The National Research Repository of Uganda - NRU

Welcome to the National Research Repository of Uganda, abbreviated as "NRU". NRU was established in 2021. NRU is a collection of scholarly output by researchers from the UNCST Community, including scholarly articles and books, electronic theses and dissertations, conference proceedings, journals, technical reports and digitised library collections. It is the official Institutional Archive (IA) of UNCST.

For information about the publishers' copyright policy on archiving your articles online or in an institutional archive, visit the Sherpa Site at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php The site gives a summary of the permissions normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement. If you wish to publish your research findings in the NRU, please contact NRU administrator at admin@uncst.go.ug for details. NRU operates both open access and closed access models. Access to fulltext has been restricted in adherence to the UNCST Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Copyrights policies.

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Africa Portal is an online repository of open access library collection with over 3,000 books, journals, and digital documents on African policy issues. This is an initiative by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Makerere University (MAK), and the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Please visit the Africa Portal at http://www.africaportal.org/library.

Communities in NRU

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Books and Book Abstracts
This community contains Open Access Books and Book Abstracts
Conference Proceedings
This community contains Ugandan Conference proceedings
Institutional Annual Research Reports
This community contains consolidated Ugandan Institutional Annual Research Reports on a broad range of subjects
Institutional Repository Policies
This community contains approved and running institutional repository policies from different research institutions
IT DevOps Communinity
IT DevOps Community

Recent Submissions

Implementing an intra outbreak ring vaccination clinical trial for Sudan Ebola virus disease within four days of outbreak notification in Uganda
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2026-09-16)
Winters Muttamba;
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Henry Kyobe Bosa;
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Misaki Wayengera ;
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Andrew Obuku;
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Maria Sekimpi;
East and Central Africa experiences heightened threats for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), with the latest outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV) reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda on 15th May 2026. The BDBV outbreak comes just over a year following declaration of Sudan Virus Disease (SVD) outbreak in Uganda on 30th January 2025. Following the 2025 outbreak, a race against the clock mobilisation occurred over the subsequent four days to launch a ring vaccination trial for a candidate vaccine against SVD. During this four-day period, the investigation team leveraged ongoing engagements with trial sponsors to activate prefinancing mechanisms and unlock in-kind financing from the government of Uganda. Further, the team activated a prepositioned research protocol to secure rapid ethics and regulatory clearance, and quickly accessed investigation product within the country, supportive ethics/regulatory systems, presence of logistical and data management systems established during the 2022 outbreak, collaborative relationship between the trial and the Ministry of Health outbreak response teams. Finally, previously trained field and community engagement personnel were mobilised overnight, offered refresher training and rapidly deployed to the field. In conclusion, the unprecedented four-day turnaround was made possible by the research, logistical and staffing capacities established during the 2022 SVD outbreak, an achievement that offers a blueprint for rapid evaluation of medical countermeasures during outbreaks.
Community event-based surveillance as trust infrastructure for Bundibugyo Ebola response
(Elsevier Ltd, 2026-09-08)
Baker, Pieter
The 2026 outbreak of Ebola caused by Bundibugyo virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda highlights persistent gaps in centralized outbreak surveillance, particularly in settings affected by insecurity, displacement, cross-border mobility, community mistrust, and limited disease-specific countermeasures. Community event-based surveillance (CEBS) offers a practical approach for strengthening case-finding while building trust. CEBS relies on trained, equipped, and compensated community members to report trigger events that may indicate hidden transmission, linking local alerts to rapid verification, referral, household support, and formal outbreak response. Sierra Leone's experience during the 2014-16 West African Ebola epidemic provides an important model: CEBS was piloted in Bo District and later scaled through the Ebola Response Consortium, generating alerts that contributed to detection of confirmed Ebola cases, including cases with no known epidemiological link at detection. For the current Bundibugyo outbreak, CEBS should be adapted as a locally governed extension of health-zone and district surveillance structures. Funded well, CEBS can improve timely detection, link households to care, reinforce community trust and strengthen preparedness beyond a single outbreak.The 2026 outbreak of Ebola caused by Bundibugyo virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda highlights persistent gaps in centralized outbreak surveillance, particularly in settings affected by insecurity, displacement, cross-border mobility, community mistrust, and limited disease-specific countermeasures. Community event-based surveillance (CEBS) offers a practical approach for strengthening case-finding while building trust. CEBS relies on trained, equipped, and compensated community members to report trigger events that may indicate hidden transmission, linking local alerts to rapid verification, referral, household support, and formal outbreak response. Sierra Leone's experience during the 2014-16 West African Ebola epidemic provides an important model: CEBS was piloted in Bo District and later scaled through the Ebola Response Consortium, generating alerts that contributed to detection of confirmed Ebola cases, including cases with no known epidemiological link at detection. For the current Bundibugyo outbreak, CEBS should be adapted as a locally governed extension of health-zone and district surveillance structures. Funded well, CEBS can improve timely detection, link households to care, reinforce community trust and strengthen preparedness beyond a single outbreak.
Prevalence and factors associated with experiencing occupational biological hazards among clinical university students in South Western Uganda
(BioMed Central, 2026-09-04)
Ayesiga, Innocent;
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Wekha, Godfrey;
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Kihumuro, Raymond Bernard ;
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Nakandi, Racheal Mukisa;
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Tenywa, David;
BackgroundClinical students face hazards, such as needlestick injuries and blood spills. While healthcare workers’ exposure to such hazards is well-documented, there is limited data on medical students, particularly in Uganda. We explored the prevalence and factors associated with biological occupational hazards among clinical university students.MethodsThis cross-sectional study examined biological occupational hazards among 384 randomly selected undergraduate clinical medical students at a university in Southwestern Uganda. Data were collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire. Categorical and numerical data were summarised descriptively using frequencies and means. Multivariable logistic regression identified factors independently associated with hazard exposure. Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were reported, and a p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsA total of 384 participants, with a mean age of 25.1 years and a male predominance of 208 (54.2%), were included; 223 (58.1%) pursued careers in medicine and surgery. 316 (82.3%) reported experiencing a hazard, with 107 (33.9%) reporting experiencing it more than three times. 155 (49.1%) and 102 (32.3%) of the participants had experienced blood spills and needle stick injuries, respectively. Gender (aOR 0.448, CI: 0.24–0.84) and the current ward where the students were placed (aOR 2.94, CI: 1.39–6.22) were significantly associated with exposure to hazards.ConclusionClinical students are significantly exposed to occupational hazards, with blood spills and needle stick injuries being the most common. Most students experience multiple exposures in high-risk wards such as Obstetrics. Targeted interventions, such as establishing injury response teams, pinning procedure charts on the ward walls, and providing procedure manuals, are needed to enhance safety and improve clinical training. Future research should also examine safety protocols and gendered risk perceptions to develop effective strategies to mitigate hazards. Health & Medical Collection (Module)
SCHOOL-LEVEL BRIBERY IN PUBLIC PRIMARY EDUCATION IN UGANDA
(University of Hradec Králové, 2026-08-10)
Martin Söderberg;
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Edward Kumakech;
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Vanja Berggren
Despite stern anticorruption laws, and the government’s pronounced ambition to offer education free of charge, there is evidence to suggest that many families in Uganda with children in public primary schools get solicitated for bribes. The present study examines why ordinary Ugandan parents and schoolteachers recurrently become involved in the lose-lose game of bribery. Drawing primarily on household survey data, this case study takes a deep dive into the institutional “bad barrels” in Uganda, and discusses the dynamics of school-level corruption alongside its effects on policy implementation. For the purpose of this analysis, principal-agent, collective action, and institutional theory, as well as problem-solving functionality and collaborative-network perspectives, are integrated into an ecological framework. By combining these different but complementary theoretical approaches, the study highlights the interaction between social, economic, cultural, relational, and situational factors that may make bribery seem necessary, rational, and worth the risk.
Intersecting geo-hazard dynamics with tourism prospects on the mount Elgon biosphere in Uganda
(Elsevier Ltd, 2026-07-15)
Bamutaze, Yazidhi;
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Mugizi, Francis;
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Ochieng, Amos ;
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Kisira, Yeeko;
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Nyasimi, Mary Kerubo;
The highland ecosystems in tropical Africa continue to grapple with the increasing intensity and occurrence of geohazards associated with the interplay of changing ecological, climatic conditions and anthropogenic conditions. The situation particularly on the volcanics of mountain Elgon is projected to heighten if no viable interventions are implemented to ameliorate the burden imposed by these phenomena. In this study, we investigated the sensitivity of the mountain Elgon ecosystem to a series of geo-hazards and their trajectories with a spatial lens with a view of providing alternative approaches for effective conservation and resilience. The study is premised on desktop review and meta-analysis of existing data and information pertaining to an array of geohazards. We collected and collated information from 113 studies spanning a period from 1981 to 2022, constituting an inventory that informed our analysis. The data was subjected to cross tabulation and descriptive statistical analysis. The results reveal a diversity of up to 15 geohazards which are prevalent and perpetual particularly on the Ugandan side of mountain Elgon. This finding underpins a high exposure of the mountain Elgon population, livelihood assets to multiple environmental stressors and ultimately disasters. The most significant environmental stressors are land degradation (27%)>, landslide (20%)>, climate change (11%) and land use and land cover change. The mountain Elgon districts of Bududda and Manafwa are currently considered hotspots for geohazards notably landslides and degradative processes, due their location on the critical slope gradients thresholds >30%. A time series analysis strongly associates landslide occurrence with enhanced “dark tourism” tourism on mountain Elgon. Moreover, these districts have an abundance of existing and potential tourism resources which can enhance ecosystem integrity and avert disastrous geohazards. Therefore, harnessing and optimizing green tourism assets might reduce land use pressures that often accelerate geohazards on the mountain Elgon slopes.