Social Sciences

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Frontiers of Phonology: Atoms, Structures, Derivations
(Routledge, 1995) Durand, Jacques; Katamba, Francis
Atoms, Structures, Derivations is a collection of essays that present a selective overview of recent trends in the linguistic analysis of sound structure. During the 1970S and the 1980s a fairly radical reconfiguration of the field of phonology took place, largely against the backdrop of Chomsky and Halle's The Sound Pattern of English (1968), hereafter abbreviated as SPE. The need to move away from the spartan approach to phonological representations advocated in SPE is now universally accepted but the range of solutions provided within current frameworks can be quite confusing for the non-specialist. Our aim is not to attempt to provide an exhaustive, panoramic coverage of the entire field, but rather to explore theoretical issues in three core areas of phonological theory from a number of different perspectives. The questions fall into three broad categories
Making partnerships work on the ground
(Springer, 2003) Tumusiime, Emmanuel Mutebile
For many years the Government of Uganda’s (GoU) development plans centred on the implementation of a series of three-year rolling Public Investment Plans (PIPs). PIPs contained many discrete projects in different sectors, which were nearly always wholly financed by external donors. The PIP system had a number of weaknesses: it fostered a piecemeal approach, encouraged little domestic ownership and lacked adequate coordination among the various stakeholders, resulting in duplication of efforts and inappropriate sequencing of projects to be implemented. To overcome these shortcomings, the government has been making concerted efforts to shift from a project-driven approach to the development of comprehensive, coordinated, sector-wide programmes and investment plans, involving the participation of all stakeholders in a genuine partnership. As part of this effort, the GoU is developing a Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) process aimed at the modernisation of Uganda and the transformation of its society and eradicating mass poverty by the year 2017 (Wolfensohn, 1999). The Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) provides the basis for Uganda’s CDF process (Republic of Uganda, 1997a). The chapter outlines the institutional setting for the partnership process in Uganda and reflects on the conditions for continued improvement of the partnership process.
Financial liberalization and its implications for the domestic financial system: The case of Uganda
(African Economic Research Consortium, 2003) Kasekende, Louis A.; Atingi-Ego, Michael
This paper presents an analysis of the impact of financial liberalization on the conduct of banking business and its impact on the real sector. Survey results show that the overall assessment by commercial banks of financial sector liberalization is positive. Financial sector reforms and interest rate deregulation appear to have engendered efficiency gains in the banking industry and consequently growth of credit to the private sector is increasing. The econometric results also reveal that increased credit to the private sector appears to be leading economic growth. However, increased credit allocation to the private sector should not compromise monetary policy objectives. The study also recognizes the dualistic nature of the financial system in Uganda and proposes as a policy recommendation the linkages of the banking system with micro-credit institutions as one way of enhancing financial intermediation in order to promote economic growth.
Comparative Studies of Orphans and Non-Orphans in Uganda
(Center for International Health and Development, 2004) Munaaba, Flavia; Owor, Joseph; Baguma, Peter; Musisi, Seggane; Mugisha, Frank; Muhangi, Denis
There are now in Uganda more than two million orphans, i.e. children under 18 years old who have lost one or both of their parents. Roughly one in every five children is an orphan and one in every four households in the country is caring for at least one orphan. As a follow-up to a Situation Analysis of Orphans in Uganda in 2002, this monograph presents six studies carried out by Ugandan researchers in 2003 and 2004 on different aspects of the orphan crisis about which the Situation Analysis found inadequate data. Five studies focused on the following: the comparative psycho-social situation of orphans relative to other children (two studies), the legal issues (such as property grabbing and abuse) which they face, suspected differential care-giving practices, and whether orphans face greater risk for sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV/AIDS). The sixth study conducted a comparative evaluation of an orphan support and intervention effort to determine its impact and to test a particular evaluation approach. The results of these studies have already contributed to the preparatory discussions and formulation of the Uganda National Policy on Orphans as well as to the Uganda National Strategic Program Plan of Interventions for Orphans which were produced in 2004.
Depression and Suicidal Behavior in Uganda
(Makere University., 2005) Ovuga, Emilio
Depression and suicide ideation are prevalent in the general population but their recognition and detection in primary care is problematic. The present study investigated the reliability and validity of the RISLE and its potential use in detecting depressed and/or suicidal individuals in the general population. Methods of study Members of the general population in two districts of Uganda, Adjumani and Bugiri, and fresh students at Makerere University, participated in the study. Two pilot studies were conducted before the collection of data: at Makerere University among fresh students sampled from all faculties in 2001, and in each of the districts in the course of interviewer and research assistants’ training in 2002. Makerere University, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology and the Ethical Committee at Karolinska Institutet approved the study. The Dean of Students and the health and civic leaderships of the respective study sites granted further permission for the study. Analysis Data analysis comprised of general descriptive analysis. Principal component analysis and discriminant function analysis were used to refine the RISLE and construct a shorter 36-item version. Receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed to determine sensitivity and specificity of the short RISLE. The determination of sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and likelihood ratios, and Cohen’s kappa values at several cut-off points were made to determine the level of agreement between the RISLE and clinical interview method as the gold standard in the study. Validity was assessed by comparing results obtained with the RISLE to results obtained with the 13- item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the 21-item Beck Scale for Suicide ideation (BSS). Results Results revealed good concurrent validity and reliability of both the longer and shorter versions of the RISLE and high correlations between both versions. The probability of a correct detection of an individual with current depressive disorder was 79%, any current psychiatric disorder was 83% and past month suicidality was 83%. Cut-off points varied according to the nature of population studied. The cut-off point for the population in Adjumani district was 10 for any current psychiatric disorder, and 6 for any psychiatric disorder among students. Sensitivity and specificity of the RISLE at cut-off points 10 and 6 were 74.6% and 77.1%, and 88.1% and 60.4% respectively. Positive predictive values for current psychiatric disorder were 82.0% and 75.6% at cut-off points of 10 and 6 respectively. Agreement between the RISLE and clinical interview method was 0.508 at cutoff point 10 for the general population and 0.501 at cut-off point 6 for students. Thirty six percent of the respondents in the general population reported a lifetime experience of suicide ideation and 13% had experienced this in the previous week. The overall prevalence of probably clinically significant depression (BDI score of 20-39) in the general population was 17.4%. Higher rates of suicide ideation and depressed mood were found in females and residents of Adjumani district. Students entering Makerere University showed high prevalence of mental health problems. Conclusions The results of the present study show that the RISLE may be used in conjunction with clinical interview method in the detection and confirmation of individuals with current psychiatric illness and suicidal feelings in the general population. Further work is required to establish its worth as a screening device and its performance in different populations.
Equal Opportunity, Age-Based Discrimination and the Rights of Elderly Persons in Uganda
(Human Rights and Peace Centre, 2008) Oloka-Onyango, J.
Average life expectancy for Ugandans is currently estimated at 50 years for both men and women. Nonetheless, with developed healthcare systems and social conditions, there are telling indicators that a signiicant number of Ugandans live and will continue to live well beyond this age. By 2002, older persons constituted 4.6% of the total population. Whereas older persons are recognized among the category of marginalized groups in Uganda, they continue to receive minimal attention in comparison to others such as women, children, people with disabilities and the youth. Advocacy of the rights of older persons in Uganda is lackluster. Most support offered to them is largely paternalistic. Social security also remains elusive, given that the majority of them do not actually qualify for such schemes having been mainly employed in the informal sector. For these reasons, older persons are regarded as unproductive and helpless and yet recent studies reveal that they are a major resource on history, traditional knowledge, health and culture. Older persons have also played an important role as the mediators of conlicts and disputes. Most importantly, older persons have been crucial in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, protecting orphans and caring for those infected and affected.
Handbook on Participatory Methods for Community-Based Projects: A Guide for Programmers and Implementers Based on the Participatory Action Research Project with Young Mothers and their Children in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Northern Uganda
(PAR Project, 2010) Onyango, Grace; Worthen, Miranda
Participation” is a word that has been used in child protection and development circles for many years. The term has come to mean everything from a token consultation with a benefi ciary group to full-scale participation by affected ommunities in program development, implementation, and evaluation. In this handbook, we will be describing methods at this further end of the spectrum – that is, highly participatory approaches. Participatory Action Research (PAR) is one type of participatory methodology that is designed not only to achieve social change for a group or in a community, but also to document and learn from that process through research. PAR actively involves the target participants in a process to improve their situations. Participants become the “program designers” and “researchers” as they identify and implement solutions to the obstacles to achieving full participation in their community. Participants are key actors as evaluators of the project, refl ecting on how well the process has helped them reach their stated goals. This process whereby participants engage in self-refl ective inquiry into their own situations, identify problems and possible solutions, implement the solutions, and evaluate the project is an iterative one – as new problems or obstacles are recognized, approaches to addressing the problems are developed and implemented. Unlike traditional program design that is agency-centric where a problem is identifi ed, then a program is implemented, and after implementation, the program is evaluated, PAR offers multiple opportunities to develop and build upon what is learned throughout the process of implementation with the participants taking center stage.
Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) A guide for students and practicing managers in developing and emerging countries
(Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co., 2012) Katamba, David; Zipfel, Christoph; Haag, David; Tushabomwe-Kazooba, Charles
Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): A guide for students and practicing managers in developing and emerging countries, is a book that can be used to teach a thirteen-week course unit at undergraduate level, or it can be used by practicing managers to understand the practice of CSR. It is founded on the premise that businesses and organizational activities are organized and conducted for the purpose of making money for their owners, as well as members of the public who have invested in the company (shareholders). The emerging concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), however, suggests that businesses and organizations also have obligations and responsibilities to the many other entities affected by their decisions. These entities are called “stakeholders” and include employees, suppliers, customers, communities and even the environment. Therefore, this course unit intends to equip students (who are the future) and current managers with skills of how to integrate CSR into their business strategy and operations. It starts with defining CSR, then shows how to get involved in CSR, communicating CSR activities to stakeholders and tracking CSR performance. It concludes by offering students practical skills in designing CSR strategies and using them for enhanced competitiveness, as well as tracking— assessing and measuring the performance of CSR programs. Students are also taught about international bodies that provide guidelines and benchmarks for CSR activities, the UN Global Compact, Global Reporting Initiatives, as examples.
The Science Of Public Procurement Management And Administration
(Charting a Course in Public Procurement Innovation and Knowledge Sharing, 2013) Basheka, Benon C.
That public procurement as a field of academic research and a “lucrative” field of practice has increased over the last 10 years or so is now a matter beyond contention among policy makers and academics in both developed and developing nations. However, there are, in my view, unresolved issues that ought to form a nucleus of intellectual discourse among procurement practitioners if any hope of having a well-founded academic scientific discipline of public procurement management and administration is to have a firm foundation. Academics in both developed and developing countries may have “conceived the discipline but the baby is yet to be born.” We have serious paradigmatic challenges –disagreements on very fundamental issues related to the scientific foundation of a body of knowledge. Lack of an agreed upon locus and focus of public procurement research among the practitioners is too huge a gap to remain unattended to. Collectively, scholars need to move away from the “art” to the “science” of public procurement. Public procurement cannot claim to be a science without firm theoretical knowledge to guide researchers on the appropriate “focus and locus” of its subject matter. Adopting an interdisciplinary and comparative approach in analyzing public procurement systems, the discipline should identify the similarities and differences in procurement policies and practices.
The Role of Social Work in Poverty Reduction and the Realisation of Millennium Development Goals in Uganda
(Fountain Publ.., 2013-07-25) Twikirize, Janestic Mwende; Asingwire, Narathius; Omona, Julius; Lubanga, Rosalind; Kafuko, Agatha
This publication presents the findings of the study on ‘The Role of Social Work in Poverty Reduction and Realisation of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Uganda’. The study was undertaken as part of a three-year project on the ‘Promotion of Professional Social Work towards Social Development and Poverty Reduction in East Africa’ (PROSOWO), under the auspices of the Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development (APPEAR). The specific objectives were to identify key programmes undertaken to reduce poverty so as to achieve social development, and assess the extent to which professional social workers are engaged in such programmes, their specific roles and responsibilities as well as the approaches and methods used. Further, the study aimed to assess the adequacy of the social work curriculum in preparing social workers to address issues of poverty and social development in the context of MDGs. Issues of gender and contextualisation (culturally relevant social work) were also explored. Field research was undertaken in selected districts of Kampala, Wakiso, Iganga, Bugiri, Mbarara, Gulu and Nwoya between September and December 2011. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to collect data from social work practitioners, employers, clients, educators, students and policy makers.
A Preliminary Speech Learning Tool for Improvement of African English Accents
(IEEE, 2014) Oyo, Benedict; Kalema, Billy Mathias
Speech recognition systems emphasise: accent recognition, recognition system performance through calculation of word error rate (WER), pronunciation modelling, speech-based interactions (tone, pitch, volume, background noise, speaker’s gender and age, speaking speed and quality of recording equipment) and speech database solutions. However, research into the use of speech recognition systems for improvement accents is scarcely available. In this paper, we focus on development of an speech recognition system for recognizing African English accents and enabling the speakers improve their English accents. This is achieved by using a dual speech recognition engine: the first, a multiple accent recogniser receives African English speech input, classifies it and sends to the second recogniser that evaluates the speech against standard English pronunciations. Speech deviations from standard English pronunciations are captured and read by the system as a way of supporting the learner to improve his/her reading proficiency. Preliminary tests indicate that terminologies that are rarely used in ordinary conversations (e.g. enthusiasm, exuberant, vague, etc) are most poorly pronounced irrespective of the educational level of the reader.
Development and social policy reform in Uganda: The slow emergence of a social protection agenda (1986-2014)
(Centre for Social Science Research University of Cape Town, 2014) Grebe, Eduard; Mubiru, John Bosco
This paper provides a broad overview of the evolution of development and welfare policy—and the politics surrounding—it in Uganda, but focuses primarily on the increasing prominence of social protection, especially cash transfers, on the domestic political agenda. It analyses both how and why the development and social policy agendas almost fully excluded social protection prior to 2002, but then increasingly embraced it, especially since 2006. Non-contributory social assistance in the form of cash transfers have not traditionally played a significant role in Ugandan development and poverty reduction policy, with policymakers tending to focus on economic growth as a source of prosperity (expected to extend to all sections of society), with opponents seeing cash transfers (and social assistance more broadly) as unaffordable and counter-productive ‘hand-outs’ that create dependence on the state and disincentivise productive work. From the early 2000s donors, sections of the bureaucracy and civil society promoted cash transfers with limited success. But after 2006, systematic promotion of cash transfers started to bear fruit, and from 2010 a largely donor-funded cash transfer pilot scheme known as the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) programme has been implemented in fourteen districts (with a fifteenth added in 2013). The paper describes the evolution of Ugandan development policy and highlight the political factors that have in the past been obstacles to social protection programmes featuring prominently on the development agenda (including the predominant socio-economic development paradigm, negative elite attitudes, resistance from conservative technocrats and lack of familiarity among key decision-makers) and examine how these have increasingly been overcome by the proponents of social protection. While donors have played a critical role in the promotion of social protection and cash transfers, other actors—including civil society and social development bureaucrats—and macropolitical factors (including electoral competition, changing international development discourse, emerging evidence from other countries, etc.), have also contributed to increased domestic political support. We conclude that the very existence of SAGE and the politics surrounding the pilot indicate a significant change in attitudes among a large proportion of policy-makers, including some historically sceptical technocrats, and political leaders, but that resistance is likely to continue from certain quarters and that the future of cash transfers remains uncertain.
Leveraging community capacity to manage improved point-water facilities
(2015) Mugumya, Firminus; Munck, Ronaldo; Asingwire, Narathius
Community-based water management systems (CBWMSs) are now a popular policy strategy for sustainable rural safe water supply in Africa. However, the effectiveness of the model is marred by numerous bottlenecks of varying character and scale. This chapter, which is based on a case study of a rural parish in south-central Uganda, examines some of these bottlenecks. The study indicates that whereas CBWMSs are well known among water-sector actors as desirable for achieving functional sustainability of improved water facilities, conscious actions have not been taken to leverage the effectiveness of these water management systems. This failure is at the very heart of the weaknesses within the new policy frameworks which embrace principles of community participation, privatization, and public–private partnerships. The study advocates a public authority with renewed attention to local conditions that determine CBWMS effectiveness, especially in developing countries like Uganda
Water Is Life Progress to secure safe water provision in rural Uganda
(Practical Action Publishin, 2015) Fagan, G. Honor; Linnane, Suzanne; McGuigan, Kevin G.; Rugumayo, Albert I.
This is a book about community-based research in the service of improving the sustainability and equity of safe water production, consumption, and management at community level in rural Uganda. It provides an account of the findings of a five-year combined social science, natural science, and engineering research work programme (2009–14) which took place within and with the community, in the sense that the community identified their water needs and related their everyday struggles with water resourcing to the research team, and they contributed to the outcomes. Our research programme began 14 years after the Ugandan government enacted the 1995 Water Statute (which provided the framework for the use, protection, and management of water resources and supply, the constitution of water authorities, and the devolution of water supply undertakings), 10 years after the 1999 National Water Policy was rolled out, and six years short of the delivery date for the Millennium Development Goals on water.
Water is Life: Community-based research for sustainable safe water in rural Uganda
(Practical Action Publishing., 2015-11-21) Fagan, G. Honor; Linnane, Suzanne; McGuigan, Kevin G.; Rugumayo, Albert I.
This is a book about community-based research in the service of improving the sustainability and equity of safe water production, consumption, and management at community level in rural Uganda. It provides an account of the findings of a five-year combined social science, natural science, and engineering research work programme (2009–14) which took place within and with the community, in the sense that the community identified their water needs and related their everyday struggles with water resourcing to the research team, and they contributed to the outcomes. Our research programme began 14 years after the Ugandan government enacted the 1995 Water Statute (which provided the framework for the use, protection, and management of water resources and supply, the constitution of water authorities, and the devolution of water supply undertakings), 10 years after the 1999 National Water Policy was rolled out, and six years short of the delivery date for the Millennium Development Goals on water.
South–North collaboration and service enhancements at Makerere and Bergen University libraries
(African Minds, 2016) Musoke, Maria G. N.; Landøy, and Ane
Collaboration between Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Bergen in Norway began in 1999. In 2009, the two universities celebrated the first ten years of their ongoing relationship, which includes research collaboration, scientific competence-building, student and staff exchanges, and institutional development (Musoke and Landoy 2014). The relationship also extends to the libraries at the two universities, and the collaboration between Makerere University Library (Maklib) and the University of Bergen Library (UOBL) is the focus of this chapter, although their partnership has gradually expanded to draw in libraries at other universities in Uganda, Norway and South Sudan.
Teacher education in Uganda: Policy and practice
(Cambridge University Press, 2016) Aguti, Jessica Norah
Teacher education is concerned with helping teachers acquire the attitudes, knowledge and skills they need to carry out their duties and responsibilities as teachers; and this is vital since teachers are central in the school system. Perraton et al. (2002, 7) argue that ‘teachers are vital. Unless we can get more teachers, and better teachers, we will not reach the target of making quality education available to all by 2015.’ Quality education is certainly impossible to achieve without teachers. So as more and more children join schools, more teachers will be needed. The number of children needing education will continue to grow because the world population is continuing to grow. Table 1 gives the population of people aged 5–14 in the different countries of East Africa.
Literacy as placed resource in the context of a rural community member’s everyday lives: The case of Bweyale in Uganda
(Routledge, 2016) Openjuru, George Ladaah
Literacy is a placed resource that is used differently in the different places of everyday life in rural communities. Bweyale is a multilingual rural community in Uganda. In this chapter, I report a study of rural community literacy use in Bweyale to show how literacy used varies from one place to another. Literacy pervades every aspect of rural community life and rural people use literacy in many rich and creative ways. Contexts for literacy use include rural community livelihoods, education, religion, bureaucracy, household and personal life. The ethnographic study reported in this chapter was informed by the theory of literacy as social practice. The findings show that literacy use is influenced by activities which are embedded in the different spaces in which people are involved as they live their everyday lives.
Water is Life, Progress to Secure Safe Water Provision in rRural Uganda Rugby
(Practical Action Publishing., 2016-11-21) Fagan, Honor; Linnane, Suzanne; McGuigan, Kevin; Rugumayo, Albert
A safe, adequate water supply within easy reach is still a dream for many people living in rural Africa. This book examines why such a basic service is not yet universally available by studying in detail one particular region of rural Uganda. What is the experience of women and children who have responsibility for fetching enough water for drinking, washing, cooking and feeding livestock? Are the village water committees run effectively? Is the policy and service delivery framework at national, regional and community level working to support borehole repair and maintenance? Can technical solutions such as SODIS and rooftop rainwater harvesting be both effective and gain local acceptance? Can GIS engage local people in gathering and using relevant data? Water is Life also studies the hydro-geological realities that present challenges to groundwater supply, and considers how climate change is likely to affect water supplies. The Water is Life: Amazzi Bulamu project is a five-year, interdisciplinary research collaboration between Irish and Ugandan higher education institutes and NGOs, centring on communities in the Makondo area of rural Uganda. By bringing together social, physical and environmental scientists to study these research questions, the project proposes solutions for community water supply that have eluded government initiatives and NGOs for decades. This book is important reading for researchers, students, and policy makers in NGOs and government departments with a responsibility for water supply.
Makerere University as a Flagship Institution: Sustaining the Quest for Relevance
(Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2017) Bisaso, Ronald
Makerere University is an interesting case of a traditional university in sub-Saharan Africa. Such universities were established as both national and regional symbols with the main objective of human resource capacity development. Makerere University transformed from a colonial university to a nationalist university, and is, at present, a neoliberal university (Eisemon, 1994; Mamdani, 2008; Musisi, 2003; Obong, 2004). At each stage of transformation of Makerere University as a flagship institution, emphasis on capacity building for human resources, research productivity to contribute to socioeconomic development, and policy development has been evident.

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