Interests and relationships in NGO gender advocacy: A case of Uganda.

The thesis presents an insider's investigation of the advocacy work undertaken by gender focused NGOs in Uganda with the view of understanding the ways in which these NGOs negotiate for their interests in their advocacy work within a complex set of relationships among themselves and with the donors, government and the people at the grassroots level. Relationships and interests are critical to our understanding of the NGO advocacy work in Uganda. However, more often the focus is on the technical rather than the relational problems in development. It is on this basis that most attention has focused on the agency of the donors. This study has tried to examine the agency not only of donors but the various actors in the NGO gender advocacy nexus. Through application of feminist research principles, the study examines the Land Co- ownership and Domestic Relations Bill campaigns to understand the ways in which gender focused NGOs have used these campaigns to negotiate for their interests. Although not limited to, in the case of this study, these interests are perceived to be resources, identity and status. Three organisations that have played a critical role in these campaigns that are: Uganda Women's Network, Uganda Land Alliance and Federation of Uganda Women Lawyers assist us to understand the relationships among gender focused NGOs and with the other actors. The study concludes that all actors in the gender focused NGO advocacy nexus are economically, socially and politically rational. They would like to reduce their transaction costs and maximise their interests. While donors use financial and development discourse knowledge resources, NGOs and government use their identities and status to negotiate and maximise their interests. Although not necessarily the determining factor, negotiation of interests influences both the agenda and the relationships among the various actors

The integration of community engagement and outreach into teaching and learning, research and service at MUK, UCU and UMU in Uganda

This study was conducted to with the main objective being establishing the integration of CE&O into teaching and Learning, Research and Service at MUK, UCU and UMU universities in Uganda. The objectives of the study were ; to examine the models of CE&O used by Makerere, UCU and UMU universities , to establish how CE&O has been institutionalized by Makerere, UCU and UMU universities, to examine how CE&O has been integrated into research and teaching in Makerere, UCU and UMU universities. A cross sectional design was employed to provide a framework for data collection and analysis. A sequential mixed methods approach was employed, involving a successive application of both qualitative (Key Informant Interviews) and quantitative (questionnaire) data collection methods. Creswell et al (2004) argues that, mixed methods lend themselves to valuable opportunities for data triangulation. The findings clearly show that universities recognize CE&O as part of the university functioning albeit differences in emphasis with Makerere being more established in comparison to the newer universities UCU and Nkozi. Institutionalization of community engagement and outreach seems low among all the universities. The findings have shown that community engagement in research and community engaged service have the potential to improve teachin

Policies and Practices Towards Women's Empowerment: Policy advocacy by Gender focused NGOs and the realities of grassroots women in Uganda

The study was designed to identify the factors that affect the effectiveness of policy advocacy work aimed at empowering grassroots women, its linkages with the issues of women at the grassroots level and make recommendations for improvement.This is an exploratory study that sought to analyze the causes of the gaps between the policy advocacy work of gender focussed NGOs at the national level and the realities of the grassroots women in Uganda. The study was designed to identify the factors that affect the effectiveness of policy advocacy work aimed at empowering grassroots women, its linkages with the issues of women at the grassroots level and make recommendations for improvement. The study was based on qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. Data was collected from six key informants from National Association of women organisations in Uganda (NAWOU), Uganda Women's Network (UWONET), OXFAM, Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), Federation of Uganda Women Lawyers (FIDA) and ActionAid Uganda( AAU). It is also based on secondary data from past literature on the subject and from the above NGOs. Thirdly the study is based on the active participation of the writer in the advocacy by gender focused NGOs at the national level for the past three and half years and having worked in Rakai World Vision Uganda Project from 1994 to 1997. The findings are presented under the following themes: • Current situation of women in Uganda, • Policy advocacy by gender focussed NGOs and • Factors affecting policy advocacy with a deeper analysis of the linkages between policy advocacy and grassroots women. The major findings of the study are that while Uganda presents a very good opportunity to ensure that grassroots women actively participate and benefit from advocacy processes, this opportunity has not been fully utilised

The Enhancement of East African Universities’ Contribution towards the Attainment of Millennium Development Goal 5-Improving Maternal Health

Improving maternal health was recognized by the international community as a key component of the United Nations 2000 Millennium Summit initiative to reduce worldwide hunger, poverty and disease.Improving maternal health was recognized by the international community as a key component of the United Nations 2000 Millennium Summit initiative to reduce worldwide hunger, poverty and disease. All participating countries agreed to work toward the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG-5) in particular, which focuses on reducing the global maternal mortality ratio by 75 percent by 2015 compared to 1990 rates. According to recent estimates, exciting progress towards reducing maternal mortality has been made in many developing regions, including sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia where the majority of maternal deaths occur. Despite this important progress however, an estimated 358,000 maternal deaths occurred worldwide in 2008. Worse still, developing countries account for 99 percent, or 355,000, of all deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia account for 87 percent of global maternal deaths, (313,000 deaths). It has also been estimated that, in sub-Saharan Africa, a woman’s risk of dying from preventable or treatable complications of pregnancy and childbirth over the course of her life time is 1 in 31, compared to only 1 in 4300 in developed regions (United Nations, 2010).1 Sub-Saharan African countries have much to gain from the realization and achievement of the MDGs. This takes the involvement of different stakeholders including universities. However, what role(s) are the universities in Sub-Saharan Africa playing in educating students about MDGs and, especially, MDG-5? Given that current and future Sub-Saharan Africa University students are considered to be the elites in their countries and will become decision makers and activists, a study on the Enhancement of East African Universities’ Contribution towards the Attainment of MDG 5 reveals that universities can, and should play a pivotal role in accelerating progress

Project management: tools, techniques and strategies of managing

This first edition categorises project management tools and techniques basing on the project management knowledge by PMBOK as emphasised by PMI but contextualised the knowledge dimensions to Africa/Uganda. It also includes some cross-cutting areas which are always left out or underestimated during project planning and design. Such cross-cutting issues have been documented to contribute to project failure or success. In other editions, we shall relate PMBOK areas, IPMA ICBs, PRINCE2, GAPPS among other standards; though pointing out more precursors to project success in developing or transitional nations like Uganda.School of Research and Postgraduate Studies, Uganda Christian Universit

Evaluation of the Xpert MTB Host Response assay for the triage of patients with presumed pulmonary tuberculosis: a prospective diagnostic accuracy study in Viet Nam, India, the Philippines, Uganda, and South Africa

BackgroundNon-sputum-based triage tests for tuberculosis are a priority for ending tuberculosis. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the late-prototype Xpert MTB Host Response (Xpert HR) blood-based assay.MethodsWe conducted a prospective diagnostic accuracy study among outpatients with presumed tuberculosis in outpatient clinics in Viet Nam, India, the Philippines, Uganda, and South Africa. Eligible participants were aged 18 years or older and reported cough lasting at least 2 weeks. We excluded those receiving tuberculosis treatment in the preceding 12 months and those who were unwilling to consent. Xpert HR was performed on capillary or venous blood. Reference standard testing included sputum Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra and mycobacterial culture. We performed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to identify the optimal cutoff value for the Xpert HR to achieve the target sensitivity of 90% or more while maximising specificity, then calculated diagnostic accuracy using this cutoff value. This study was prospectively registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04923958.FindingsBetween July 13, 2021, and Aug 15, 2022, 2046 adults with at least 2 weeks of cough were identified, of whom 1499 adults (686 [45·8%] females and 813 [54·2%] males) had valid Xpert HR and reference standard results. 329 (21·9%) had microbiologically confirmed tuberculosis. Xpert HR had an area under the ROC curve of 0·89 (95% CI 0·86-0·91). The optimal cutoff value was less than or equal to -1·25, giving a sensitivity of 90·3% (95% CI 86·5-93·3; 297 of 329) and a specificity of 62·6% (95% CI 59·7-65·3; 732 of 1170). Sensitivity was similar across countries, by sex, and by subgroups, although specificity was lower in people living with HIV (45·1%, 95% CI 37·8-52·6) than in those not living with HIV (65·9%, 62·8-68·8; difference of 20·8%, 95% CI 13·0-28·6; p<0·0001). Xpert HR had high negative predictive value (95·8%, 95% CI 94·1-97·1), but positive predictive value was only 40·1% (95% CI 36·8-44·1). Using the Xpert HR as a triage test would have reduced confirmatory sputum testing by 57·3% (95% CI 54·2-60·4).InterpretationXpert HR did not meet WHO minimum specificity targets for a non-sputum-based triage test for pulmonary tuberculosis. Despite promise as a rule-out test that could reduce confirmatory sputum testing, further cost-effectiveness modelling and data on acceptability and usability are needed to inform policy recommendations.FundingNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the US National Institutes of Health.TranslationsFor the Vietnamese and Tagalog translations of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section