The 'Masai' and miraa: public authority, vigilance and criminality in a Ugandan border town

Recent studies on vigilante groups show how they often begin as popular schemes for imposing order, before degenerating into violent militias which contribute in turn to social and political disorder. The Masai, a group of khat sellers and consumers in the Ugandan border town of Bwera, represent a more complex case. By using vigilance tactics in the provision of security, the Masai actually help to shape public authority within Bwera town instead of creating institutional chaos. They also provide a range of services, imposing a degree of order on illegal cross-border activities in the area. However, a closer look at the Masai shows that their vigilance activities are mainly performed out of self-interest, as a quid pro quo enabling them to continue their illegal activities of smuggling, general criminality outside town and illegal drug use. Therefore they straddle the 'crime or social order' dynamic, representing a criminal gang of illegal drug traffickers which also provides services for public community interests. As such, they contribute to both order and crime

Community-based initiatives in response to the OVC crisis in North Central Uganda

In response to the orphan crisis, a number of community initiatives have proliferated to enhance service delivery to OVCs (Orphans and other Vulnerable Children). Part of the literature paints a bleak and pessimistic picture: it believes that community based support interventions anchored on the family are faltering under the weight of increasing number of orphans; while others argue that communities are innovative and resilient to the extent that they have devised new coping strategies. The paper shows how OVC community responses in Northern Uganda are under severe pressure from a range of factors; but how these community initiatives are not collapsing – as the ‘social rupture’ thesis predicts. Instead, these community initiatives are dynamic and constantly evolving through various mechanisms to respond to the challenges of meeting the needs of the orphans. The paper shows how some of these initiatives are more successful than others in doing so.

Governance and post-conflict reconstruction in Northern Uganda

On 07 and 08 November, a conference on governance and post-conflict reconstruction took place in Gulu, hosted by the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies (IPSS, University of Gulu) and co-organised by the Institute of Development Policy and Management (University of Antwerp) the JSRP partner Conflict Research Group (University of Ghent). Tim Allen and Holly Porter of the Justice and Security Research Program participated in the conference

LSE Research: Museveni’s changing strategies for political control mean continued uncertainty for Uganda’s informal workers

Tom Goodfellow is based in LSE’s Department of International Development. In a new paper, research conducted by himself and Kristof Titeca (of the University of Antwerp) reveals how informal workers on Kampala’s streets leverage protection from the Ugandan President, paralysing the city government in the process

Don’t forget the forgotten conflict. Egmont Commentary, 30 July 2009

Kristof Titeka, Joost Van Puijenbroeck and Koen Vlassenroot ask to the Belgian Foreign Minister, Mr Yves Leterme more attention to Conflict with the LRA rebels in Uganda, DR Congo, sudan and Central African Republic

Trapping mammalian protein complexes in viral particles

Cell lysis is an inevitable step in classical mass spectrometry-based strategies to analyse protein complexes. Complementary lysis conditions, in situ cross-linking strategies and proximal labelling techniques are currently used to reduce lysis effects on the protein complex. We have developed Virotrap, a viral particle sorting approach that obviates the need for cell homogenization and preserves the protein complexes during purification. By fusing a bait protein to the HIV-1 GAG protein, we show that interaction partners become trapped within virus-like particles (VLPs) that bud from mammalian cells. Using an efficient VLP enrichment protocol, Virotrap allows the detection of known binary interactions and MS-based identification of novel protein partners as well. In addition, we show the identification of stimulus-dependent interactions and demonstrate trapping of protein partners for small molecules. Virotrap constitutes an elegant complementary approach to the arsenal of methods to study protein complexes

Healthcare Spending: The Role of Healthcare Institutions from an International Perspective

Healthcare systems differ greatly across the world, however, it appears that the extent of public insurance (publicly/government funded healthcare) is the only institutional characteristic that plays a significant role in accounting for the large disparities in total healthcare spending. Other factors, such as whether healthcare services are provided by the private or public sector, play much less of a role, highlighting the important distinction between how services are provided and how those services are funded. A regression analysis is conducted utilising an existing categorisation of the predominately high-income countries of the OECD in 2009. It is found that more public insurance and less private insurance is associated with significantly lower spending after controlling for differences in income through GDP and healthcare quality/outcomes through life expectancy. This result is robust to the inclusion of additional controls for lifestyle factors and the proportion of the population aged 65 and over, as well as the inclusion or exclusion of the US that could otherwise be seen as some kind of outlier. A typical country relying largely on private provision and insurance, such as the Netherlands, Germany or the US, could reduce total healthcare spending by around a third by moving to a system with extensive public insurance whilst retaining extensive private provision of services, a situation typical of some countries such as Austria, Greece and Japan