score of 1.5.

The 2018 Country Policy and Institutional Assessment report took an in-depth look at debt management, noting that debt to gross domestic product ratio reached 54.9 percent in, the figure which is an 18.5 percent rise since 2013. Daily Monitor revealed that the report focused on key economic drivers, among them trade, quality of budgetary and financial management, transparency, accountability and corruption in the public sector to cite a few.

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