An exploration of the factors affecting the utilization of family planning services among youth (18-24 years) at community level in rural Budaka district, Uganda

Background: There is an increased number of young people engaging in early sexual relationships worldwide. Furthermore, statistics for early pregnancy among young people has also increased especially in low and middle-income countries. This has health implications for both the parents and the baby. High uptake in family planning contraception among the young people can reduce early pregnancy and subsequent negative health outcomes on the young parents and the baby. This study was set to explore the factors influencing the uptake of family planning contraceptive services among young people (18-24 years) at community level in rural Budaka district, Uganda. Method: The study utilised an explorative qualitative approach. Eight focus group discussion were conducted followed by sixteen one to one follow up semistructured interviews with young people. Each focus group comprised of 10 participants (N=80). Sixteen one to one follow up interviews were meant to further explore issues raised in the focus groups (N=16). A thematic approach underpinned by the four phases of The Silences Framework (TSF) was used to analyse the data. Results: The study found out that religion, partner resistance; perceived loss of libido, perceived barren, long waiting time and distance from the health facility, lack of privacy/confidentiality, excessive menstrual bleeding, cancer and fear of having disabled babies, limited the utilisation of family planning contraceptive services while contraception as HIV prevention and child spacing encouraged young people to use family planning contraceptive services. Conclusion: There is need for a culturally orientated community-based contraceptive health promotion approach to increase the uptake of family planning contraception services among young people

Alternative Service Delivery in Africa: The Case for International Regional Organisations

Alternative service delivery (ASD) is generally confined to the provision opublic services within the boundaries of a single nation state. This paper extends thisconceptualization and practice beyond a single nation state by focusing on services provided by international regional organizations (IROs), which encompass more than a single country. Recognizing that the regional approach may not be suitable under all circumstances, the papertakes a contingency approach and discusses with illustrations the conditions under which the regional or continental approaches may provide superior public services to the wider population. Three examples from the East African Community (EAC), Africa’s riparian river basins, and cross-border illicit trade of conflict minerals in the Great Lakes region are given as illustrative cases. Noting that Africa’s growing aspirations for inclusive development and rapid transformation call for better governance and quality public services, the paper ends by calling for more scholarly work and field experiments on ASD and other models applicable at local, national, regional and continental levels. Publication (PDF): Alternative Service Delivery in Africa: The Case for International Regional Organisations. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312674549_Alternative_Service_Delivery_in_Africa_The_Case_for_International_Regional_Organisations [accessed Apr 4, 2017]

Cattle management practices and milk production on mixed smallholder organic pineapple farms in Central Uganda

A longitudinal study to assess animal management practices and milk production was conducted for a period of 12 months on 30 smallholder farms keeping dairy cattle and certified organic pineapple production in Luwero and Kayunga districts, based on questionnaire and on-farm collected data. Farm sizes were 9.3 ± 6.7 acres in tethering system and 4.3 ± 2.6 acres in zero-grazing. Fifty-four percent of the zero-grazing herds had animal housing facilities. All farmers in tethering system kept cows on earthen floors and calves without bedding. Hygiene level in existing farms was low. Majority of calves were fed once a day by restricted suckling (77 %). Seventy-four percent of tethered cows were only fed on natural grass, while cows under zero-grazing system had a more diversified diet but with 82 % feeding mainly Napier grass. Most farms (87 %) used bulls for breeding. Milk production was higher (P < 0.05) in zero-grazing (6.5 L/cow/day) than tethering system, and higher (P < 0.05) for Holstein-Friesian crossbred cows (5.2 L/cow/day) than local breed cows (2.6 L/cow/day). Less than 1 L of milk per farm per day on average was sold. Disease treatments were exclusively for helminths, East Coast fever, and trypanasomiasis. Spraying of ticks and deworming were important control measures of vector-borne diseases. There is potential to develop alternative feed resources for dairy cattle and biorational pesticides for control and treatment of vector-borne diseases

China-Africa Legal and Judiciary Systems: Advancing Mutually Beneficial Economic Relations

This paper provides a comparative longitudinal assessm ent of legal and judicial reforms relevant for China-Africa economic relations. It draws on and exte nds aspects of institutional and organizational the- ory, focusing on the concepts of convergence, alignment, hybridi zation, and institutional voids. Data were obtained from publically available databases from reputable international organizations including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. Results point to areas where China has made progress more than Africa, and areas where serious capacity and pe rformance gaps remain, especially for individual Af- rican countries. The paper provides a brief discussion of the implications for the need to build organiza- tional capacities necessary for strengthening China-A frica economic law and advancing mutually benefi- cial economic relations and concludes by identifying research limitations, and areas for future research

Transient expression of ß-glucuronidase in recalcitrant Ugandan sweetpotato and putative transformation with two cry genes.

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) has high potential to contain hunger, malnutrition and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), since it gives early yield with few inputs. However, productivity of the crop in Africa is very low due to various challenges, such as severe viral diseases and increasing attacks by sweetpotato weevils, Cylas puncticollis and C. brunneus. Effective resistance to weevils has not been identified in the sweetpotato gene pool. On the other hand, the weevil-resistance genes, cry7Aa1 and cry3Ca1 were assembled into a plasmid vector for use in genetic transformation of African sweetpotato cultivars. The parameters for efficient transfer of these genes and the conditions for de novo regeneration optimised in preliminary studies were used in the genetic transformation of Ugandan landrace ‘Kyebandula’ with Agrobacterium tumefaciens EHA 105 harbouring the plasmid pCIP84, which contains cry7Aa1, cry3Ca1 and nptII in its T-DNA. Fifty-four percent of the explants formed adventitious buds. With a mean of 7 buds formed per explant, 6.0% explants formed shoots with a mean of one shoot per explant for those explants that formed shoots on medium containing 50 mg L-1 kanamycin as a selection agent. PCR analysis using primers for cry7Aa1 showed that the transformation efficiency could be as high as 2%. These data highlight the potential of genetic transformation in transferring resistance genes and pave way for enhancement of food security through production of adapted sweetpotato weevil resistant cultivars.Key Words: Agrobacterium tumefaciens, b-glucuronidase, Ipomoea batata

Religious beliefs and entrepreneurial behaviours in Africa: a case study of the informal sector in Uganda

Religion plays a major role in Africa’s polity and its influence on the business landscape of the continent has been acknowledged in literature. This study contributes to the discourse by investigating and explaining how religious beliefs shape entrepreneurial behaviours in Uganda’s informal sector. Using a qualitative methodology, we explored how entrepreneurs in the context use or adopt religious beliefs in their entrepreneurial activities. By spanning a diverse set of entrepreneurial activities in the informal sector- food vendors, fabricators, hawkers, and recyclers among others, we conducted 49 in-depth interviews. Our findings reveal that the entrepreneurs relied on their religious beliefs in defining and coping with a penurious context. Further to this, we explain how religious beliefs galvanize business behaviours and calibrate the entrepreneurial identities of respondents in the context. To facilitate future work, the study highlights how knowledge gaps in the cultural and social setup of the informal economy will produce new insights in entrepreneurship research. It concludes by guiding policy makers and educators to engage and involve faith based institutions in the entrepreneurship promotion agenda

Induction of somatic embryogenesis in recalcitrant sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) cultivars

Genetic transformation is considered as one of the most promising options for improvement of crop traits. Current transformation methods for sweetpotato depend on plant regeneration through organogenesis or somatic embryogenesis. Somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration at a high frequency has been  restricted to a few sweetpotato varieties. Three auxins namely: 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D),  4-fluoroamphetamine (4-FA) and 4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) were investigated in this study for enhancing somatic embryogenesis from various plant organs of recalcitrant African sweetpotato cultivars.  2,4-D was found to be the best (p . 0.05) for induction of embryogenic callus. Cultivar Bwanjule had the highest  (20.2%) embryogenic callus frequency among the five African cultivars tested. The highest number of plants in this study was regenerated from the non-African cultivar variety Jonathan on media supplemented with 0.2 mg Zeatin. The emergence of roots from callus of recalcitrant Ugandan cultivars and the comparable high embryogenic responses in this work demonstrate the potential for regenerating plants from African  cultivars that have not been regenerated before. The regeneration of roots in this work could be useful for the initiation of root cultures. The most important application of this work is in genetic transformation of sweet potato, particularly for improvement of resistance to weevils.Key words: Embryogenesis, plant growth regulators, plant regeneration, Ipomoea batatas

Technical report on the environmental monitoring of the cage area at the Source of the Nile (SON) Fish Farm for quarter 3: July-September 2011

Source of the Nile Fish farm (SON) is located at Bugungu area in Napoleon Gulf, northern Lake Victoria. The proprietors of the farm requested for technical assistance of NaFIRRI to undertake regular environment monitoring of the cage site as is mandatory under the NEMA conditions. NAFIRRI agreed to undertake quarterly environment surveys in the cage area covering selected physical-chemical factors Like water column depth, water transparency, water column temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and conductivity; nutrient status, algal and invertebrate communities (microinvertebrates/zooplankton and macro-invertebrates/macro-benthos) as well as fish community. The first quarter survey was undertaken in February 2011; the second in May 2011 and the third quarter survey, which is the subject of this report, in September 2011. Results/observations made are presented in this technical report along with a scientific interpretation and discussion of the results with reference to possible impacts of the cage facilities to the water environment and aq-uatic biota, including the natural fish community at and around the cage site