Civil society in urban sanitation and solid waste management: The role of NGOs and CBOs in metropolises of East Africa

Urban sanitation and solid waste management are among the most significant factors that affect the poor in developing countries and contribute to their sustained poverty. It is the poorest people, particularly children, who suffer most from weak or non-existent services, through illness, distress and many early and preventable deaths. This intolerable state of affairs is caused by a combination of political, socio-economic, cultural, and technological aspects. In recent years, sanitation and solid waste management have received increasing attention as shown in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aim at halving the proportion of the population without access to sustainable basic sanitation by 2015 and at achieving significant improvements in the lives of slum-dwellers by 2020 (MDG Goal 7). Today, with less than five and ten years to fulfill these targets,when compared to other developing continents, Africa is lagging behind and there is need for effective action to address this challenge. This research is placed within this debate and tries to contribute to achieving the aim of universal access to sanitation and solid waste management services. The focus is on the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) in urban slums of East Africa because these organizations are considered key players in the provision of sanitary and solid waste disposal services in such areas and yet their work has not been critically assessed. Two main questions were addressed; (i) In what ways are NGOs/CBOs participating in the development and implementation of sanitation and solid waste management and what are the key factors influencing their participation? (ii) How and to what extent are the sanitation and solid waste management activities of NGOs/CBOs sustainable; accessible to the poor; and flexible and resilient under changing socio-political, institutional and economic conditions? The conceptual framework developed for answering these research questions was based on the Modernized Mixtures Approach and several other theories (such as partnership paradigm, social network theory and institutional pluralism) that serve to explain key factors influencing the role of NGOs/CBOs in such activities. The research confirmed that NGOs/CBOs are fully involved in the provision of the two services and the idea of environmental partnership is widely shared and supported. Empirical evidence gathered showed a modernized mixture model emerging, where the conventional advocates of large-scale, privatized, and high-technological sanitation and solid waste services partner with NGOs/CBOs. This research also found that access to sanitation and solid waste services is driven by both NGOs/CBOs and the urban poor in collaboration. Social proximity is important, next to the conventional factors of spatial proximity, socio-economic characteristics and perception of the perceived competence of NGOs/CBOs. User acceptance of innovative technologies was found to be a key factor when trying to improve sanitary facilities for the urban poor. Keywords: Sanitation, Solid Waste Management, East Africa, NGOs, CBOs, Modernized Mixtures Approach </p

Impact analysis: Experiences of a Ugandan professional development trainer

Creating impact or making a difference in my school system is an issue that boggles my mind everyday I wake up to go to (and return from) work. This is mostly so when I am involved in facilitating a workshop or programme. Such questions as: will the teacher participants learn something (new) they can implement in their classroom(s), or how will I know that they have learnt it and later implement it in their classroom, always ring in my mind. An attempt has been made to document the likely impact on teachers I work with. Some of the highlights are presented in this paper. The paper briefly traces the roles and responsibilities I have held and performed as a Professional Development Trainer (PDT) of Aga Khan Education Service (AKES), Uganda, upon my return from Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) after completing the MEd programme in the year 2000. During the programme, our cohort was trained and qualified as exemplary teachers, teacher educators and teacher researchers. Suffice it to say that I have not had an opportunity to perform all the three predestined roles, but the teacher education role stands out prominently. The paper, therefore, reveals the evolution of my responsibilities and the corresponding tasks. Moreover, a greater part of the paper dwells more on revealing the impact that my professional responsibilities/activities had on the teachers that I have worked with in different interactions/activities. Notable ones include understanding and re-examination of the teachers’ roles and attitudinal changes towards learners. Evidence has been captured in teachers’ reflective journals and evaluations following professional dialogues/discussions and workshop courses. Teachers’ comments will be cited verbatim to illustrate the likely impact as noted by the teachers concerned. Finally, the paper will highlight some of the noted challenges in realizing and documenting impact, for example, the changing nature of teachers’ perceptions, time to follow-up, document and corroborate teachers’ sayings and perceived changes in their teaching practices, and the over-emphasis on exams that often detracts from the teachers’ readiness to use the teaching strategies shared during programmes/courses and workshops

Landcare Bylaws Increase Adoption of Soil Erosion Control Technologies: Evidence from Mt. Elgon Highlands in Eastern Uganda

Uganda faces severe environmental problems such as soil erosion, yet adoption of technologies that can sustainably reduce or stop soil erosion remains low. This is partly due to lack of locally enacted landcare bylaws and limited involvement of local communities in bylaws formulation. Using a case study of Kween district we assessed the effect of landcare bylaws and local community involvement in bylaws formulation on adoption of soil erosion control technologies. The study used primary data collected from a survey of 120 randomly selected farmers and secondary information synthesized from Kapchorwa District Landcare Chapter reports, consultative workshops attendance lists, lists of members on the Bylaw Implementation Committee, and the printed poster of the ‘‘Benet landcare bylaws”. The data was analysed through generation of descriptive statistics. Findings indicate that there was minimal involvement of local communities in bylaws formulation. Although penalties for breaking the enacted landcare bylaws exist, they were yet to be enforced. Further, we note a sharp increase in adoption levels of all technologies stipulated in the bylaws during the year (2009) when the bylaws were passed and popularized. Adoption of soil erosion control technologies is highest among people who participated in the formulation of the bylaws. Thus, we conclude that other factors remaining constant, both the landcare bylaws, and involvement of local communities in bylaws formulation are associated with increase in technology adoption. Keywords: Landcare bylaws; Community involvement; Uganda

The potential of Nakivubo swamp (papyrus wetland) in maintaining water quality of inner Murchison bay - Lake Victoria

Nakivubo swamp (papyrus wetland) is located in the south east of the city of Kampala, Uganda. This swamp has been receiving waste water from Nakivubo channel for more than two decades. This investigation was aimed at monitoring the level of pollutants (nutrients and faecal coliforms) as the waste water filtrates through the swamp and the flow patterns of waste water through the swamp. From this preliminary investigation it was found out that the waste water is not evenly distributed over the swamp. Also high levels of pollutants seem to filtrate through the swamp and enter Inner Murchison Bay - Lake Victoria. Further research is under way to investigate in more detail the capacity of Nakivubo swamp to remove nutrients/pollutants from waste water flowing through it and the dominant mechanisms/processes involved

Profiling unauthorized natural resource users for better targeting of conservation interventions

Unauthorized use of natural resources is a key threat to many protected areas. Approaches to reducing this threat include law enforcement and integrated conservation and development (ICD) projects, but for such ICDs to be targeted effectively, it is important to understand who is illegally using which natural resources and why. The nature of unauthorized behavior makes it difficult to ascertain this information through direct questioning. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, has many ICD projects, including authorizing some local people to use certain nontimber forest resources from the park. However, despite over 25 years of ICD, unauthorized resource use continues. We used household surveys, indirect questioning (unmatched count technique), and focus group discussions to generate profiles of authorized and unauthorized resource users and to explore motivations for unauthorized activity. Overall, unauthorized resource use was most common among people from poor households who lived closest to the park boundary and farthest from roads and trading centers. Other motivations for unauthorized resource use included crop raiding by wild animals, inequity of revenue sharing, and lack of employment, factors that created resentment among the poorest communities. In some communities, benefits obtained from ICD were reported to be the greatest deterrents against unauthorized activity, although law enforcement ranked highest overall. Despite the sensitive nature of exploring unauthorized resource use, management‐relevant insights into the profiles and motivations of unauthorized resource users can be gained from a combination of survey techniques, as adopted here. To reduce unauthorized activity at Bwindi, we suggest ICD benefit the poorest people living in remote areas and near the park boundary by providing affordable alternative sources of forest products and addressing crop raiding. To prevent resentment from driving further unauthorized activity, ICDs should be managed transparently and equitably

Investing in sustainable intensification for smallholders: quantifying large-scale costs and benefits in Uganda

In Uganda, upgrading smallholder agriculture is a necessary step to achieve the interlinked sustainable development goals of hunger eradication, poverty reduction and land degradation neutrality. However, targeting the right restoration practices and estimate their cost-benefit at the national scale is difficult given the highly contextual nature of restoration practices and the diversity of small-scale interventions to be adopted. By analysing the context-specific outcomes of 82 successful case studies on different Sustainable Land and Water Management (SLWM) in Uganda, we estimated that out-scaling of existing successful practices to 75% of agricultural land would require a one-time investment of US$4.4 billion from smallholders. Our results show that, besides the many social and environmental benefit commonly associated to SLWM, a wide outscale of SLWM could generate US$ 4.7 billion every year, once the practices are fully operational. Our context-specific estimates highlight the profitability of investing in smallholder farming to achieve the SDGs in Uganda, with geographical differences coming from specific social-ecological conditions. This study can guide sustainable intensification development by targeting the most suitable SLWM practices and plan for adequate financial support from government, investors and international development aids to smallholder farming

Innovation platforms: A tool for scaling up sustainable land management innovations in the highlands of eastern Uganda

Sustainable Land Management (SLM) technologies for preventing land degradation have been pilot tested in highlands of eastern Uganda with success and are available for uptake by farmers in the zone. Despite the available technologies and successful pilot experiments, the effect and uptake of the SLM innovations still remains insignificant. This has been attributed to lack of incentives, innovative institutional governance structures and policy processes to accelerate uptake and utilisation of SLM technologies. Innovation systems approach was experimented in scaling up SLM innovations in the highlands of Eastern Uganda. Stakeholders were organised into platforms and empowered to promote SLM practices in the landscape. Members of IPs selected the SLM innovations and implemented them with support from National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO). More households adopted SLM practices including trenches, contour bunds and agroforestry. Twenty three tree nurseries were established and over 350,000 tree seedlings distributed for planting. The platforms facilitated collective visioning, sharing of skills and knowledge and strengthened participation of local governments in research and promotion of SLM technologies. When well initiated and operationalised, innovation platforms are effective avenues for scaling up adoption of SLM innovations to a wider landscape and communities.Les technologies de gestion durable des terres (SLM) pour pr\ue9venir la degradation des terres ont \ue9t\ue9 test\ue9es avec success dans les hautes terres de l\u2019Est de l\u2019Uganda et sont disponibles pour utilisation par les fermiers de cette r\ue9gion. Malgr\ue9 la disponibilit\ue9 des technologies et le success des essais pilotes, l\u2019effet et l\u2019adoption des innovations de SLM demeurent insignifiants. Ceci a \ue9t\ue9 au manque des mesures d\u2019encouragement, des structures de gouvernance institutionnelle innovative et les processus de lois qui acc\ue9l\ue8re l\u2019adoption et l\u2019utilisation des technologies de SLM. L\u2019approche des syst\ue8mes d\u2019innovation \ue9tait \ue9xp\ue9riment\ue9 par des innovation de SLM dans les hautes terres de l\u2019Est de l\u2019Uganda. Les partenaires \ue9taient organis\ue9s en plate forme et renforc\ue9s pour promouvoir les pratiques de SLM dans le paysage. Les membres des IPs ont s\ue9lectionn\ue9 des innovations de SLM et les ont execute avec le soutien de National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO). Plusieurs m\ue9nages ont adopt\ue9 les pratiques de SLM entre autres les tranch\ue9es, les courbes de niveaux et agroforesterie. 13 p\ue9pini\ue8res \ue9taient \ue9tablies et plus de 350.000 plants d\u2019arbres \ue9taient distributes pour plantation. Les plates forms ont facilit\ue9 dans la vision collective, le partage d\u2019exp\ue9riences et connaissances et renforc\ue9 la participation des gouvernements locaux dans la recherche et la promotion des technologies de SLM. Lorsque correctement initi\ue9es et op\ue9rationnalis\ue9es, les plates forms d\u2019innovation constituent des voies efficaces pour l\u2019adoption des innovation de SLM sur un vaste paysage et une grande communaut\ue9

Women smallholder farmers' engagement in the vaccine chain in Sembabule District, Uganda : barriers and opportunities

This paper explores women smallholder livestock farmers’ barriers to effective participation in the livestock vaccine value chain (LVVC) and strategies for optimising the use of vaccines against poultry (Newcastle disease), and goat diseases (Peste des Petits Ruminants) in Sembabule District, Uganda. Using the three domains of empowerment theory: intrinsic, instrumental, and collective agency combined with USAID’s gender analysis framework, we found that limited control over resources, and inadequate gender responsive policies hinder women’s participation. Self-help groups increased opportunity for livestock ownership, autonomy, and decision-making. Engagement of women in the LVVC, is an entry point for improved vaccine accessibility, and agency.Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)Global Affairs Canada (GAC