Browsing by Author "Nkonya, Ephraim"

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    Decentralization and Rural Service Delivery in Uganda
    (DIIS, 2013) Bashaasha, Bernard; Najjingo Mangheni, Margaret; Nkonya, Ephraim
    Uganda introduced the decentralization policy in 1997 under the Local Government Act of 1997 that has since undergone four amendments. The policy inherently decentralized service delivery institutions and their governance in order to improve access to services for the rural poor. Based on an analysis of available literature, the paper documents the state of knowledge regarding rural service provision in Uganda under decentralization and identifies knowledge gaps for further investigation. Its focus is on education, health, and agricultural advisory services, as well as the management of natural resources in Uganda. Although enlightening, a review of the broader decentralization literature is beyond the scope of this work. The analysis revealed that results in terms of attaining the objectives of decentralization are mixed. While as anticipated generally decentralization resulted in greater participation and control over service delivery and governance by local communities, local governments are still grappling with a range of challenges, namely, inadequate local financial resources and over-reliance on conditional central government grants; inability to attract and retain sufficient trained and experienced staff; corruption, nepotism, and elite capture. With regard to the specific services, while universal primary education (UPE) policy under the decentralization framework is credited with a dramatic increase in primary school enrollment, public primary education services are still dogged by concerns over financing, equity, quality, and the need for curriculum reform. Some studies show that there has been no improvement in health services with many health status indicators either stagnating or worsening. In general, decentralization of education and health services has not resulted in greater participation of the ordinary people and accountability of service providers to the community. Regarding agricultural extension and advisory services, except for areas serviced by NGOs, the majority of the country does not readily access extension services, because districts have been unable to prioritize the operational expenses. However, there is some evidence that the devolution of responsibility for natural resource management (NRM) has contributed to greater compliance with some NRM requirements in some areas while in other areas forest conditions have declined following decentralization. Generally, evidence on whether decentralization has improved service delivery in Uganda is still inconclusive, and more research is needed.
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    Impact Evaluation and Returns to Investment of the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) Program of Uganda
    (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2008) Benin, Samuel; Nkonya, Ephraim; Okecho, Geresom; Randriamamonjy, Josee; Kato, Edward; Lubade, Geofrey; Kyotalimye, Miriam; Byekwaso, Francis
    Uganda has for a long period of time experienced strong economic growth. In the 1990s, gross domestic product grew steadily by more than 6% per annum from a low rate of 3 percent in the 1980s, and the proportion of the population living under the poverty line declined from 56.4 percent in 1992 to 31.1 percent in 2006. This remarkable turnaround from the depression associated with the political turmoil and economic mismanagement of the 1970‘s until the mid-1980s has been achieved through sound policies linked to investments and economic liberalization undertaken by the Government of Uganda (GOU) with support from the donor community. Despite the substantial progress made, several challenges remain in sustaining the momentum by way of increasing productivity, ensuring sustainable use of natural resources, and reducing poverty, hunger and human disease. Recognizing the importance of a multi-sectoral approach to accelerating growth and reducing mass poverty, the Government of Uganda has since 2000 been implementing the Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA) as a key policy initiative aimed at reducing mass poverty to a level below 28 percent by 2014. The PMA, which is situated within the country‘s vision of Prosperity for All and is supported by the broader Rural Development Strategy, has an ambitious agenda of policy and institutional reform across seven pillars, a key one of which is improving delivery of agricultural extension through the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) program. Since its inception in 2001, NAADS has devised an innovative extension service delivery approach, that targets the development and use of farmer institutions and in the process empowers them to procure advisory services, manage linkage with marketing partners and conduct demand-driven monitoring and evaluation of the advisory services and their impacts. NAADS was initiated in 2001 in six districts (Arua, Kabale, Kibaale, Mukono, Soroti and Tororo), within which the NAADS program began working in 24 sub-counties. By end of 2006/07 financial year, the program had been extended to 545 sub-counties (about 83.1 percent of the total sub-counties), and is expected to cover the entire country by end of the financial year 2007/08, ending the first phase (Phase I) of the program. By the end of the 2006/07 financial year also, UGX 110 billion (in 2000 value terms) had been spent on the program.
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    Impact of creative capacity building of local innovators and communities on income, welfare and attitudes in Uganda: a cluster randomized control trial approach
    (International Initiative for Impact Evaluation, 2019) Nkonya, Ephraim; Bashaasha, Bernard; Kato, Edward; Bagamba, Fredrick; Danet, Marion
    Technologies and innovations are a key driver of human developments and competitiveness. Failure of imported technologies has galvanized efforts on technologies generated by close collaboration between external investors and local committees. The general objective of the study was to determine the impact of Creative Capacity Building (CCB) training on human welfare and local communities’ perception on their ability to innovate. Specifically, the study targeted a number of major outcomes of CCB training namely, economic impacts, behavioral changes, attitudinal change and technology creation and use including policy influence. CCB is a hands-on training approach whose students are community members with any educational level. CCB focuses on harnessing local creativity and indigenous knowledge in the technology design process, facilitating community innovations and invention. In skills training workshops, trainees work collaboratively to design and develop tools that meet their needs. The training encourages and trains people to make technologies that generate income, improve health and safety, save labour and time and change perceptions about themselves.
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    Impact of Uganda’s National Agricultural Advisory Services Program
    (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2011) Benin, Samuel; Nkonya, Ephraim; Okecho, Geresom; Randriamamonjy, Josée; Kato, Edward; Lubadde, Geofrey; Kyotalimye, Miriam; Byekwaso, Francis
    The importance of agricultural extension in agricultural and rural development is widely known, so it is not surprising that agricultural extension has attracted substantial investment of public resources since t he 1950s, when national agricultural advisory services began t o be formally established by government s, and has strongly returned to the international development agenda (World Bank 2007a). Due to competing uses of public resources for promoting overall growth and equitable distribution, however, careful reflection of the impacts of and returns to public spending in agricultural advisory services is necessary. This is the aim of this study, which focuses on t he NAADS program in Uganda that has been implemented since 2001. The NAADS program, which is a key strategy for implementing t he government ’ s poverty reduction and national development plan, was conceived as a move away from t he t op-down approach that is publicly funded, with services provided by public agents, to a demand-driven approach that is still largely publicly funded but wit h services provided by the private sector. The program targets the development and use of farmer institutions and in the process seeks to empower them t o procure enterprise-based advisory services, manage linkages wit h marketing partners, and conduct monitoring and evaluation of the advisory services they receive from the private sector (Uganda, NAADS Secretariat 2001). By end of the 2006–07 financial year, the period of the analysis in this study, about UGX 110 billion (in 2000 UGX) had been spent on the program, which had been extended t o 545 sub counties (about 83.1 percent of the total sub counties in Uganda at the time) from the initial 24 sub counties in six district s where it had been launched. Furthermore, about 1,622 contracts with private-sector service providers had been signed, more than 40 enterprises had been promoted, and about 40,000 farmer groups and 716,000 farmers (representing about 20 percent of the national farming households) had received services from the program
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    Returns to spending on agricultural extension: the case of the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) program of Uganda
    (Agricultural economics, 2011) Benin, Samuel; Nkonya, Ephraim; Okecho, Geresom; Randriamamonjy, Jose´e; Kato, Edward; Lubade, Geofrey; Kyotalimye, Miriam
    The aim of this paper is to assess the direct and indirect impacts of the agricultural extension system of Uganda, the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) program, on household agricultural income. Data from two rounds of surveys of Ugandan rural farm-households conducted in 2004 and 2007, as well as different program evaluation methods and model specifications, are used to estimate impacts and compute a rate of return. The direct and indirect impact of the program is estimated at 37–95% and 27–55% increase in per capita agricultural gross revenue between 2004 and 2007 for households participating directly and indirectly in the program, respectively, compared to nonparticipants. The rate of return on the program’s expenditures is estimated at 8–49%. The program has been relatively more effective among male-headed, larger, and asset-poor households, as well as those taking up noncrop high-value enterprises and living further away from financial services, all-weather roads, and markets or located in the Eastern and Northern Regions. Policy implications of the results are drawn.