Definitions of Urban Poverty by Lay Persons in Uganda and its Implications for Effective Anti‐poverty Interventions

A qualitative study was undertaken to explore the definitions of poverty among urban lay persons (employed and unemployed) accessing the Kampala City Council Authority public gardens and among Sheraton Uganda Hotel employees and trainees. For purposes of this paper responses to the semi‐structured question, ‘how would you define poverty ?’ were analysed using the thematic approach of Boyatsis (1998). Two distinct main categories of definitions were obtained from the respondents, that is the individual level and the community level definitions of poverty. The main sub‐themes under the individual level category were: a lack of basic needs; low income/ low purchasing power, social exclusion/failure to fulfill social roles and psychological/spiritual distress. Under the community level category main sub‐themes were: a state of few employment opportunities in the community and a general scarcity of goods and services. There were minimal gender differences. The results of this study affirm the multidimensional nature of urban poverty as seen from a lay person's perspective. It highlights the need for more research into the non‐economic factors in urban poverty such as social exclusion/ failure to fulfill social roles and psychological /spiritual distress, and the need for the development of situation specific interventions to address them.