Browsing by Author "Namara, Rose"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Governance, Performance and Sustainability of Non‐State Social Protection Services in Uganda
    (Partnership for African Social and Governance Research, 2014) Asingwire, Narathius; Muhangi, Dennis; Namara, Rose; Kemigisa, Margaret
    This study uses qualitative and quantitative approaches to fill gaps in previous studies by shedding more light on the nature, governance, and scope of non-state actors (NSAs) in Uganda and related issues of performance and sustainability. The focus of this study is social protection interventions in three districts in Uganda: Rakai (ravaged by HIV especially in the 1980s and 1990s), Bushenyi (relatively stable) and Kole (post-conflict district). The study found that governance of mutual help groups such as burial groups was based on trust and lacked formal and rigid organisational structures. However, these groups offered crucial and timely interventions for felt and immediate needs that are unmet by either the government or externally funded non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The study underscores the need for formulating government policy that complements and enables NSAs rather than inhibiting and stifling the effort of these pivotal community-based organisations. Further, the study demonstrates how it behoves the government, which is charged with monitoring NSAs, to enable them to transition into more promotive and transformative entities. The study noted that NSAs are home-grown solutions to challenges of social protection as they depended mainly on resources generated by members rather than relying on external funding. In other words, NSAs respond appropriately to local circumstances, while operating without rigid and formal controls. In the process NSAs demonstrate more longevity and sustainability than NGOs whose programs are time-bound and are focused on specific problems such as dealing with the effects of civil war in Kole district in northern Uganda. Given the pivotal role NSAs play in providing social protection in Uganda, this study demonstrates that public policy should be geared towards minimising or eradicating the tension between NSAs and the government in the volatile regulatory landscape.
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    Improving police integrity in Uganda: Impact assessment of the police accountability and reform project
    (Review of Development Economics, 2020) Wagner, Natascha; Hout, Wil; Namara, Rose
    Uganda and in particular the Ugandan police are perceived as highly corrupt. To address the integrity of police officers, an intervention called the Police Accountability and Reform Project (PARP) was implemented in selected police districts between 2010 and early 2013. This paper studies the impact of PARP for a sample of 600 police officers who were interviewed about police integrity by means of 12 hypothetical vignette cases depicting context-specific, undesirable behavior of varying degrees of severity. The assessments of the cases by the police officers are analyzed using propensity score matching, inverse probability weighting, and seemingly unrelated regression techniques. We show that the self-selection of police officers into the program is unlikely to drive the results. The results suggest that officers participating in PARP activities (1) judge the presented cases of misconduct more severely, (2) are more inclined to report misconduct, and (3) also expect their colleagues to judge misbehavior at the police level more critically although the latter two coefficient estimates are smaller in size.
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    Politics in staff representation and democracy in higher education institutions in Uganda: extricating the actors’ intentions
    (International Journal of Technology and Management, 2017) Barifaijo, Maria K.; Namara, Rose
    The article examines the influence of representative politics on democracy in higher education institutions (HEIs). The research attempted to answer three main questions: (1) What are the intentions of the aspirants in their struggle to represent their constituents? (2) Why do electorates decide to or not to vote for the competing aspirants? (3) How has representative politics promoted democracy in the institutions? The study employed an ethnographic research. A qualitative approach was supported by a longitudinal design to collect data in two HEIs - Makerere University and Uganda Management Institute - from November 2009 to April 2015. Results revealed that aspirants had both personal and constituent-related desires as pushing factors for them to stand for elective positions. Ideological pursuits, academic achievements, personal gains and friendship with aspirants were also identified as motivating factors. The study was guided by the Theory of Rational Choice and Bandura’s Model of reasoned action. The article concludes that representative politics in HEIs did not enhance ideals of accountability and responsiveness as desired in democratic institutions; rather, it served the personal interests of representatives.