Quantitative Impact Analysis of Uganda’s Senior Citizens Grant

An impact analysis by Development Pathways’ Bjorn Gelders and Diloa Bailey-Athias, who employ a novel, low-cost approach to identifying the impacts of Uganda’s Senior Citizens Grant. Their work provides further evidence of the benefits of the social pension for both recipients and their households.

Uganda’s Ministry of Gender, Labour & Social Development, in collaboration with development partners including the Department for International Development (DFID/UKAID) and Irish Aid, has pioneered the implementation of the social pension from 2011 under the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE), of the Expanding Social Protection Programme. ESP from the onset recognised generating evidence as a key ingredient for building buy-in from other stakeholders.

To this end, a baseline, midline and end line evaluation of phase I of the programme were done, and pointed to evidence of positive impacts. In the course of implementing phase II of the programme from 2015, the first impact evaluations have also been complemented by several other independent impact studies. This assessment is the most recent, and indicates deeper impacts than previously suggested.