Effects of Poverty on Social and Economic Development in East African Countries

East Africa combines some of the fastest economic growth on the African continent with persistent and widespread poverty. This systematic literature review examines how poverty affects social development (education, health and nutrition) and economic development (growth, structural change, employment and inequality) in East African countries. Following the PRISMA 2020 statement, Google Scholar and institutional repositories, including the World Bank Open Knowledge Repository, NBER, SSRN and EconStor, were searched for studies published between January 2021 and October 2026. Of 220 full-text reports assessed, 193 studies met the inclusion criteria: 92 were specific to East Africa, 63 were regional studies with separable East African evidence and 38 were comparative or theoretical studies. Quality was appraised with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool, and the evidence was integrated through thematic synthesis. Five themes emerged. First, poverty estimates are highly sensitive to the measurement approach. Second, growth reduces poverty, but less efficiently than in other regions, particularly where growth is led by low-productivity services. Third, household poverty is converted into human capital deficits through steep wealth gradients in learning, child nutrition, maternal care and catastrophic health spending. Fourth, uninsured shocks keep households cycling around the poverty line, while social protection and mobile money cushion consumption but rarely build assets. Fifth, gender inequality, forced displacement and urban informality shape how poverty translates into development outcomes. The review concludes that poverty in East Africa operates as a self-reinforcing system rather than as a by-product of slow growth. Combined policy packages of social protection, risk transfer, health financing reform and investment in learning quality are best supported by the evidence. Priority gaps include longitudinal data, under-represented countries such as Somalia and South Sudan, and research designs that link household and national evidence.