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Briefing
Impact of Nyiragongo Volcanic Eruptions on the Resilience to the COVID-19 and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Eruptions of the Nyiragongo volcano in May 2021 caused unfathomable damage, including loss of life and property, and displacement of thousands of people, affecting the city of Goma in particular. Furthermore, it charred health and school infrastructures and decimated crops…
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…
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…
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…
Blog
Flattening the curve of Uganda’s coronavirus
The logic of flattening the curve should be treated differently where there are few health services to be overwhelmed, and people need to work in the day to eat at night. This blog post describes how lockdown in Uganda deserves…
Blog
Do COVID-19 conspiracy theories challenge public health delivery?
The Ugandan government’s severe response to Covid-19 has encouraged endless debate over the virus’ origins, in the face of unclear global explanations. Conspiracy theories and rumours proliferate, especially in regions with no recorded infections. This blog post explores how local…
Blog
In Uganda memories of Ebola spur resistance to COVID-19 public health efforts
Responses to COVID-19 vary across Uganda, with northern regions seeing resistance to public health efforts to enforce quarantine. For some communities the location of isolation and treatment centres, in particular, has caused public outrage, reviving memories of the 2000 Ebola…
Blog
How do we measure the effectiveness of lockdown in Uganda against COVID-19?
In regions where state health systems are weak and premature death is common, it is possible for COVID-19 to have swept many parts of the world unnoticed, without the virus’ mass global awareness. This blog post reports from Uganda on…
Blog
Dispelling COVID-19 rumours at local levels in Pakwach, Uganda
Rumours can have significant consequences for how local communities engage their health systems, posing problems for epidemic containment which can rely on trust in state actors. This blog post examines rumours associated with COVID-19 in the Pakwach district of Uganda,…
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…
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
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…
Research paper
COVID-19, Public Authority and Enforcement
The securitization of health is not a new phenomenon. However, global responses to the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa reveal the extent to which epidemic preparedness and response is now shaped by geopolitical concerns. This commentary describes how enforcement…
Research paper
COVID-19 and Its Related Stigma A Qualitative Study Among Survivors in Kampala, Uganda
COVID-19-related stigma is gradually becoming a global problem among COVID-19 survivors with deleterious effects on quality of life. However, this social problem has received little attention in research and policy. This study aimed at exploring the COVID-19-related stigma among survivors…
Research paper
Institutional vulnerabilities, COVID-19, resilience mechanisms and societal relationships in developing countries
COVID-19 pandemic challenges could be utilised as an opportunity to reform government institutions to develop resilience measures that would potentially meet contemporary and future challenges. This article highlights that the current approach of institutions has failed to meet societal need.…
Research paper
Who is watching? Refugee protection during a pandemic-responses from Uganda and South Africa
Reflecting on the first 6 months of the pandemic responses in terms of refugee protection, Uganda and South Africa have taken diverging pathways. South Africa used the pandemic to start building a border fence on the border with Zimbabwe, initially…
Research paper
Is we they? A cross-cultural study of responses to COVID-19 updates in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda
This article delineates the material relations, routines and sensorial responses inhabited by people in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. It grounds views on a discourse of behavioural change while exploring how Ugandans, Kenyans…
Research paper
Experiences of persons in COVID-19 institutional quarantine in Uganda: a qualitative study
Quarantine has been adopted as a key public health measure to support the control of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in many countries Uganda adopted institutional quarantine for individuals suspected of exposure to severe COVID-19 to be placed in institutions…
Research paper
Fieldwork through the Zoomiverse: Sensing Uganda in a Time of Immobility
With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, research collaborations that involved multiple sites or institutions were challenged by travel restrictions and the switch to online communication. This article is a reflection by two longtime collaborators, Richard Vokes and Gertrude Atukunda.…
Research paper
Lives Interrupted: Navigating Hardship During COVID-19 Provides Lessons in Solidarity and Visibility for Mobile Young People in South Africa and Uganda
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended assumptions about livelihood security. The authors examine data from young women and men in South Africa and young female sex workers in Uganda to explore the inequalities and hardships experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and…
Background report
“This is your disease”: Dynamics of local authority and NGO responses to Covid-19 in South Sudan
Drawing on interviews and observations conducted in South Sudan in 2020-21, this report explores how South Sudanese NGOs and local government actors responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors argue that unfilled local government positions undermined the Covid response in…
Policy document
Uganda National Technical Guidelines for IDSR, Third Edition
Uganda Ministry of Health National Technical Guidelines for Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response, Third Edition (September 2021). These official guidelines set out the Government of Uganda’s policies and strategy concerning public health surveillance, early warning and response.
Policy document
Uganda Covid-19 Preparedness and Response Plan, March 2020
This sets out the Government of Uganda’s overarching strategy and early response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including stengthening leadership and coordination, strengthening diagnostic capacity, raising public awareness, developing capacity for case management and psychosocial support, and strengthening social protection mechanisms.
Policy document
Uganda Human Rights Commission Statement on the state of human rights and the fight against COVID-19 in Uganda
Uganda Human Rights Commission Statement on the state of human rights and the fight against COVID- 19 in Uganda, April 2020. This sets out the Commission’s support, human rights concerns and recommendations for improving the government’s Covid-19 response.
Research paper
A Double Stress: The Mental Health Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic Among People Living with HIV in Rakai, Uganda
The COVID-19 pandemic presents complex, multidimensional challenges to maintaining the health and wellbeing of individuals worldwide. Mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for people living with HIV are poorly understood, especially in low-income settings. The study team conducted qualitative…
Research paper
Healthworker preparedness for COVID-19 management and implementation experiences: a mixed methods study in Uganda’s refugee-hosting districts
How health systems have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic has received some attention; however, less is known about healthcare for refugee populations during this period. The negative impact of COVID-19 on population health outcomes raises critical questions on health…
Research paper
Changing perceptions about COVID-19 risk and adherence to preventive strategies in Uganda: Evidence from an online mixed-methods survey
As the pandemic drags on and prevention policies double down in the more deadly second and third waves, change in risk perceptions will be expected as economic and social anxiety increase. This study assesses the determinants of changes in perceptions…
Research paper
Going viral – capacity strengthening in the context of pandemic(s)
The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed focus on the importance of increasing momentum in addressing global health challenges, including the unacceptable burden of avoidable foetal and newborn mortality and morbidity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The National Institute for Health…
Research paper
COVID-19 pandemic, Uganda’s story
Uganda adopted its own model taking into consideration its culture, values, environment, socio-economic activities, beliefs, previous successful epidemic experience, and appears a hybrid policy to the Norwegian model. This model of response is perhaps based on Uganda’s long experience in…
Research paper
COVID-19 Public Health Restrictions and Older Adults’ Well-being in Uganda: Psychological Impacts and Coping Mechanisms
In Uganda, as in most LMICs, older adults (aged 60+) are amongst the poorest members of society, mostly relying on their children for food and income. Healthcare services can be difficult to access for everyone, causing inequalities, with mental healthcare…
Research paper
Impact of COVID-19 public health restrictions on older people in Uganda: “hunger is really one of those problems brought by this COVID”
In Uganda, older adults (aged 60 and above) form 2.7 percent of the population and are amongst the poorest members of society without a steady income or state pension system. Most older people in Uganda (and generally in sub-Saharan Africa)…
Research paper
Anxiety, Anger and Depression Amongst Low-Income Earners in Southwestern Uganda During the COVID-19 Total Lockdown
On 18th March 2020, the President of Uganda announced the first total national lockdown which included the international border closures; the closing of schools, private offices and banned public gatherings at places of worships/social events, initially for a period of…
Briefing
Social Science Considerations for Epidemic Response on Power and Authority in the Western Border Region
This briefing outlines the operational recommendations related to power and authority for communities living in Ugandan border districts during the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemics and the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Briefing
Social Science Considerations for Epidemic Response Based on Cross-border Population Movement
This briefing outlines the operational recommendations for transport drivers living in Ugandan border districts during the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemics and the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Briefing
Social Science Considerations for Health-seeking in Epidemic Response
This briefing outlines the operational recommendations related to healthcare seeking for communities living in Ugandan border districts during the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemics and the current COVID-19 pandemic, with lessons for future infectious disease outbreaks.
Briefing
Social Science Considerations on Human-wildlife Interactions in the Context of Epidemic Response
This briefing also reports on current hunting behaviours and rationales, and assesses the risk of further pathogen spillover events as a result of COVID-19.
