Policy implementation in Uganda

Implementing government policies is essential to recover from the economic ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic and to foster economic growth through evidence-based policies. Anecdotal evidence and broad-based indices (e.g., World Bank Governance Indicators) strongly suggest that policy implementation is lacking in most sub-Saharan African countries. Reasons possibly include miss-coordination and overlap in responsibility between multiple (and sometimes competing) government agencies, political factors, as well as a tight fiscal space. There are only few academic studies systematically exploring the drivers of and solutions to such low levels of policy implementation in developing countries.

The Ugandan Government established the Economic Growth Forums (EGFs) to bring together multiple stakeholders to discuss evidence-based policy solutions to growth obstacles informed by rigorous economic research. The key output of the forums is a list of policies agreed upon by participating stakeholders. This project studies policy implementation in Uganda by tracking policies emerging from EGFs to identify bottlenecks and enhance implementation. A special focus will be given to policies coming out of EGF-IV, which took place on 1 September 2020 and focused entirely on the impact of COVID-19 and enabling a quick recovery in key sectors.

Given the scope of the project, its potential impact is sizeable and could pave the way for substantial institutional reform, bearing the promise to improve the implementation of growth enhancing government policies in Uganda.