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Blog
The Logic of Contesting States During a Crisis: Revelations from Uganda’s COVID-19 Fight
This piece examines state legitimacy during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda. It examines various contestations to this legitimacy, such as the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) student strike. The strike reveals how state institutions condition(ed) public indifference with…
Blog
“Escaping from Quarantine” from Quarantined: My Ordeal in Uganda’s Covid-19 Isolation Centers
Ugandan intellectual and philosopher, Jimmy Spire Ssentongo has painted a behind-the-scenes picture of how the Ugandan state handled the coronavirus disease. While the Ugandan president praised self and staff for putting the coronavirus in check through the state’s isolation centres,…
Blog
When ‘a People’s War’ Turns Against Them: Reflections on Uganda’s ‘War of the Wananchi’ against COVID-19
With the incumbent President facing a critical election in early 2021, the truths over COVID-19 in Uganda became highly contested, as measures announced in the name of the people against COVID-19 began to double as interventions against the spread of…
Research paper
Maternal Vaccination in Uganda: Exploring Pregnant Women, Community Leaders and Healthcare Workers’ Perceptions
This research used qualitative methods to explore pregnant women, community leaders, healthcare workers, and programme managers’ perceptions of maternal vaccination in Kampala, Uganda. The authors found that public health messaging should target all community members, including partners and parents of…
Blog
The many faces of the COVID-19 mask in Eastern DRC
The introduction of the mask during the COVID-19 outbreak changed daily life in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and took many faces. From state repression in the city of Goma, to fear of the unknown in rural areas, the mask…
Research paper
The Politics of Return: Understanding Trajectories of Displacement and the Complex Dynamics of ‘Return’ in Central and East Africa
This introductory essay reflects on what studies of return can tell us about the ‘life cycle’ of conflict and displacement dynamics in war-affected Central and East Africa, with particular focus on Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and Uganda.
Background report
Community Approaches to Epidemic Management in South Sudan: Lessons from local healthcare systems in tackling COVID-19
Recognising the long experience and knowledge South Sudanese people have of infectious diseases and their responses, this research documents the various community infectious disease management strategies employed in the Yei, Juba, Wau, Malakal, Aweil West and Rubkona areas. Such responses…
Research paper
Lessons learned from implementation of a national hotline for Ebola virus disease emergency preparedness in South Sudan
The authors conducted a descriptive analysis on quantitative data from call logs reflecting 22 weeks of South Sudan’s Ebola alert hotline, along with thematic coding of qualitative data collected routinely. The hotline was set up during the preparedness phase of…
Research paper
Borderlands, Identity and Urban Development: The Case of Goma (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
This paper challenges traditional studies that explore border sites from a central or capital city perspective. Focusing on expressions of identity in the border city of Goma, it illustrates how the struggle for political, social and economic control affects local…
Research paper
From Rebel to Humanitarian: Military Savoir Faire and Humanitarian Practice in Eastern DR Congo
This article explores the experience of ex-rebels who have become humanitarians in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It describes how rebel-cum-humanitarians navigate a turbulent political environment, integrating the knowledge they acquired through military experience into a career in…
Research paper
The Politics of the Second Vaccine: Debates Surrounding Ebola Vaccine Trials in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
Two experimental Ebola vaccines were deployed during the tenth Ebola epidemic (2018–20) in the DRC. International debate ensued about the value and ethics of testing a second vaccine in an epidemic context. This article examines how this debate unfolded among…
Research paper
Reluctant Representatives of the State: Teachers’ Perceptions of Experienced Violence (DR Congo)
My qualitative research in South-Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo suggests that teachers link experienced violence to their role as state representatives. Three elements evoke the militia’s distrust: literacy, cell phones, and mobility. Reportedly, militias assume that teachers use these elements…
Research paper
Rejection and Resilience: Returning from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda
This article focuses on young people who returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda, mostly as children, over ten years ago. Supporting normative models of resilience has exacerbated deprivation of the most vulnerable.
Background report
Crisis Responses, Opportunity and Public Authority during Covid‐19’s First Wave in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan
Discussions on African responses to Covid-19 have focused on the state and its international backers. Far less is known about a wider range of public authorities, including chiefs, humanitarians, criminal gangs, and armed groups. This paper investigates how the pandemic…
Research paper
Perceptions and Vulnerability to Climate Change among the Urban Poor in Kampala City, Uganda
Climate risks and vulnerability continue to disproportionately affect the urban poor given their constrained adaptive capacity. This paper examines the urban poor’s perceptions and vulnerability to climate change in Kampala through structured interviews and focus groups with randomly selected households…
Background report
Will the Impact of the Pandemic on the Expected National Output Persist?
This Weekly Review, from June 3, 2021, contributes to the debate on how COVID-19 could affect economic growth in South Sudan. It addresses two related questions: What channels would transmit the COVID-19 scarring effects to the output? What can public…
Background report
COVID-19 and the Political Transition in South Sudan
This Policy Brief assesses the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has hampered the political transition in South Sudan and how political actors have responded to the crisis in terms of their responsibilities implementing the Agreement on the Resolution of…
Research paper
“A Woman’s Degree Must End in the Kitchen”: Expectations of Women in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
This study draws on a qualitative approach to explore how adolescents perceive women’s and men’s roles in marriage and family life. A sample of 56 boys and girls aged 16–20 from two urban and two rural high schools in South…
Research paper
Crisis responses, opportunity, and public authority during Covid-19’s first wave in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan
Discussions on African responses to Covid-19 have focused on the state and its international backers. Far less is known about a wider range of public authorities, including chiefs, humanitarians, criminal gangs, and armed groups. This paper investigates how the pandemic…
Blog
What explains popular resistance to Ebola humanitarian responses in the DRC?
The humanitarian response to the DRC’s Ebola health emergency between 2018-20 was met with popular resistance by local populations, drawing attention to the perceived failures of humanitarian responses in the country over decades. To declare Ebola a health disaster was…
Research paper
Covid-19 and research in conflict-affected contexts: distanced methods and the digitalisation of suffering
This research note explores the pressing ethical challenges associated with increased online platforming of sensitive research on conflict-affected settings since the onset of Covid-19. We argue that moving research online and the ‘digitalisation of suffering’ risks reducing complexity of social…
Research paper
Friendship, kinship and social risk management strategies among pastoralists in Karamoja, Uganda
This paper describes risk-pooling friendships and other social networks among pastoralists in Karamoja, Uganda. Social networks are of critical importance for risk management in an environment marked by volatility and uncertainty. Risk management or risk pooling mainly takes the form of…
Research paper
Re-conceptualizing sustainable urban sanitation in Uganda: why the roots of ‘Slumification’ must be dealt with
Country-wide urbanization in Uganda has continued amidst institutional challenges. Previous water and sanitation interventions have not addressed underlying issues of poorly managed urbanization, which is linked to low productivity, urban poverty, unemployment, limited capacity to plan and offer basic services.…
Research paper
COVID-19 information dissemination in Uganda: Perspectives from sub-national health workers
In this study, an electronic survey was implemented to provide insights about the dissemination and utilisation of information and evidence related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by health workers engaged at sub-national levels of the Ugandan health system. The use…
Briefing
From Biolegitimacy to Antihumanitarianism: Understanding People’s Resistance to Ebola Responses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Despite the devastating impact of the Ebola pandemic which emerged in eastern DRC’s North Kivu in 2018, local populations seemed skeptical about its existence. This led to significant local resistance to the medical response, including armed attacks and violence, which…
Background report
Crise foncière et réponses des acteurs en République Démocratique du Congo fr
À l’Est de la République démocratique du Congo, le foncier est un réceptacle de violence, participant structurellement à la fragilité de la cohésion sociale. Bien que l’État congolais, les acteurs non étatiques et les bailleurs de fonds se soient engagés…
Research paper
A qualitative study of the development and utilization of health facility-based immunization microplans in Uganda
In 2006, Uganda adopted the Reaching Every District strategy with the goal of attaining at least 80% coverage for routine immunizations in every district. The development and utilization of health facility/district immunization microplans is the key to the strategy. A…
Background report
Roadblocks ‘at the rhythm of the country’: Predation and beyond in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo
This report analyses the phenomenon of roadblocks in South Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Departing from a socio-anthropological approach, the report argues that roadblocks are sites where a variety of state and non-state actors interact with each…
Research paper
Aguu: From Acholi Post War Street Youth and Children to ‘Criminal Gangs’ in Modern Day Gulu City, Uganda
This paper analyses the origin and evolution of the Aguu, a group of street youth/children labelled as a criminal gang operating in the streets of Gulu, Uganda. Based on a series of interviews, focus group discussions, participant observations, archival work…
Research paper
Provider love in an informal settlement: Men’s relationships with providing women and implications for HIV in Kampala, Uganda
This study reports on data from an ethnography (2016–2019) with low-income men in urban Uganda. This study uses gender and power theory to describe how men’s relationships with female sex workers in an informal settlement in urban Kampala, Uganda are…
Research paper
Schistosomiasis messaging in endemic communities: Lessons and implications for interventions from rural Uganda, a rapid ethnographic assessment study
This study used a rapid ethnographic assessment to investigate sources, nature and perception of schistosomiasis-related health information in three lake-shore communities in Eastern Uganda. Through transect walks, observations, interviews and focus groups, the authors found that although the main source…
Research paper
The Framing of Malnutrition by Parliamentarians in Uganda
The quest for political commitment to reducing malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa draws attention to the role of national parliamentarians. Whereas parliamentarians have the authority to ratify legislation, monitor policies and budgets and transform behaviour, little is known about how malnutrition…
Research paper
Antibiotic stories: a mixed-methods, multi-country analysis of household antibiotic use in Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe
As concerns about the prevalence of infections that are resistant to available antibiotics increase, attention has turned toward the use of these medicines both within and outside of formal healthcare settings. This article analyses findings from mixed-methods anthropological studies of…
Research paper
Antibiotic ‘entanglements’: health, labour and everyday life in an urban informal settlement in Kampala, Uganda
Our ethnographic research documents the ways that antibiotics have become a key part of everyday life for precariously employed urban day-wage workers living in a large informal settlement in Kampala, Uganda. We found that for many people, their daily work…
Research paper
The Ambiguity Imperative: “Success” in a Maternal Health Program in Uganda
Global health programs are compelled to demonstrate impact on their target populations. We study an example of social franchising – a popular healthcare delivery model in low/middle-income countries – in the Ugandan private maternal health sector. The discrepancies between the…
Book chapter
From violent conflict to slow violence: climate change and post-conflict recovery in Karamoja, Uganda
In literature examining climate change as a potential factor in violent conflict, violence is generally conceived as a readily-apparent, time-bound event. Conversely, the ontologies of slow violence emphasize the insidious ways in which environmental change can, itself, impart violence. This…
