Browsing by Author "Namara, Rose B."

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Does decentralised governance of primary education improve performance of pupils in Eastern Uganda? – Perspectives of education managers
    (Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, 2020) Namara, Rose B.
    This study seeks to establish the role decentralised governance has played in the performance of primary schools in eastern Uganda. Exploratory and descriptive data drawn from 104 school managers and district officials participating in the study indicate that decentralised governance has strengthened management of the payroll, increased regularity of monitoring and supervision and introduced school management committees. Despite these improvements in governance, there is however evidence that the quality of primary education continues to be low. Only a small and declining percentage of pupils complete primary education, and with increasingly poor grades. This is because, for a number of reasons, both the supply and demand side of governance are still weak. Despite this, overall the author finds that decentralised governance of primary education is a positive development, as it has enhanced the supply side of governance. There is, however, a need to control negative practices in the supply side of governance, and to systematically develop the demand side of governance, if the performance of Ugandan pupils is to improve.
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    Does the Office of the Prime Minister in Uganda conduct Gender Responsive Evaluations?
    (African Journal of Governance and Development, 2018) Namara, Rose B.
    Gender equality and women’s empowerment are possible when development programmes and policies confront unfair power relationships between men and women. Monitoring and evaluation are tools that can enhance gender responsiveness and/or conceal gender inequalities. This paper analyzed whether the 2016 process evaluation of the Universal Primary Education programme (UPE) undertake by Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) was gender responsive. The critical review of the evaluation report show that OPM did not set out to undertake a gender responsive evaluation though the UPE programme by design was gender responsive. This enabled a generic evaluation to highlight findings on some gender indicators embedded in the programme, though the report was silent on other issues like; early pregnancy, absenteeism and school drop out for girls due to gender roles and cultural beliefs. The evaluation used a generic evaluation methodology, the objectives did not require a gender responsive study, there was no requirement of a gender responsive evaluation team and the design did not specify that some of data sources include women and other vulnerable groups. The evaluation process was not necessarily taken to be a social change process for enhancing learning and empowerment of stakeholders
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    The education manager in the covid-19 era: Dilemma to responsiveness and continuity of education
    (African Journal of Educational Management, 2021) Kaguhangire-Barifaijo, Maria; Namara, Rose B.; Rwemisisi, Jude
    This paper discusses the challenges facing the educational manager in the era of Covid-19, which has not only disrupted education activities but also depleted actors of their economic prowess. The paper further examines specific education challenges, including; Syllabi circumvention, remodeled education calendar, declining students’ morality, disengaged staff and students as they diverted in search of alternative survival modalities. Yet, whereas the status quo in terms of budgets and facilities has remained, the education manager is expected to refocus institutions’ visions using the ‘new normal’ strategies to repossess institutions’ glory. The authors argue that while Covid-19 has affected all sectors in varying magnitudes, the education sector specifically has been the most affected of all. Considering that, education leads to productive, peaceful, healthy, prosperous societies, as well as socio-economic development of a country, there is no doubt that the education manager is squarely accosted. Paradoxically, whereas the manager is expected to adopt the ‘new normal’ arrangements for the learning to continue, the enablers have remained ‘same old story’. The paper concludes that although some of the education institutions re-opened amidst the prevalence of the pandemic with limited budgets, this attempt was to mitigate the ‘pile-on effect’. Consequently, institutions should embrace online teaching and practice ‘cost cutting strategies’, to continue performing their expected responsibilities’ and deliver quality education in the ‘new normal’.
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    Institutional Arrangements for Rural Poverty Reduction and Hunger Eradication in Uganda: An Empirical Analysis
    (International Journal of Policy Studies, 2012) Namara, Rose B.; Basheka, Benon C.
    Poverty reduction has been an overarching and universal goal for global and local development agendas. Global leaders chose to combine eradicating extreme poverty and hunger in the first Millennium Development Goal under the assumption that institutional arrangements to reduce poverty would automatically reduce hunger. Further assumptions suggested that all governments would design poverty reduction policies consistent with food security outcomes. We argue that concurrent hunger and poverty eradication in the rural settings of Uganda need direct institutional arrangements and action to reduce hunger as well as mechanisms that address other contextual factors. We empirically confirm that there are diverse determinants of hunger in Uganda with an associated socio-economic and political context. There is a relationship between poverty and hunger; therefore, government policies intended to address poverty need to embark on a synergy that coordinates interventions to address the interrelated societal problems of poverty and hunger.
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    Network governance and capacity of local governments to deliver LED in Uganda
    (Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, 2015) Namara, Rose B.; Kagambirwe Karyeija, Gerald; Mubangizi, Betty C.
    This paper discusses network governance and its contribution to the capacity of local governments (LGs) to deliver local economic development (LED) in Uganda. Although a formal LED policy was only established in Uganda in February 2014, there have been LED-inspired practices in the past decade. Various scholars and practitioners have observed that the autonomy and capacity of LGs to deliver LED is limited, but have been hopeful that new governance strategies like network governance would increase the capacities of LGs. However, neither network governance arrangements among LGs, nor their potential to improve governance capacity, have been documented. In a case study of Kyenjojo District, this paper finds that existing network governance arrangements have been fundamental in improving financial autonomy at this LG, delivering some income to invest in LED activities, although no evidence was found of reduced transaction costs in transforming local economies. The study further reveals that network governance arrangements have not led to the development of specialised skills in regulation or law enforcement, and capacity gaps are evident amongst staff and members in understanding the private sector and how it works. On a positive note, there is clear evidence of attempts by the LG to be innovative. Based on these findings, this study recommends that LGs need to consider a multi-pronged or multi-network governance approach to LED, which in turn will require a refocusing of governance mechanisms to become more dynamic and responsive, and offer incentives to the various actors in the development sector.
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    Partnerships as Entities, Agreements, and Venues to Interact: The Case of the Uganda Aids Commission and the Uganda HIV/AIDS Partnership
    (Uganda Management Institute, 2011) Namara, Rose B.; Bergh, Sylvia I.
    Partnerships as a framework for development have long been used in the delivery of public policy and programmes. However, the literature suggests that the concept of partnership is often uncritically used and partnerships are understood and practised differently in the delivery of public services. Yet there is little research on the discourse, interests and practices of partnership arrangements and the range of structural factors and agendas underlying these relationships. This article is based on a rapid assessment of the HIV/AIDS Partnership in Uganda as coordinated by the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) to explore: (i) how actors (and the UAC in particular) understand the concept of partnership in everyday development delivery and (ii) how actors (and the UAC in particular) practise the concept of partnership. Data drawn from in-depth interviews with UAC management and technical staff as well as key policy documents demonstrates that in the HIV/AIDS sub-sector in Uganda, partnerships are understood and practised as an important methodology of conducting HIV/AIDS interventions. By applying the model developed by Kingsley and Waschak to the empirical data, the article shows that the UAC sees the HIV/AIDS Partnership predominantly as a way of bringing together different entities to make a contribution. Intentionally or not, the HIV/AIDS Partnership serves several purposes, including: improving governance and decision-making processes, streamlining HIV/AIDS resource mobilisation and utilisation, enhancing coordination of the HIV/AIDS response at the decentralised government level, and generally contributing to an effective management of the ever-increasing web of actors in the sector. To a lesser extent, the UAC also conceives of the HIV/AIDS Partnership as a venue of interaction for learning purposes, mainly through the Partnership Forum, and as contractual agreements, especially in the management of the Civil Society Fund where civil society organisations compete for service delivery funding.
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    Teachers’ Protest Movements and Prospects for Teachers Improved Welfare in Uganda
    (Journal of education and training studies, 2016) Namara, Rose B.; Kasaija, Josephine
    Since the early 40s to today, teachers in Uganda organized themselves into unions and demanded for better conditions of service. Despite the long history of different forms of teachers’ protests, the contribution of these protests towards influencing the teacher’s welfare in the country is not sufficiently analyzed in the academic and policy circles. Up till now, it is not very clear what these protests have achieved. Written against the background of teachers’ protests in Uganda, this paper examines the effects of collective action of teachers on their welfare. Interviews with Uganda National Teachers Union Staff, Primary School Teachers, and Ministry of Education and Sports officials indicate that, teachers protests movement have enabled to show the public that teachers are unfairly remunerated and have also contributed to some incremental changes in teachers’ salaries and provision of some housing facilities by government. However, these protests have had minimal contribution to a policy and institutional framework that favour sustained improvement in teachers’ welfare as these protests are recurrent. The findings suggest that prospects for teachers’ protests to cause welfare changes in lives of teachers reside in proper mobilization of different categories of teachers as well as teachers’ ability to broadly link their welfare to professionalism and attainment of the education outcomes.