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21. Growing but not transforming: Fragmented ruling coalitions and economic developments in Uganda

Author:
Anne Mette Kjær and Mesharch Katusiimeh
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
When the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and its leader, Yoweri Museveni, came to power, they had an explicit agenda of industrializing the economy (Kjær and Muhumuza, 2009). Improved infrastructure and increased production and productivity were the focus. Indeed, Uganda enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth of about 7 percent annually between 1990 and 2006 (Piron and Norton, 2004; Kjær and Muhumuza, 2009), made possible by a stable ruling coalition, macro-economic stability, low inflation (until recently), and relative peace. Poverty declined from 56 percent in 1991 to 25 percent in 20101 However, there has been limited structural transformation in terms of a shift from agriculture to industry. A number of explanations for this could be put forward, whether institutional, policy-oriented or geographical (Selassie, 2008; van de Walle, 2001). None of them, however, explains fully how Uganda, in spite of an initially highly dedicated ruling elite, did not succeed in transforming its economy. For example, Uganda is a landlocked country, but so is Zimbabwe, which is far more industrialized. Similarly, while Uganda certainly has weak institutions, so did other countries that have succeeded in industrializing (Selassie, 2008).
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, and Post Colonialism
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, and Zimbabwe

22. Who Are the MDG Trailblazers? A New MDG Progress Index

Author:
Benjamin Lee and Julia Barmeier
Publication Date:
08-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
In September, world leaders will assemble in New York to review progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Ahead of the ensuing discussions, we examine how individual countries are faring towards achieving the highly ambitious MDG targets. We outline a new MDG Progress Index, which compares country performance against the core MDG targets on poverty, hunger, gender equality, education, child mortality, health, and water. Overall, we find evidence of dramatic achievements by many poor countries such as Honduras, Laos, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Nepal, Cambodia, and Ghana. In fact, these countries' performance suggests that they may achieve most of the highly ambitious MDGs. Moreover, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for many of the star MDG performers. Interestingly, poor countries perform nearly on par with middle-income countries. Not surprisingly, the list of laggards largely consists of countries devastated by conflict over the last few decades, such as Afghanistan, Burundi, the DRC, and Guinea-Bissau. Most countries fall somewhere in between, demonstrating solid progress on some indicators and little on others.
Topic:
Development, Human Welfare, Poverty, Third World, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, New York, Cambodia, Nepal, United Nations, and Ethiopia

23. Eastern Africa: Security and the Legacy of Fragility

Author:
Gilbert M. Khadiagala
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
“Eastern Africa” denotes the geographical area comprising the seven member states of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD): Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda. Tanzania is also included because it has had long historical and political interactions with Kenya and Uganda within the rubric of the East African Cooperation (EAC). The main challenges to human security in this region have originated from political and state fragility, resource scarcities, and environmental degradation. All these factors have contributed to a regional context that is characterized by intrastate conflicts, interstate wars, and political extremism. Raging civil wars and interstate conflicts have, in turn, produced forms of statelessness and marginality that have deepened societal insecurities and strained human livelihoods. Consequently, in addition to profound political instability and economic destitution, human security is arrayed against escalating communal violence, small arms proliferation, and massive movements of people within and beyond the region.
Topic:
Development, Environment, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Uganda, Kenya, Africa, Sudan, Ethiopia, and East Africa

24. The Justice Dilemma in Uganda

Author:
Scott Worden
Publication Date:
02-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
On February 18, 2008 the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) reached agreement on an accountability and reconciliation accord that would provide for prosecution in Uganda of senior LRA leaders most responsible for atrocities committed over the course of the country's 20-year long civil conflict. The agreement also provides that lower level perpetrators will be held accountable by traditional justice mechanisms indigenous to Northern Uganda, where much of the violence occurred.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Development, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

25. Northern Uganda: Seizing the Opportunity for Peace

Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
With peace negotiations due to restart in the southern Sudanese town of Juba on 26 April, the ten-month-old peace process between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government still has a chance of ending one of Africa's longest, most brutal conflicts. The present process is more structured and inclusive than previous efforts to end the twenty-year-old conflict, benefits from greater – if still inadequate – external involvement, and has made some significant gains, notably removing most LRA fighters from northern Uganda. And the implementation of the agreement to end Sudan's north-south civil war has reduced both the LRA's and the Ugandan army's room for manoeuvre.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, and Sudan

26. Staff Management and Organisational Performance in Tanzania and Uganda: Public Servant Perspectives

Author:
Ole Therkildsen and Per Tidemand
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
How can a government in a poor country with a limited budget increase the performance of its public sector organizations through better Human Resources Management practices (HRM)? And how may donors assist? These questions are addressed in this comparative study of HRM practices and organisational performance in public sector organizations in Tanzania and Uganda. Specifically, as stated in the terms of reference (appendix D), the study aims to: Enhance knowledge about the rules and practices of hiring, firing, transfers and promotion. (HFTP) in central and local government, including executive agencies, in the two countries – as seen from the perspective of public servants themselves. Assess how and how much HFTP-practices affect motivation at individual and organisational level. Contribute to inform policy making on non-pay incentives among development partners. Suggest relevant further work.
Topic:
Development, Regional Cooperation, and Third World
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

27. The economics of certified organic farming in tropical Africa: A preliminary assessment

Author:
Simon Bolwig and Peter Gibbon
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The paper examines the relative profitability of certified organic and conventional farming operations in tropical Africa as well as differences between organic and conventional farmers in rates of adoption of farming practices and in household factor endowments. The paper is based on three surveys in Uganda of smallholder farmers of respectively, organic coffee, cocoa, and pineapple and of matching control groups of conventional farmers. Organic production was in all cases organised on a contract farming-type basis, in schemes operated by the firm exporting the organic product. The central conclusion from the study is that farms that engaged in certified organic export production were significantly more profitable in terms of net farm income earnings than those that engaged only in conventional production. This was the result of generally significant differences between organic and conventional farmers' gross farm incomes, although these differences were further amplified by differences in costs. Income differences related partly to differences between organic and conventional farmers' factor endowments. Preliminary analyses indicted that, among factor endowments, area under crops subject to organic certification (CSC) and numbers of CSC plants had the strongest relations to farmers' sales volume and incomes,. Labour availability and average age of CSC plants had a much lower level of importance. As for other factors, yields were strongly related to sales volumes, but average price received was of lesser importance. The precise relative contribution of these different factors to sales volumes and incomes remains to be established in a further paper, however. The results for average net income also show enormous differences in profitability between organic farmers of different cash crops, with pineapple farmers earning three and five times more than cocoa and coffee farmers, respectively. It is worth underlining that, in contrast to the experience in developed countries, we found that organic conversion in tropical Africa is associated with increases rather than reductions in yield, which relates to the low-input characteristics of conventional farming on the continent. Focus group interviews suggest that organic farmers enjoyed higher yields due to more effective farm management technique, but the survey results on rates of adoption of yield-enhancing farming practices could not verify this.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

28. Avoiding Conflict in the Horn of Africa: U.S. Policy Toward Ethiopia and Eritrea

Author:
Terrance Lyons
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
In 2006, the Horn of Africa witnessed major escalations in several conflicts, a marked deterioration of governance in critical states, and a general unraveling of U.S. foreign policy toward the strategically located region. The U.S.-brokered Algiers Agreement to end the 1998–2000 border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea is at a crossroads. Ethiopia has resisted implementing the decisions made by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission (EEBC), Eritrea has imposed unilateral restrictions on the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), and both states have rejected the EEBC's plans to demarcate the border unilaterally. In Sudan, implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement remains incomplete, and the violence in Darfur continues to rage and spill into Chad. In Somalia, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has failed to establish itself outside of Baidoa and its rival, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), has seized control of Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia. The rapid rise of the UIC in mid-2006 in particular amplified prospects for regional conflict as Ethiopia and Eritrea sent significant military support to the opposing sides. On December 6, 2006, the UN Security SudanCouncil unanimously endorsed Resolution 1725, a plan supported by Washington to deploy African troops to prop up the authorities in Baidoa. The Islamic Courts have stated that this intervention will be regarded as an invading force and will escalate, rather than reduce, the conflict.
Topic:
International Relations and Development
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, United States, Washington, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea

29. Gender, HIV/AIDS and Rural Livelihoods: Micro-Level Investigations in Three African Countries

Author:
Esther Wiegers, John Curry, Alessandra Garbero, Shannon Stokes, and John Hourihan
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
HIV/AIDS has a severe impact on food security, affecting all of its dimensions: availability, stability, access, utilization. FAO recognizes that HIV/AIDS is a determining factor for, as well as a consequence of, food insecurity. Although the relationships among gender, food security and rural livelihoods have been acknowledged in the growing literature on HIV/AIDS impacts, relatively few studies provide adequate focus and empirical evidence on the gender aspects of these interrelationships among vulnerable rural households. Such gender aspects of these relationships have been explored in detail by FAO in Namibia, Uganda and Zambia This paper presents the main findings of the four baseline studies and discusses the methodologies used to identify vulnerable households and document changes in resource availability, household labour force, livelihood strategies, coping strategies and food security status. These findings offer useful insights for policy formulation purposes and for the development of mitigation strategies that respond to the food security challenges of the epidemic.
Topic:
Development and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, Zambia, and Namibia

30. Institutions and Economic Performance in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Mauritius

Author:
Julius Kiiza
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper examines the relationship between institution building and economic performance in Mauritius, Botswana and Uganda. The rationale for comparing these cases is simple. While the three have been super-economic stars in their own right, they have achieved substantially different outcomes. Mauritius has achieved Asia-type rapid growth, backed by the structural transformation of the economy from colonial commodity production (sugar) to postcolonial higher value-added industrial and information outcomes. Botswana has delivered rapid and sustained growth with no structural economic transformation. Uganda has attained rapid growth for a shorter postcolonial period (since 1992) and with no structural transformation. This paper contends that these cross-national differences largely arise from the presence of developmental nationalism plus Weberian bureaucracies in Mauritius and Botswana, and their absence in Uganda.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, Mauritius, and Botswana