Poverty has continuously created a barrier for development in the world. The rest of the world has made progress towards the alleviation of poverty but this has not been the case in Africa, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. Countries in the region are working towards poverty alleviation however; the progress made in these countries is not even. One example of such a country is Uganda. The Karamoja sub-region in Uganda is still lagging behind in poverty reduction.
Due to its unpredictable climate, the sub-region has suffered prolonged drought and famine. The unpredictable weather and continuous insecurity and conflict, have kept the sub-region in a poverty trap. The government is faced with the task of bringing the sub-region to the same level of development as the other regions of the country. This study aims at finding out why the Karamoja sub-region has remained persistently poor.
Using the primary and secondary data collected, the study found out that there are a number of factors that have made difficult for the sub-region to move out of poverty. These include; prolonged insecurity and conflict, continuous dependence on food aid, high levels of illiteracy, poor governance and government policies, cultural traditions and customs and poverty of natural resources. It is also important that the government puts the Karamoja sub-region on its overall development agenda if the country is to develop. This is because the under development of the sub-region has spillover effects on the rest of the country.