Impact of Policy Reforms on Agriculture and Poverty in Uganda

This paper reviews the recent economic performance of the Ugandan economy, with a particular emphasis on the impact of the reform program on agricultural development and poverty. The constituent elements of the reform program in place since 1987 are described, and the resulting impact on the real economy is critically assessed. There was a significant fall in the headcount poverty ratio between 1992/93 and 1999/00 although more recently this trend has reversed. Uganda experienced a strong deterioration in its external terms of trade as well as high population growth rates which make it more difficult to meet its poverty eradication objectives. Government policies set out in the Poverty Eradication Action Plan and the Plan for Modernization of Agriculture are initiatives in the right direction, but require sustained effort to ensure their implementation.Policy reform, agriculture, poverty, food security

Application of remote sensing and geographical information systems in flood management : a review

Floods are one of the most widely distributed hazards around the world and their management is an important issue of concern among all the stakeholders. The aim of this review is to synthesize the state of art literature in the application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques in all the flood management stages (pre-flood, during flood and post-flood stages). Flood types and common concepts in flood management are precisely explained. Case studies of flood management using GIS and RS are summarized. Current challenges in using GIS and RS techniques for flood management are also given. One lesson we learn from this review is that flood management is very diverse and it requires multidisciplinary involvement. It can also be deduced that RS techniques offer cheaper and faster options of accessing spatial data about the flood event even in the physically inaccessible areas. GIS techniques on the other hand facilitate hydrological models in data collection, analysis, querying and presentation of information in a more simplified format. The present review is expected to contribute to an improved understanding of the potential applications of RS and GIS techniques in flood management, especially among scientists in the developing countries where the use of these techniques particularly in flood management has generally been limited

Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Uganda

Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18,

Forced labor and humanitarian ideology in Kenya, 1911--1925

This dissertation research examines forced labor in colonial Kenya from 1911 to 1925 and the critique of this institution from various humanitarian organizations in Britain and subsequent changes in colonial policy regarding forced labor. The theoretical ideas of contradiction and power provide the backdrop for this study and help to illuminate the relationships between forced labor, ideology and control.;The British administrators in Kenya used forced labor as a means of accumulation for the European settlers but also for the state itself. However, forced labor for European settlers impinged upon the ideals of trusteeship. Moreover, the justifications for some forms of forced labor rested upon an amorphous idea of African communal duties that was often false. This dissertation examines the contradictions of this policy.;Humanitarians criticized certain aspects of forced labor in Kenya. Certain elements of the coercive labor regime, like forced labor for private purposes and forced labor for state purposes, were described by the humanitarian lobby in Great Britain as new forms of slavery. The colonial administration in Kenya responded by extirpating forced labor for private purposes eventually curtailing forced labor for state purposes. Significantly, though, humanitarian criticism did not address communal forced labor for state purposes because it was deemed a continuation of traditional duties.;Consequently, the humanitarian critique of forced labor, as opposed to mitigating colonial power, instead helped to solidify colonial control in Kenya by reemphasizing the trust principle. Humanitarian criticism of forced labor in Kenya created a moral atmosphere that allowed the administration to denounce some objectionable forced labor practices, like forced labor for private purposes, while reinforcing communal labor. This strengthened the ethical power of the colonial state as a munificent apparatus working for the benefit of African progress

The Resilience of Indigenous Law in Alaska and the New States of Africa South of the Sahara

Comparative analysis of not only criminal justice administration, but also efforts to modify existing legal systems, are informative to the extent that they allow readers to broaden their perspectives and to learn lessons from other countries. This paper seeks to elaborate on this statement by comparison of the ways in which customary law in Alaska and the young nations of sub-Saharan Africa has been become living law, that is, law which dominates life itself even though it has not been written into the official law of the state.Introduction / Precolonial Legal Institutions and Traditions / Imposition of Foreign Law / The Nature of Foreign Law: Elements of Civil Law and Common Law; Legal Institutions; Critical Issues Associated with Foreign Law / Contemporary Criminal Justice Reforms: Illustrations of Innovations; Critical Issues Involved in Innovations / Summary and Conclusions / Reference

Determinants of poverty vulnerability in Uganda

Ugandan data shows poverty to be entrenched in rural areas and in large households. Households with heads exposed to education, an improved health status, less reliance on agriculture as the most important source of earnings, access to electricity for lighting and, the presence of markets to sell produce in the community experience improved household well-being. The data also confirms two known stylized facts regarding poverty vulnerability. First, households in the Northern region have a higher probability of being poor than those in Central, Eastern, and Western regions. Second, the ‘annual cropping and cattle northern' and ‘annual cropping and cattle Teso' zones are the agro ecological zones that are positively correlated with poverty vulnerability . The fact that residence in rural areas is associated with higher incidence of poverty suggests that promotion of off-farm employment (for example, through rural electrification) would help reduce vulnerability.Poverty vulnerability, logistic regression, Uganda

The impact of OECD Agricultural trade liberalization on poverty in Uganda

The paper examines the projected impacts of agricultural trade liberalisation by OECD countries on poverty in Uganda and compares them to the poverty impacts of all merchandise trade liberalisation. The overall impact of OECD agricultural trade liberalisation on welfare in Uganda from this simulation is positive in contrast to previous research, nevertheless, the poor appear to be made worse off. The liberalisation of all OECD merchandise trade including non-agricultural commodities reduces welfare for all deciles irrespective of household poverty status, residence and region. The results for global partial merchandise trade liberalisation are similar to those for total trade liberalisation with an overall welfare decline of about 0.5 percent. More specifically, even the modest welfare gains for producers from increased prices seem to be offset by welfare losses from increases in consumer goods. Overall, because of the large subsistence agricultural sector, households tend to experience little or no change in total welfare arising from agricultural price changes. Increases in market value of their agricultural based output tend to be offset by changes in the opportunity cost of their subsistence consumption of the bulk of that output.Microsimulation, agricultural trade liberalization, Uganda , poverty

Rediscovery of Limited-Purpose Policing in East Africa: The Case of the National Parks and Wildlife Services

The rediscovery of limited-purpose wildlife police units in East Africa—Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda—has slowly but steadily gained attention of criminologists and law enforcement experts in Africa. This article traces some strands of this development. It does this by critically reviewing the literature on both the regular, traditional policing, and the special-purpose wildlife police units. The review clearly demonstrates several criminological concerns such as limited utilization of concepts, theories, and paradigms as gleaned from the literature on regular, traditional policing and special-purpose wildlife police units; unavailability of relevant information and data in the gray areas; and suggests the adoption of community policing concept as a solution to this problematic situation for a comprehensive police reform