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Burundi : Polémique sur la prolongation du mandat du BNUB | Syfia
Estimant que le pays a retrouvé la paix et la sécurité, le gouvernement burundais demande à l'ONU de mettre fin au mandat du Bureau des Nations Unies au Burundi (BNUB). Mais pour l'opposition et la société civile, ce bureau reste indispensable pour consolider le dialogue politique et prévenir les dérapages lors des élections de 2015.
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L'AFRIQUE DES GRANDS LACS - Annuaire 2012 - 2013 | L'Harmattan
ACTUALITÉ SOCIALE ET POLITIQUE AFRIQUE NOIRE Burundi République Démocratique du Congo Rwanda Par l'analyse de thèmes d'actualité dans les domaines politique, social et économique, cet annuaire offre des clés pour une lecture de l'évolution de la région des Grands Lacs en 2012 et au premier semestre 2013.
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Burundi's land conundrum | IRIN Africa
Burundi is preparing to receive thousands of its refugees from Uganda in a voluntary repatriation exercise. Their return will follow that of around 30,000 compatriots expelled by Tanzania earlier in 2013, and that of a similar number obliged to return in late 2012 after they lost their refugee status. Over the past decade or so, around half a million people have returned to Burundi, a country that saw two large-scale exoduses in the late 20th century: Tens of thousands fled in the wake of a genocide in 1972, while many more left during a civil war that raged between 1993-2005. One of the major obstacles to the successful reintegration of the returnees – who number 13,000 in the case of Uganda – relates to land. Many of those now in Uganda own no land in Burundi, because they left the country when they were very young. And those that did own property, do not know if they will get it back.
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Nord du Burundi : Les femmes rurales, proies préférées des politiciens | Syfia
Au nord du Burundi, les femmes rurales constituent un poids électoral important et donc une cible privilégiée pour les politiciens de tous bords. Tous les moyens ou presque semblent bons pour les embrigader...
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Women and peacemaking in Burundi: another Mandela legacy – By Georgina Holmes | African Arguments
Nelson Mandela’s philosophy towards conflict resolution has had a profound impact on international peacemaking processes, but it was his policy of inclusion that opened doors for women.
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Alarm over Burundi’s planned constitution changes | IRIN
Plans by Burundi’s government to make radical amendments to the constitution have raised the political temperature in a country striving to overcome the effects of a civil war fought between 1993 and 2005.
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CONSTRAINTS ANALYSIS OF FAMILY AGRICULTURE IN KIRUNDO PROVINCE NORTHERN OF BURUNDI | Agrosym
In Burundi, family agriculture occupies more than 90% of the active population. That sector accounts more than 50% of GDP. Before the civil war of 1993, Kirundo province was deemed "breadbasket of the country" because the family farming was market-oriented. Today, this region is the first province in Burundi who accuses a high rate of householders who live in food insecurity. In order to conduct this study, 355 randomly selected farmers were surveyed in all municipalities of the province. This preliminary study revealed that the farmers had as major constraints: the small and land conflicts. The study case had identified 73 farmers among them who had not farmland and/ or land conflicts as constraints of agricultural productivity. Two groups emerged: 42 farmers who were not able to fully exploit their land and another group of 32 farmers with a high agricultural productivity. Results from this study show that the major problems in the first group were: lack of applying soil protection techniques, illiteracy, lack of credit which leads farmers to contract moneylenders, lack of improved seed, etc. Moreover, the main strategy used by the second group to boost their income is the practice of non-agricultural activities which influences whole production system.
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Pauvreté monétaire versus non-monétaire au Burundi | PEP
L’objectif général de l’étude est d’analyser la situation de la pauvreté au Burundi. Pour ce faire, trois objectifs spécifiques sont considérés : évaluer la pauvreté monétaire à l’aide d’une échelle d’équivalence ; construire un indicateur composite de la pauvreté basé sur l’approche multidimensionnelle ; et enfin identifier les principaux déterminants de la pauvreté.
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This article joins an emerging body of studies that explore factors and conditions that enable African governments to exercise agency. It does so by showing that formalised African multilateral institutions such as the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the African Union (AU) enabled African governments to exercise agency in the resolution of conflict in Burundi between 1993 and 2009. It argues that the pan-African framework enhanced African agency in multiple ways, including making the African voice louder in a crowded conflict theatre, and turning representatives of the African international organisations into de facto leaders of actors who intervened in the Burundi conflict. The pan-African framework also created the space for African governments to establish an ad hoc regional conflict resolution institution called the Great Lakes Regional Initiative for Peace in Burundi (Great Lakes Initiative) to manage the disparate international players and belligerents in the conflict zone. The exercise of African agency in Burundi was not smooth sailing. Some of the challenges such as regional divisions and interests of powerful member-states that the OAU and the AU encountered in Burundi are classic problems associated with multilateral management of conflicts. These challenges are well documented and will not be the focus of the article. Instead, the article examines problems that emanated from OAU and AU inexperience in exercising agency in a crowded and complex conflict theatre.
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Escaping the capability trap: turning " small " development into " big " development, | World Bank
The international development community has been grappling with the challenges of implementing development programs and, consequently, with the design of practical approaches to attaining program objectives. This paper contributes to the emerging discussion on addressing the implementation capacity gap in developing countries. It presents the post-conflict experience of Burundi in building the capacity of its public sector to deliver basic services and demonstrates a practical approach to implementing what has been called problem-driven iterative adaptation. The Leadership for Results approach shows that a results-focused process of learning through disciplined experimentation enables local officials and stakeholders to more willingly learn and adopt new ways of doing things. This approach can be structured to address the time inconsistency between a development program and political or electoral concerns, both of which are critical to overcome implementation challenges.
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The internal dynamics of power-sharing in Africa | Democratization
Given the increasing use of power-sharing arrangements to manage a wide range of political crises over the past five years it is more important than ever to turn a critical eye on the dynamics and outcomes of unity governments. This paper argues that two key factors shape the way that power-sharing functions in Africa: the distribution of violence (that is, whether any one party has a monopoly on victimhood or whether all parties have committed, and retain the capacity to commit, atrocities) and the level of elite cohesion (whether political leaders have developed norms of mutual accommodation that render it easier to find areas of common-ground). The first half of the paper identifies four main power-sharing dynamics in Africa based on different combinations of the distribution of violence and the level of elite cohesion: the politics of distrust, the politics of collusion, the politics of partisanship and the politics of pacting. The second-half of the paper then draws on evidence from Angola, Burundi, the DRC, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe to illustrate how such variations in the practice of power-sharing shape the prospects for reform.
EASTERN CONGO
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Mining and the African environment | Conservation Letters
Africa is on the verge of a mining boom. We review the environmental threats from African mining development, including habitat alteration, infrastructure expansion, human migration, bushmeat hunting, corruption, and weak governance. We illustrate these threats in Central Africa, which contains the vast Congo rainforest, and show that more than a quarter of 4,151 recorded mineral occurrences are concentrated in three regions of biological endemism—the Cameroon-Gabon Lowlands, Eastern DRC Lowlands, and Albertine Rift Mountains—and that most of these sites are currently unprotected. Threats are not uniform spatially, and much of the Congo Basin is devoid of mineral occurrences and may be spared from direct mining impacts. Some of the environmental impacts of African mining development could potentially be offset: mining set-asides could protect some wildlife habitats, whereas improving transportation networks could increase crop yields and spare land for conservation. Research and policy measures are needed to (1) understand the synergies between mining and other development activities, (2) improve environmental impact assessments, (3) devise mitigation and offsetting mechanisms, and (4) identify market choke points where lobbying can improve environmental practice. Without careful management, rapid mining expansion and its associated secondary effects will have severe impacts on African environments and biodiversity.
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The Democratic Forces of the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have been framed as one of the key spoilers to peace in the African Great Lakes—challenging the stability of both Rwanda and the DRC, and accordingly becoming the target of several UN-supported operations to disarm them. This article examines how, despite nearly two decades in exile in the Congo, the Rwandan Hutu refugee warriors of the FDLR have managed to survive and remain an active and potent rebel group. Drawing on an analysis of the FDLR's changing and multi-faceted identity, and its deployment of this identity as ‘tactics’, I attempt to demonstrate how the FDLR have become citizen-like agents in the Congo. As such, the article challenges the common framing of the FDLR as a ‘foreign armed group’ by demonstrating that Rwandan Hutu militants in the eastern Congo are integrating into Congolese life in creative ways. Through an understanding of the varied strategies they have adopted to survive and integrate, one which acknowledges but does not solely focus on their acts of violence and human rights abuses, this article attempts to characterise the FDLR in a new light which may in turn lead to new approaches to reducing their belligerency.
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The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region - African Security Review
In April 2012 a number of former rebels who had been integrated into the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC) mutinied and formed the Movement of March 23, better know as the M23 rebel group. The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) has been mediating between Kinshasa and the M23 rebel group since 2012, without much success. In August 2013, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) issued a communiqué after its 33rd Summit of Heads of State and Government, stating that while it commends the ICGLR efforts, the talks have become protracted and a deadline needs to be set. The summit also called for an urgent joint ICGLR–SADC summit to address the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In addition to this development, the chair of the ICGLR is to be rotated in December 2013, when President José Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola replaces President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. To date, the mediation has been headed by Uganda and this has raised concerns over the credibility of the ICGLR-led process, since Uganda has been accused of supporting the M23 rebellion in a report released in November 2012 by the United Nations Group of Experts on the DRC. One could question whether the Angolan leadership will bring anything new that could have an impact on the crisis. Many expect that the perceived neutrality that Dos Santos could bring to the negotiations may be a positive step towards reviving the talks that have all but stalled at this point. Another issue of interest is whether the joint ICGLR–SADC summit could instil new life into the mediation process.
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This article seeks to deepen the debate about violent war-to-peace transitions through a comparative case study between two rebel movements that became integrated in considerably different ways in post-war Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The political marketplace brought about by Congo's war-to-peace transition substantially influenced the bargaining power of non-state armed actors in the country's eastern borderlands. In such violent environments, non-state actors like militias, try to become recognized as alternative taxing authorities opposed to state governments, while they simultaneously collaborate with them to gain access to the dividends of international peacebuilding efforts. A decisive factor for the legitimacy of these violent agencies is their ability to transform from coercion- to capital-based organizations: militias, like state governments, need to actively organize local production while embedding their authority in rapidly transforming idioms of political power. This article argues that the ‘symbiotic’ relationships emerging between rebel rulers, capitalist brokers and state government in the context of protracted armed conflict have far-reaching consequences for the political order of post-war states, with varying results depending on the coercion- and capital-based rule of these emerging complexes in the world's violent peripheries.
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Nord-Kivu : Mieux aimée, la Monusco doit encore convaincre | Syfia
Au Nord-Kivu, les habitants reconnaissent que l'appui de la Monusco a été décisif dans l'assaut final contre le M23. Ils demandent à présent à la mission des Nations unies d'aider l'armée régulière à éradiquer de leur région les autres groupes armés comme le veut son mandat.
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RDC : que reste-t-il des FDLR ? | Jeuneafrique.com
Après la fin de la rébellion du M23, les rebelles des FDLR sont la prochaine cible de la brigade d'intervention des Nations unies, dans sa mission de neutralisation des groupes armés de la partie est de la RDC. Quelle menace les FDLR représentent-elles dans le Kivu ? Décryptage.
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REFLECTIONS ON THE RECENT HISTORIOGRAPHY OF EASTERN CONGO | The Journal of African History
Considering the scale of violence that has accompanied the crisis in eastern Congo, the avalanche of academic writings on the subject is hardly surprising. Whether it helps us better understand the region's tortured history is a matter of opinion. This critical article grapples with the contributions of the recent literature on what has been described as the deadliest conflict since the Second World War. The aim, in brief, is to reflect on the historical context of the crisis, examine its relation to the politics of neighboring states, identify and assess the theoretical vantage points from which it has been approached, and, in conclusion, sketch out promising new directions for further research by social scientists. A unifying question that runs throughout the recent literature on the eastern Congo is how might a functioning state be restored or how might civil society organizations serve as alternatives to such a state – but there is little unanimity in the answers.
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Not only a man's world: Women's involvement in artisanal mining in eastern DRC | Resources Policy
Artisanal mining is a key source of livelihood in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, an area mostly known for its chronic instability and violent conflict. Although men make up the majority of the artisanal mining population, mining is also central in the livelihoods of many girls and women. In this paper, we take issue with the fact that the current emphasis on conflict-related sexual violence to women has obscured the role of women in artisanal mining. Furthermore, we criticize the tendency to promote women's departure from the mining sector, which has been presented as the best strategy to protect them against the threats of sexual violence, exploitation and oppression. We argue that, given the lack of viable alternative livelihoods in eastern DRC, policymakers should invest more time, energy and resources in trying to understand and to strengthen women's positions in the mining sector itself.
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In the face of reform: what future for ASM in the eastern DRC? | Futures
This article aims to assess, on the basis of empirical evidence from South Kivu, what the future may hold for artisanal mining in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The eastern Congolese mining sector is undergoing a period of profound change. Industrial exploitation, while still nascent in the Kivu provinces, appears poised to expand with a number of transnational mining companies currently exploring vast concessions. At the same time, there are a range of new initiatives to regulate and formalise the artisanal mining sector, but early evidence shows that they have failed to have a positive impact. We identify a number of factors hindering the effective implementation of these initiatives, namely state capacity and political will, the complex dynamics and power relations in the current system of artisanal mining and trade, the importance of these activities for livelihoods and the lack of alternative livelihoods. We also provide suggestions for future interventions, including initiatives to promote a viable artisanal mining sector which contributes to broader local development.
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Via Internet, les Ong au service des agriculteurs | Syfia
Au Sud Kivu, les Ong, qui puisent leurs informations sur internet, remplacent les services des agronomes. Elles apportent d'utiles conseils aux agriculteurs pour lutter contre les maladies qui dévastent leurs cultures.
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Nord-Kivu : Les territoires libérés du M23 exemptés d'impôts | Syfia
Les territoires de Rutshuru et Nyiragono au Nord-Kivu, récemment libérés du M23 par l'armée congolaise, sont exemptés de taxes jusqu’au 31 décembre. Une mesure qui soulage les habitants et relance les activités économiques.
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Making sense of the DRC declarations on M23 | IRIN Africa
The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the former rebel group known as the M23 Movement signed declarations on 12 December formalizing agreements to end hostilities in eastern DRC.
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African governments play central role in distribution of land rights | Africa at LSE
In this interview, Professor Catherine Boone discusses her latest book, Property and Political Order: Land rights and the Structure of Politics in Africa with Syerramia Willoughby.
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How can we move on from this dark story about “the Congo”? » | AFRICA IS A COUNTRY
Imagine that a TV director asks you to produce a documentary of European history in 59 minutes. “Impossible,” would probably be your reaction — well, Dan Snow took on this impossible task to show us in about an hour the “history of Congo,” a country as large as Europe.
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The state is among the greatest developments in human history and a precursor of economic growth. Why do states arise, and when do they fail to arise? A dominant view across disciplines is that states arise when violent actors impose a \monopoly of violence" in order to extract taxes. One key fact underlies all existing studies: no census exists prior to the state. In this paper, I provide the rst econometric evidence on the determinants of state formation. As a foundation for this study, I conducted eldwork in stateless areas of Eastern Congo, managing a team that collected village-level panel data on current armed groups. I develop a model that introduces optimal taxation theory to the decision of armed groups to form states, and argue that the returns to such decision hinge on their ability to tax the local population. A sharp, exogenous rise in the price of a bulky commodity used in the video-game industry, coltan, leads armed groups to impose a \monopoly of violence" in coltan villages. A later increase in the price of gold, easier to conceal and hence more dicult to tax, does not. Results based on two alternative identication strategies are also consistent with the model. The ndings support the hypothesis that the expected revenue from taxation, in particular tax base elasticity, is a determinant of state formation.
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Russ Feingold : "Dans les Grands Lacs, le problème n'est pas encore réglé" | Jeuneafrique.com
La résolution des problèmes de l’Est de la RDC passera par un dialogue direct entre les chefs d’État de la sous-région, estime Russ Feingold, l’envoyé spécial américain dans la région des Grands Lacs, dans une interview accordée à "Jeune Afrique" le 6 décembre, en marque du Sommet Afrique-France.
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The national army and armed groups in the eastern Congo | Rift Valley Institute
The final report of the Usalama Project presents the conclusions of 18-month field research on the national army and armed groups in the eastern DRC in three parts: an analysis of armed mobilization, focusing on the region of North and South Kivu; an examination of the FARDC; and a critical review of past and current efforts in the field of demobilization and army reform. Written by Jason Stearns, Judith Verweijen and Maria Eriksson Baaz, the report finds that in the DRC’s current political order, the mobilization of armed groups and hence violence is an effective strategy to obtain power and control resources. Troubled army policies only contribute to armed mobilization. By repeatedly integrating armed groups into the FARDC, the government has not only provided incentives for further insurrection, it has effectively sanctioned impunity. Untangling this Gordian knot will require a comprehensive political and military strategy, aligning local, national, and international
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Turning the Tide in Eastern Congo (part 2) - FRANCE 24
Did the new UN Force Intervention Brigade really tip the scales, or was it the sanctions on neighbouring Rwanda? And what happens next? The M23 militia may be gone for now but as long as there's a scramble for mineral wealth in Eastern Congo, other armed factions will come and go.
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Dispatches: After the M23 – Congo’s Next Challenges | Human Rights Watch
The M23 admitted defeat today, bringing an apparent end to the Rwandan-backed armed group’s devastating attacks on civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That’s a big step forward, but the work to account for the crimes committed by all sides in this complicated conflict has only begun.
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Research on power-sharing in Africa remains silent on the effects of national peace agreements on the sub-national level. Conversely, most armed conflicts originate and are fought in (or over) specific areas. A plausible hypothesis would be that for power-sharing to have the desired pacifying effect throughout the national territory, it needs to be extended to the local level. Based on fieldwork in six former hotspots in Liberia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) we find that there is hardly any local content, including local power-sharing, in national agreements. However, contrary to our hypothesis, neither local content (inclusion of actors or interest) nor local-power-sharing (either introducing a local power balance or monopoly) are indispensable to effectively bring about local peace, at least in the short-term. On the contrary, it might even endanger the peace process. The importance of the sub-national level is overestimated in some cases and romanticised in others. However, the history of spatial-political links, centralised policies, and the establishment of local balances or monopolies of power ultimately play an important role.
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Viols en RDC : quand les victimes doivent "payer pour obtenir justice" | Jeuneafrique.com -
Dans un rapport publié mercredi à Kinshasa, la Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme (FIDH) et des ONG locales partenaires dénoncent les difficultés qu'éprouvent les victimes des violences sexuelles à obtenir justice en RDC. Si des procès ont eu lieu ces dernières années, "aucune des décisions en matière de réparation" n'a été exécutée. Un "problème de moyens", se justifie Kinshasa.
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Rwanda-RD Congo : Le retour de la paix renforce le commerce entre Gisenyi et Goma | Syfia
Le retour de la sécurité à l’est de la RDC fait la joie des vendeuses de fruits et légumes et des maçons rwandais. Ils traversent désormais sans inquiétude la frontière pour faire leurs affaires. Tout comme les Congolais qui viennent vendre chaussures, vêtements et petits outils à Gisenyi. La paix profite à tous.
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Sud-Kivu : Payer pour avoir un emploi ou le garder | Syfia
Payer son futur employeur pour se faire embaucher, promettre une partie de son salaire pour garder son job : ces pratiques sont devenues très courantes au Sud-Kivu et ailleurs en RD Congo. Mais par peur de perdre son travail, très rares sont ceux qui en parlent.
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East African agriculture and climate change | International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
The second of three books in IFPRI's climate change in Africa series, East African Agriculture and Climate Change: A Comprehensive Analysis examines the food security threats facing 10 of the countries that make up east and central Africa - Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda - and explores how climate change will increase the efforts needed to achieve sustainable food security throughout the region. East Africa's populations is expected to grow at least through mid-century. The region will also see income growth. Both will put increased pressure on the natural resources needed to produce food, and climate change makes the challenges greater. East Africa is already experiencing rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and increasing extreme events. Without attention to adaptation, the poor will suffer.
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The objective of this paper is the document the research process underlying a study on the Rwandan transition. An extensive documentation of the research process is needed (although rarely systematically undertaken) in order to understand or assess rigor (scientific and empirical) and reflexive activities deployed in the achievement of the study results. The underlying source of inspiration to do so are questions of validity that guide social science research as such. As a consequence, trustworthiness and phronesis are central concerns due to the particular epistemological intake and research strategy adopted. The paper describes the fieldwork activities, choice and use of research techniques, the reflective process guiding design and analysis, and provides an overview of the data. The paper documents five main research principles underlying and guiding the study: immersion, iteration, multi-sitedness, mixing methods and diachrony. Two main research techniques are discussed in detail: systematic observation activities and a life history approach. A detailed overview of the nature of the available data as well as a reflection on issues of epistemology and ontology concludes.
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Truly hostile environment | Letters | Times Higher Education
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Must academics researching authoritarian regimes self-censor? | Features | Times Higher Education
In the case of Rwanda, it is wrong to argue that only academics working outside the country are capable of critical comment, says Phil Clark
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Rwanda’s subtle forms of intimidation | Opinion | Times Higher Education
The government doesn’t need to resort to violence to ensure foreign scholars’ compliance, argues Erin Jessee
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▶ BBC World Service - The Forum, Rwanda: Africa’s Agricultural Success Story? | BBC
With a staggering one billion people undernourished, and a growing world population, how do we manage these essential resources for life to make sure there is enough to go round? Bridget Kendall is joined at the European Development Days in Brussels by Rwanda’s top agriculture official Ernest Ruzindaza, whose ministry has been credited with turning a food deficit into a surfeit in just five years.
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What Rwanda Did Right | Departures
Nineteen years after the genocide, Rwanda is one of the least corrupt countries in Africa. How did it happen?
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Rwanda Freedom House Rankings Fall Another Notch | RwandaWire
Rwanda’s civil liberties rating declined from 5 to 6 due to numerous documented cases of unlawful detention, torture, and ill-treatment of civilians by military intelligence agents in secret locations.
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Des nouvelles du Rwanda : comment j’ai été expulsé - Le nouvel Observateur
Imaginez un pays où il fait beau toute l’année, les oiseaux chantent, la végétation est abondante, les enfants rient de bon cœur, le magnifique pays des mille collines. Quelle belle carte postale ; il va maintenant falloir la retourner pour y lire quelques commentaires. La vérité est différente…
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The right to the truth: how is Rwanda dealing with the legacies of its past? | Insight on Conflict
What role can memory and truth play in rebuilding communities in the aftermath of a genocide? In the second post of the series, Katherine Conway writes on the importance of the individual's right to the truth and on what the Gacaca courts have achieved in Rwanda.
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Rwanda : L'aide du gouvernement aux ONG se fait attendre | Syfia
Les Ong rwandaises attendent avec impatience l'aide financière du gouvernement, prévue par une loi de 2012, alors que les financements extérieurs se font rares. Mais l'arrêté qui doit en fixer les modalités n'est toujours pas paru.
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The role of memorialisation in conflict prevention | Insight on Conflict
Kevin McCann, website and programmes assistant at Peace Direct, reports from a recent discussion on memorialisation and reconciliation at the Commonwealth Secretariat. Amoung the speakers was Williams Nkurunziza, the Rwandan High Commissioner, who highlighted the key role memorialisation can play in preventing conflict.
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New ideas into practice - Agricultural Innovation | RIU
A selection of projects from the RIU Africa portfolio: the Nyagatare maize platform in Rwanda; the cowpea platform in Kano state, Nigeria; the pork platform in Malawi, the Farm Input Promotions (FIPS) Best Bet in Kenya, and the Armyworm Best Bet in Kenya and Tanzania were studied. Through a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods the change in capacity to innovate, the household level poverty impact, the main lessons learned and the value for money were assessed.
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Whilst I am not normally very superstitious, I could hardly imagine a more appropriate day to wait for the verdict on Victoire Ingabire’s trial in appeal. It was first scheduled for May but it was postponed several times. Eventually, the judgment was announced on Friday, December 13th. I had just concluded an exhausting journey through Congo and was preparing to take a plane back to Europe. Ingabire’s husband had promised to send me a text message from the Netherlands with the verdict. It was harsh: Victoire was condemned to 15 years in jail, almost twice her original sentence.
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Can bonus payments improve the quality of health care? | The World Bank
Ensuring that women and children receive quality health care is a key to alleviating poverty, but in many developing countries, access to appropriate medical care is limited. In recent years, policymakers and health experts have promoted the use of performance-based bonuses to motivate health-care workers to follow best practices and ensure that patients receive key medical services. As part of this, the international research community is working to measure when and how such pay-for-performance programs are most effective. To help build a body of evidence on how to encourage and support quality healthcare, the World Bank supported a study of government-run and faith-based health clinics in Rwanda. Based on the results, the Government of Rwanda created a complementary program that encourages women to seek prenatal care by offering incentives such as clothing or umbrellas for meeting certain goals for a healthy pregnancy and delivery. The Rwanda study makes an important contribution to understanding how pay-for-performance can help women and children obtain the care they need to reduce the risk of death and protect and improve health.
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Exclusive interview: General says Rwandan President’s rise to power was an accident
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Western donors must also encourage Kagame to engage the diverse political views of the Rwandan diaspora. This is not to suggest that he reach out to those who claim that the RPF organized and implemented the genocide, or hold other extremist views. But he does need to acknowledge that sincere dissidents exist alongside political extremists. Kagame should not be allowed to lump together the good with the bad as a way to justify not including any outside or competing opinions in the Rwandan political sphere. Without an open political sphere nudged and nurtured along by Rwanda’s Western donors, there will few other potential leaders to succeed Kagame in 2017; his rivals have died, are jailed, or have fled the country. Expect the lack of qualified political leaders to be Kagame’s rationale for amending the constitution to allow him to run for a third term.
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Rwanda : génération Kagamé | Jeuneafrique.com
Le génocide de 1994, ils n'en ont aucun souvenir. Beaucoup ne l'ont même pas vécu. Ils n'ont connu que l'actuel chef de l'État rwandais, Paul Kagamé, et sa volonté ferme de faire taire les clivages d'autrefois.
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Marriages of Genocide | Brown Political Review
To a western audience, the idea of intermarriage between a perpetrator and a victim of genocide is unfathomable. This is especially true in the case of Rwanda, where approximately one million people were slaughtered in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. But according to many Rwandans, marrying one’s attacker, or a relative of that attacker, is common. The only problem is that nobody seems to know any intermarried couples, including the organization tasked with reunifying a post-genocide Rwanda, the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC).
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Following the 1994 genocide, Rwanda deployed a series of comprehensive transitional justice projects seeking to hold criminally accountable all who participated in the violence. An investigation of former genocide detainees’ journeys through the post-conflict justice system reveals divergences between how they choose to remember and relate the violence surrounding the 1994 genocide in relation to the current government’s official narrative. While incongruities between the official narrative and the memories of ordinary Rwandans have been thoroughly documented in recent research, this article focuses on the form and content of released prisoners’ discourses and offers an investigative window into how those who became objects, subjects, and products of the post-conflict justice system understand concepts of justice, criminal accountability and reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda. My research took place in the fault lines of the authorized discourse on justice in Rwanda and like many other social scientists investigating post-conflict Rwanda, I relied on oral histories. As this article will demonstrate, investigating the narratives of released prisoners of the genocide and pinning them against the official narrative exposes how they interpret the causes and consequences of the episode of violence they lived through and offers an interesting vantage point from which to conceptualize and analyze criminality and victimhood during episodes of mass violence.
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With the aim of reducing women’s greater unpaid care work than men’s and increasing women’s paid employment, this paper examines the extent to which World Bank investments address unpaid care work. The paper conducts an in-depth gender analysis of 36 World Bank employment-related projects in Malawi, Mali, Niger, and Rwanda. It concludes that the vast majority (92 per cent) of reviewed projects fail to account for unpaid care work. Exceptionally, Malawi’s Shire River Basin Management Program and Niger’s Community Action Program target women’s needs as caretakers. But most reviewed projects do not address unpaid care work. Doing so would improve economic and human development and reduce gender inequality.
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In a context of globalization and liberalization, Africa is increasingly confronted with the commercialization of its space. Various large-scale actors, including international private investors, investor states, and local entrepreneurs, are constantly seeking to expand their land holdings for the production of food crops or biofuels. This article presents two Rwandan case studies and analyzes how large-scale land acquisition by foreign and local elite players affects local livelihoods. It identifies broader agrarian and social changes taking place in Rwanda and Africa and provides suggestions as to how the tables might be turned in order to protect local livelihoods in the further evolution of Rwanda’s agriculture.
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PUBLIC HOLIDAYS IN POSTINDEPENDENCE RWANDA: A HISTORICAL READING OF SOME SPEECHES | JACPS
Since independence, Rwandan governments have made it a culture to commemorate some events considered as important. These include the dates of 28 January in remembrance of the Gitarama proclamation of the Republic and abolition of Monarchy on 28 January 1961; 25 September to commemorate the victory of Party of Movement of Emancipation of Hutu (PARMEHUTU) victory of legislative elections, and 1 July to celebrate the Rwandan independence that took place on 1 July 1962. Other important dates include the 1st of January of each year when the Head of State used to address the nation and the 5th of July to commemorate the accession to power of President Juvénal Habyarimana on 5 July 1973.
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Rwanda 2010: A Dramatic Change in Reproductive Behavior | RoR
In Rwanda, between 2005 and 2010, there have been radical declines in the desired number of children, actual fertility, and child mortality along with a large increase in contraceptive prevalence. This study reviews trends in some of these measures. Multivariate analyses evaluate the relative importance for the desired number of children of years of schooling, wealth, urban residence, media exposure, child mortality, and attitudes toward gender equality. Variations in reproductive preferences, the total fertility rate, and unmet need for family planning are mapped for the 30 districts of Rwanda. The explanations for the rapid changes in reproductive attitudes and behavior are clearly related to the concerns of the country, the rapid rate of population growth, and its implications for economic development and reproductive health.
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Transcripts from radio broadcasts that aired in pre-, early-, and late-genocide Rwanda were content analyzed from a social identity theory perspective to examine whether language use was consistent with theoretical predictions. The data yielded by these analyses (N = 59) are noteworthy because the broadcasters on this station were eventually charged with war crimes for inciting and endorsing the violence between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. The results from this study found that the transcripts contained language in support of theory such that the Tutsi out-group was increasingly dehumanized as the conflict escalated, the Tutsi were blamed for their fate—while the Hutu were presented as victims of the violence, and an overt prejudice that was initially directed at Tutsi rebel group grew to include all Tutsi people near the end of this conflict. These data provide compelling support for the communication processes that arise within intergroup conflict situations and support the continued application of social identity theory to real-world situations.
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Like most cities in developing countries, Kigali is experiencing rapid urbanisation leading to an increase in the urban population and rapid growth in the size and number of informal settlements. More than 60% of the city’s population resides in these settlements, where they experience inadequate and poor quality urban services including sanitation. This article discusses the issues and constraints related to the provision of sustainable sanitation in the informal settlements in Kigali. Two informal settlements (Gatsata and Kimisagara) were selected for the study, which used a mixed method approach for data collection. The research found that residents experienced multiple problems because of poor sanitation and that the main barrier to improved sanitation was cost. Findings from this study can be used by the city authorities in the planning of effective sanitation intervention strategies for communities in informal settlements.
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Parent-adolescent communication about sexual matters is one of the means that encourages adolescents to adopt responsible sexual behaviour. However, parents do not discuss sexual matters with adolescents and those who discuss to some extent; little information about sexuality is provided. This study, was, therefore aimed to find out the factors that hindered parents from communicating with their adolescent children on sexual matters. A descriptive, cross sectional study employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches was utilized. Simple random sampling was used to select households of parents/caretakers with adolescents and face to face interviews were used to collect data in February 2011. Out of 388 respondents, majority (81%) reported that they do not discuss sexual matters with the adolescents due to socio-demographic, cultural, individual and socio-environmental factors/barriers. Being male (p=0.04), parents’ age over 44 years (OR< 1 at 95% CI), lower levels of education (≤primary) and income (farming and remittance) was significantly associated with “not communicating” sexual matters with the adolescents (p<0.05). These findings strengthen the need for continued sensitization of parents/caretakers to involve themselves in discussing sexual matters with the adolescents. Furthermore, guidance of parents/caretakers on how to approach the subject of sexuality and sustenance of discussions with the adolescents is paramount.
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Cycling helps to heal Rwanda, nearly 20 years on from genocide | BBC
Rwanda was torn apart by genocide in 1994, with up to one million people being murdered in the African country within 100 days. With the 20th anniversary approaching, I travelled to the country's capital city Kigali to meet a group of cyclists who are helping the country move on from its sad and difficult past.
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Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Philanthropist Howard Buffett | TIME.com
The philanthropist Howard G. Buffett—eldest son of multibillionaire investor Warren Buffett—and Rwandan President Paul Kagame go back a long way. Buffett’s foundation has been active in Africa for years, investing more than $140 million in central Africa’s Great Lakes region, which includes Rwanda. Almost every time Buffett visits Africa, he stops by the Rwandan capital of Kigali to see Kagame.
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Negotiated Peace, Denied Justice? The Case of West Nile (Northern Uganda) | Africa Spectrum
“Reconciliation” and “justice” are key concepts used by practitioners as well as authors of conflict-management and peacebuilding textbooks. While it is often recognized that there may be contradictions between the implementation of justice and truth-telling, on the one hand, and an end to organized violence, on the other, the ideal of a seamless fusion of these diverse goals is widely upheld by, among other things, reference to the rather utopian concept of “positive peace” (Galtung). One difficulty arises from the fact that discourses usually focus on (post-)conflict settings that resemble a victory of one conflict party, whereas peace settlements are often negotiated in a context more similar to a military or political stalemate – a more ambiguous and complicated scenario. This essay discusses these problems against the background of an empirical case study of the peace accord between the government and the rebels in the West Nile region in north-western Uganda.
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Parents’ Education and Child Schooling Outcome: Evidence from Uganda | Journal of Politics and Law
This paper presents an analysis of the determinants of school enrolment and attainment rates in Uganda from a gender perspective. We used the DHS 2006 data set and employed maximum likelihood binary and ordered probit models in our estimation. Whereas improvements in parents’ education promote the schooling outcome of both boys and girls, it is not without inclination. Fathers’ education significantly favors boys’ schooling and mothers’ education significantly favors girls’ schooling. This suggests that there are differences in parents’ preferences for schooling of children. We also find that the higher the parents’ education (secondary and postsecondary levels) the more favorable are the child’s schooling outcomes. For more favorable child schooling outcomes for future generations, government should strengthen policies aimed at educating boys and girls beyond secondary level. The government universal secondary education program is a good start and needs to be strengthened.
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This paper attempts to analyse the effects of tax incentives on the performance of Ugandan manufacturing firms in terms of gross sales and value added employing panel data estimation techniques. The study findings show that firms with tax incentives perform better in terms of gross sales and value added than their counterparts. The education level of managers of firms, firm-size, and age of the firm have positive impact on firm performance. The major policy implication of the study findings indicates that Government needs to streamline the provision of tax incentives for better firm performance. Access to quality and technical education and skills development is necessary in order to have qualified managers with high level of management skills to utilize the available tax incentives so as to improve firm performance.
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his article aims to disrupt the silence, invisibility and erasures of non-heteronormative sexual orientations or gender identities, and of sex work, in HIV/AIDS responses within displacement and post-conflict settings in Africa. Informed by Gayle Rubin's sexual hierarchy theoretical framework, It explores the role of discrimination and violation of the rights of sex workers and of gender and sexual minorities in driving the HIV/AIDS epidemic during displacement. Specific case materials focus on ethnographic research conducted in urban and rural Uganda. Recommendations for policy, practice and programmes are outlined.
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Critical researchers in anthropology, politics, and history have profited from the spatial turn, or the idea that spaces produced through practices and perceptions influence observable social action, in showing how people at borders derive specific economic and social benefits from their unique location. This is especially relevant in African border contexts where state presence is often modified or resisted by local agendas. However, less work examines how cross-border activities, locally-held perceptions, and geographic location interact to generate different versions of what it means to “be at” a border for border-crossers and residents themselves. This paper, in responding to calls for interdisciplinary and multiperspectival approaches to border studies, argues that theorizing border towns as dynamic “places” clarifies how individuals impact and construct different meanings at and across borders. It empirically develops this idea by examining two spheres of everyday activity occurring at the Kenya-Uganda border: cross-border trade and health service provision.
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Rapidly growing demand for agricultural land is putting pressure on property-rights systems, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where customary tenure systems have provided secure land access. Rapid and large-scale demands from outsiders are challenging patterns of gradual, endogenous change toward formalization. Little attention has focused on the gender dimensions of this transformation. However this contribution, based on a 2008–09 study of land tenure in Uganda, analyzes how different definitions of land ownership – including household reports, existence of ownership documents, and rights over the land – provide very different indications of the gendered patterns of land ownership and rights. While many households report husbands and wives as joint owners of the land, women are less likely to be listed on ownership documents, and have fewer rights. A simplistic focus on “title” to land misses much of the reality regarding land tenure and could have an adverse impact on women's land rights.
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The Uganda Constitution of 1995 spelt out the principle of decentralization by devolution. Accordingly, from 1995 to 2005, district local governments had a dejure mandate to hire and fire all categories of civil servants through their respective district service commissions (DSCs). Following the Constitutional amendment in September 2005, the right to hire and fire district chief administrative officers (CAOs) reverted to central government. Critics of recentralization of CAO appointments contend that the shift in the policy and legislation for managing CAOs runs contrary to the principles of decentralization by devolution. This paper argues that recentralization of CAOs has confused reporting, reduced the autonomy of sub-national governments in civil service management, undermined accountability of CAOs to elected councils, and shifted the loyalty of CAOs from local governments with and for which they work to central government that appoints and deploys them. To deepen accountability in local governments, the paper advocates for decentralization of CAO appointments, but for participation of central government in recruitment of CAOs within the confines of a separate personnel system. It further calls for a rethinking of the current call by the 9th Parliament to recentralize human resource in health in local governments owing to accountability challenges of managing the civil service in sub-national governments under an integrated personnel system.
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Indigenous knowledge of seasonal weather forecasting could be useful in decision making at village level to best exploit the seasonal distribution of rainfall in order to increase or stabilize crop yields. We examined existing indigenous knowledge by interviewing 192 households in six regions of Uganda. Twenty one distinctive indicators were mentioned by local communities for forecasting the start of the dry season, but only few of these indicators were more consistently and frequently used in the different districts. These included the appearance of bush crickets (Ruspolia baileyi Otte), winds blowing from the east to the west, the appearance and movement of migratory birds such as cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis Linnaeus), and calling by the Bateleur eagle (Terathopius ecaudatus Lesson). For prediction of the start of the rainy season, 22 indicators were mentioned and these included winds blowing from the west to the east, cuckoo birds (Cuculiformes: Cuculidae) start to call, and winged African termite (Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki) swarms leave their nests. Predictors of rain in the following days included presence of red clouds in the morning. Together with the meteorological forecasts, traditional indicators could be very useful in rain forecasting and improving the timing of agricultural activities.
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This paper examines open responses and journal entries generated by participants in a Ugandan – North American international teacher partnership program. Teachers comments are analyzed for factors addressing the successful negotiation of both teaching and relationship making across the cultural, pedagogical and political divides that separate them. In the midst of the international teacher partnership program, North American participants raised pedagogical concerns regarding the teacher-centered pedagogy and student passivity as after effects of Uganda’s colonial education system.
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This article discusses the role of British colonialism in the rise and development of Acholi ethnic identity in Uganda. The authors used oral tradition and archival sources to determine when and how the Acholi ethnicity evolved. They conducted interviews with key informants including chiefs, elders and opinion leaders. Their main argument is that the Acholi as a distinct and collective identity are a British creation. Before British colonialism, the Acholi were a divided people living under different chiefdoms numbering up to about sixty. The name ‘Acholi’ was non-existent. The people who became Acholi were known by the names of their respective chiefdoms. The British abolished those chiefdoms and in their place created a single ethnic identity called Acholi.
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Efforts to address wood scarcity have ignored the forestry value chain and extant literature treats commodity chains as static constructs. Using the adaptive cycle framework, the evolution of the sawn wood commodity chain in Uganda was analysed to examine how policy and governance, physical, and socioeconomic factors interacted to shape its profile over time. Results show that the chain has evolved through one adaptive cycle and is currently undergoing reorganisation. The policy and governance environment had the greatest influence but inadequate coherence with the socioeconomic and physical environments resulted in a system vulnerable to exogenous disturbances. The examination of commodity chains as complex adaptive systems provides beneficial insights to supplement traditional cross-sectional studies focussing on structure, functioning and distribution equity. There is a need for adaptive institutions with focus on development of a cogent strategy for proper coordination in the sawn wood production and distribution system.
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The Gender Impact of Microfinance: The Case of Wekembe in Uganda | CEB Working Paper
Microfinance industry has grown massively in the past decades. Even if it is commonly considered as an important development tool, the evidence of the socio-economic impact of microfinance is mixed, regardless of what methodology has been applied. The purpose of this study is to assess the socio-economic impact of microfinance on the clients of a microfinance program in Uganda, named Wekembe. To do so, we have conducted a survey on 294 Wekembe’s clients and we have used the survey results to build a dataset, which by means of different methodologies – controlling also for selection bias by means of a generalized propensity score (GPS) matching technique - allows us to analyse the impact of microfinance on Wekembe clients’ savings and women clients’ empowerment.
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When is your tea time? Making sense of time in organizations | Organization & Management Theory
Drawing on a multi-sited ethnography, we investigate how actors make sense of time when they encounter different temporal perspectives. Our empirical context is Fairtrade-certified tea production in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. We present how Fairtrade influences the patterns and interpretations of time in African tea growing communities through teaching time and controlling time. We find that actors make sense of temporal asymmetries by creating meanings to accommodate multiple perspectives of time: balancing present and future, synthesizing a spiral view of development, decoupling labels from practices, and negotiating for flexibility. The study contributes an understanding of giving and making sense of time to the research on time and sensemaking in organizations.
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Despite an increased focus on entrepreneurship as a means of promoting development, there has been limited discussion of the conceptual and methodological issues related to researching entrepreneurship in low-income countries. Drawing on experiences from Uganda, this paper presents a study of entrepreneurship conducted in a low-income settlement, which combined participatory quantitative and qualitative approaches, highlighting the strengths and challenges of using participatory methods. The paper demonstrates how drawing on a range of participatory methods can contribute to creating more engaging research relationships and generate a deeper and more contextualized understanding of entrepreneurship.
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In the wake of return to relative peace in Acholi region, northern Uganda, from 2006, land matters have taken centre stage. After having been displaced into camps for many years, people have started to go back home. Their return is complicated by many factors, including above all, land disputes. While the Ugandan constitution and land legislation protects customary tenure, the social and economic institutions that uphold this tenure regime have been severely weakened as a result of war and displacement. The combination of demographic changes following large-scale displacement and gradual return; social and economic conflicts emanating from biting poverty for most and accumulation by a few; uncertain territorial demarcations by way of changing and contested statutory and communal boundaries in the context of weak and subverted regulatory institutions, together deepen conflicts over resources. This article analyses these issues by examining a case of land acquisition in Amuru: a bid by the Madhvani business group to access huge tracts of land in western Acholi for purposes of growing sugar cane, and the heated debates and protests this case has generated, as played out by political representation in different arenas such as the media, courts and representative assemblies.
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The Ugandan Government promotes the rapid expansion of secondary education and requires an emphasis on mathematics and science subjects at that level, but has a “market” approach to the recruitment of teachers. This study uses both national and local evidence to demonstrate that, not only are the teachers of these subjects too few for the policies to be effective, but many of them are employed in more than one school, and some in other work. This “moonlighting” trend, which contributes to problems of poor service, is seen as part of a questionable tendency to commercialise teaching. Policy changes and practical steps are suggested in order to regulate and reduce moonlighting.
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Food Standards, Certification, and Poverty among Coffee Farmers in Uganda | GlobalFood
Private standards are gaining in importance in global markets for high-value foods. We analyze and compare impacts of three sustainability oriented standards – Fairtrade, Organic, and UTZ – on the livelihoods of smallholder coffee farmers in Uganda. Using survey data and propensity score matching with multiple treatments, we find that Fairtrade certification increases household living standards by 30% and significantly reduces the prevalence and depth of poverty. For the other two certification schemes, no significant impacts are found. Institutional factors that may explain differential impacts are discussed. Overly general statements about the effects of standards on smallholder livelihoods may be misleading.
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In Uganda, men who have sex with men (MSM) are at high risk for HIV. Between May 2008 and February 2009 in Kampala, Uganda, we used respondent driven sampling (RDS) to recruit 295 MSM≥18 years who reported having had sex with another man in the preceding three months. The parent study conducted HIV and STI testing and collected demographic and HIV-related behavioral data through audio computer-assisted self-administered interviews. We conducted a nested qualitative sub-study with 16 men purposively sampled from among the survey participants based on responses to behavioral variables indicating higher risk for HIV infection. Sub-study participants were interviewed face-to-face. Domains of inquiry included sexual orientation, gender identity, condom use, stigma, discrimination, violence and health seeking behavior. Emergent themes included a description of sexual orientation/gender identity categories. All groups of men described conflicting feelings related to their sexual orientation and contextual issues that do not accept same-sex identities or behaviors and non-normative gender presentation. The emerging domains for facilitating condom use included: lack of trust in partner and fear of HIV infection. We discuss themes in the context of social and policy issues surrounding homosexuality and HIV prevention in Uganda that directly affect men's lives, risk and health-promoting behaviors.
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Based on fieldwork data collected since 2005 in Uganda, the paper explores the connections between young Pentecostals' involvement in HIV prevention programs, with a particular attention to the “abstinence campaign”, and the process of identity construction within the movement itself. I show how the rise of the AIDS epidemic contributed in a decisive way to shaping the construction of meaning, and thus the action, of the Balokole (“the Savedees”) movement in Uganda. Theoretically, the article aims at contributing to fill the gap in the analysis of social movements in Africa, especially addressing the specificity of believers' participation in church activities and in evangelical faith-based organizations (FBOs) by exemplifying how the collective identity of the born-again and their mobilization to fight AIDS are reciprocally related. The identity/participation connection clarifies how the feeling of belonging to a strongly connected and partially closed group, that of the “saved” Christians, is pivotal in pushing the Balokole to become active.
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The question addressed in this article is what precisely are the benefits that small-scale farmers in the developing world receive from being members of producer-controlled vertical value chains? A baseline comparative survey was conducted of members and non-members of four vertically coordinated dairy cooperatives, three in Kenya and one in Uganda (N = 3,986), which are part of a larger five-year longitudinal cooperative study. The study measures both objective income gains and subjective satisfaction gains from cooperative membership. Cooperative members have a small but statistically significant advantage over non-members in income from dairy, but other incentives for membership are based on selective incentives (i.e., provision of non-income services to members) and social capital (i.e., trust that the cooperative will purchase their milk and pay them a fair price). These findings suggest that the motivations for cooperative membership in developing countries are not dissimilar from motivations of cooperative members in more developed countries. This coupled with similar organizational design issues suggests that greater attention should be paid to larger-scale vertically coordinated collective action models in development theory and research.
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Ivory poaching and trading in central and eastern Africa has recently received a lot of attention. On the one hand, there have been a number of analyses highlighted how ‘tusks fund terror’ for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). On the other hand, there have been a wide range of news reports on the confiscation of large consignments of ivory, in Entebbe airport, but particularly in Mombasa, all of which highlighting the intensified trade in ivory and the important (transit) role of Uganda. This analysis wants to better document both of these points, by linking them together: it wants to explain the poaching dynamics in Garamba National Park (GNP) in the DRC, where the LRA is active. It particularly wants to show how the LRA is a relatively minor actor in poaching – it can by far not explain the strong intensification of elephant poaching in the park: whereas from 2007 to 2012, 7 to 8 elephants were killed in the park, in the first 10 months of 2012 alone, a staggering 50 elephants were killed. Related with this, the analysis wants to show how much of the ivory passing through Uganda, or confiscated in Mombasa, comes from GNP. Therefore, while calls from the UN Security Council to investigate the role of the LRA in ivory poaching are useful in bringing attention to the poaching problem, the strict attention to the LRA is not particularly helpful, and will only have a limited impact.
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The Rice Market in East Africa | ICAAAE
Total rice production in East Africa is around 1.3m MT, with Tanzania overwhelmingly the largest producer; Uganda is also significant, with Kenya and Rwanda producing minimal volumes. In terms of growth, the region’s two major producers, Tanzania and Uganda, have significantly increased output since 2005. In Uganda this increased by 10% annually (2005-10) and in Tanzania by 9% over the same period. However, this increase has been largely driven by an increase in acreage at constant yields, rather than by a rise in productivity.
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Anthropological theory has always shown a particular fascination for the subject of the house. However, Latour's work offers a significant challenge for previous theorising in this area. Latour challenges the very idea of what a house is, and encourages us to see ‘the house’ as not a coherent form at all, so much as a multitude of (more or less stable) assemblages. He also forces us to re-examine the relationship between constructed dwellings and the social, encouraging us to see the former as having particular forms of agency within the latter. This article examines these ideas in relation to the ethnography of one particular house in rural south-western Uganda.