How do contracting, co-production and politics affect road maintenance efficiency : the case of Uganda

The thesis consists of three papers. The first paper examines the effect of contracting out on the quality of road maintenance services using panel data. Selection bias has been controlled by accounting for the year, region, and topography. The results reveal a positive effect of contracting out on the quality of road maintenance. The findings are robust to alternative model specifications including transformations of some control variables and heterogeneous analyses based on the road length and the residential status. We propose training and providing contractors with incentives to impact the state of roads positively. The second paper considers that politics is a major determining efficiency factor for transport-related public service. While prior studies have investigated the impacts of various factors such as the ideological stance, there is a paucity of empirical studies on the effects of re-election success, party fragmentation, and the formation of new electoral consistency on road maintenance efficiency. This paper employs a multilevel approach embodying extensive Ugandan data sources to mitigate a reverse causality bias inherent in the literature review. Our empirical results show that (a) the higher the re-election success, the lower the road service efficiency, (b) the higher the party fragmentation (or the higher the party dominance), the higher the road service efficiency, and (c) the higher the constituency (as in the formation of a new constituency), the higher the road service efficiency. Local governments whose political representatives were re-elected gives rise to lower road maintenance efficiency. Where there is party dominance, higher road maintenance efficiency is reported. Local governments with new electoral constituencies report higher road maintenance efficiency. Our results imply that a shorter term of candidacy is propitious to road maintenance and possibly other public service efficiencies. The third paper shows that coproduction between citizen and service providers can be used to mitigate potential inefficiency and budget allocation problems in public service delivery. There is a paucity of quantitative studies on coproduction in how it relates to road maintenance delivery. Using the Afro-barometer wave-6 dataset on Uganda, we develop appropriate coproduction indexes from the survey items pertaining to citizens\u27 road maintenance service participations. The relationship between coproduction as the explanatory variable and road maintenance performance as the dependent variable is explored first using the ordinal logit estimation regression. Our results reveal a significantly positive correlation between coproduction and public road maintenance performance. An instrumental variable is used to alleviate the potential endogenous influences or reverse causality problem that might arise. Our results are also robust to alternative specifications using district-level performance measures, structural equation modelling as well as generalized linear latent and mixed models. Our analysis stresses the practical importance of the cooperation between the service provider and the community in improving individual and social performances emanating from road maintenance service deliver

Assessment of the Effect of the EAC Common External Tariff Sensitive Products List on the Performance of Domestic Industries, Welfare, Trade and Revenue

The paper aims to establish whether the protection given to the list of sensitive products since 2005 has increased the regional capacity of the East African Community (EAC) to produce, reduced the importation of the same products from the rest of the world, increased intra-EAC trade, and/or improved welfare. This paper adopts two analytical approaches: a trends analysis of intra-EAC exports and the SMART WITS analytical framework. The results demonstrate a significant increase in intra-EAC export trade after 2005, although Partner States performance is not uniform, with Kenya dominating the other member states. Imports of the same products from outside the EAC region increased by an even larger factor. This increase implies that the demand for sensitive products exceeds the intra-EAC regional supply, resulting in a deficit that is met by imports from the rest of the world. Notwithstanding the growth in intra-EAC exports of the sensitive list products, there is a deficiency in the regional capacity to produce within the bloc. The total welfare effect is equivalent to US $3.1 billion; however, this amount is disproportionately distributed, with Kenya being the main beneficiary. It is recommended that the EAC review the CET sensitive products list considering the negative effects it is likely to have on manufacturing and on consumption welfare, that they design and formulate strategies to support the development of regional supply capacities to enhance the production of products in the sensitive list and that they develop a rational framework that is empirically based to determine which commodities should be included or excluded from the list

Women, business management and development: The case for Uganda’s enterprises

Advancing women into decision-making spheres of public life remains a development agenda. Despite increasing numbers of women in the labour market, their representation in decision-making spheres has stayed low. In SubSaharan Africa, employment at the population level in 2005 stood at 58.9 percent and in 2013 at 59.5 percent. Also, there have been improvements in employment structure, with a reduction of 4.8 percent in the share of women employed in agriculture and an increase of 4.2 percent and 0.5 percent for services and manufacturing, respectively. However, the share of women in management is 26 percent compared to men at 74 percent in 2013. This research aims to investigate the determinants of the development of women in high management roles in Uganda. Our scope is restricted to business companies, particularly those engaged in manufacturing, retailing, and services. The inquiry applies a probit estimator to data from the World Bank\u27s Business Survey. Findings reveal the firm\u27s age; female ownership, and if that firm falls under these industrial divisions: garments, textiles, retail, machinery, equipment, and chemicals encourage firms\u27 willingness to take on a female manager. On the other hand, business environment influences of corruption, tax administration problems, customs and trade control procedures discourage firms from hiring female managers. The policy implications and lessons of these results are discussed. These policies are directed at skills development, especially for the garments, chemicals, machinery, and equipment sectors; strong business collective action; and efforts for strengthening firm survival and increasing penalties for illicit behaviour

The roles of the public sector in incentivizing the uptake of climate resilient seeds in Uganda

Access to quality seeds is important in building climate resilient value chains because it promotes improved quantity and quality of agricultural products. The need to invest in climate resilient seed has become critical in Uganda given the increasing demand for food both for consumption and trade, declining per capita food production and land under agriculture, and increased frequency and intensity of climate hazards. Threats posed by climate change call for a focus on more resilient strategies and technologies that can yield more efficient use of the available resources. Incentives directed at supporting climate risk management (CRM) must thus consider the diverse and dynamic nature of roles and needs of the value chain actors by addressing the challenges in the seed sector, mainstreaming climate changes in all relevant policies, exploring and putting in place financial incentives to encourage product development that supports CRM, supporting access to the dissemination and communication of climate information and integrating of the value chain approach

Has the CETS list of products for the EAC generated intra-export trade

The study, aimed at establishing whether the protection given to the list of sensitive products since 2005: has increased the EAC regional capacity to produce, reduced the importation of the same products from the rest of the world, increased intra-EAC trade, and improved welfare. Results suggest that although intra-EAC trade increased since 2005, the imports of the same products from outside the region even increased more creating a huge negative trade balance. This suggests that there is deficiency in regional capacity to produce these products within the bloc, therefore effective protection was not adequately achieved by the high tariffs imposed on the sensitive list of products

Uganda Warehousing Receipt System: Improving Market Competitiveness and Service Delivery

Warehouse Receipt Systems (WRS) allow farmers and traders to access markets and financial Systems. While this system is not new in Uganda, as seen through both public and private efforts since 2004 during its pilot, little is known as to why it failed to ensure market access and credit. With the Uganda Warehouse Receipt System Authority in place, the government of Uganda seeks to reinstate the public warehouse receipt system with a concentration on the electronic-WRS. This study, therefore, critically reviews the evolution of the WRS, reviews the current policy support for the WRS and documents the perceived benefits and challenges of private sector stakeholders of the WRS in Uganda. This paper relies on both quantitative and qualitative analyses to respond to the objectives. The Agricultural Technology and Agribusiness Advisory Services (ATAAS) database by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) is used for quantitative analysis, while the Structure Conduct Performance (SCP) framework is used for qualitative analysis. The results reveal that while the market structure and conduct of the pilot WRS was implemented as theorized, it faced various barriers that led to poor market performance. Overall, the actors perceive that the benefits of the WRS are numerous, including stable and high prices, thereby reducing price exploitation, especially on smallholder farmers. They also perceive that the system will enable access to secure and stable markets using a secure and transferable warehouse receipt. However, the actors perceive that more people will be attracted to the WRS if there is mass sensitization and a revision of the costs of storage, cleaning, and other marketing costs. This paper highlights an important policy implication for the implementation of the WRS, including the need for the government to spearhead the promotion of standards, strengthen the capacity of collective action, and stress the importance of increasing the sensitization of all aspects of the WRS

Uganda Warehousing Receipt System: Improving Market Competitiveness and Service Delivery

Warehouse Receipt Systems (WRS) allow farmers and traders to access markets and financial Systems. While this system is not new in Uganda, as seen through both public and private efforts since 2004 during its pilot, little is known as to why it failed to ensure market access and credit. With the Uganda Warehouse Receipt System Authority in place, the government of Uganda seeks to reinstate the public warehouse receipt system with a concentration on the electronic-WRS. This study, therefore, critically reviews the evolution of the WRS, reviews the current policy support for the WRS and documents the perceived benefits and challenges of private sector stakeholders of the WRS in Uganda. This paper relies on both quantitative and qualitative analyses to respond to the objectives. The Agricultural Technology and Agribusiness Advisory Services (ATAAS) database by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) is used for quantitative analysis, while the Structure Conduct Performance (SCP) framework is used for qualitative analysis. The results reveal that while the market structure and conduct of the pilot WRS was implemented as theorized, it faced various barriers that led to poor market performance. Overall, the actors perceive that the benefits of the WRS are numerous, including stable and high prices, thereby reducing price exploitation, especially on smallholder farmers. They also perceive that the system will enable access to secure and stable markets using a secure and transferable warehouse receipt. However, the actors perceive that more people will be attracted to the WRS if there is mass sensitization and a revision of the costs of storage, cleaning, and other marketing costs. This paper highlights an important policy implication for the implementation of the WRS, including the need for the government to spearhead the promotion of standards, strengthen the capacity of collective action, and stress the importance of increasing the sensitization of all aspects of the WRS

Budget Analysis and Assessment of smart investment in water for smallholder agriculture in Uganda and East Africa

Uganda’s government has prioritized enhancing agricultural production and productivity as a primary intervention in developing the economy. The advantages of enhancing agricultural production and productivity include improving food security at the household level, increasing income for farmers, reducing food prices for both farmers and non-farmers, and the potential of this reduction for spurring economic growth. Increased productivity is also viewed as a panacea to the challenge of increased pressure on the land, demand for more food and need for employment creation resulting from the high population growth rate. Investment in water for agriculture production (WfAP) infrastructure has been recommended as the best-bet intervention that will break the constraints facing Uganda’s agriculture. The provision and adoption of WfAP will have multiple effects on the agriculture sector by reducing risk associated with agricultural production and thereby enhancing the adoption of higher yielding technologies