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Research paper
Negotiating Intersecting Precarities: COVID-19, Pandemic Preparedness and Response in Africa
This article shares findings on COVID-19 in Africa across 2020 to examine concepts and practices of epidemic preparedness and response. Amidst uncertainties about the trajectory of COVID-19, the stages of emergency response emerge in practice as interconnected. We illustrate how…
Research paper
“There are many fevers”: Communities’ perception and management of Febrile illness and its relationship with human animal interactions in South-Western Uganda
We conducted a focused ethnographic study in Western Uganda among communities with high human livestock interaction to describe communities’ behaviors, exposures, and attitudes toward fever. Perceptions of illness and associated risk factors were heavily influenced by predominant livelihood activities. As…
Research paper
“There are many fevers”: Communities’ perception and management of Febrile illness and its relationship with human animal interactions in South-Western Uganda
Diagnosing the causative agent of febrile illness in resource-limited countries is a challenge in part due to lack of adequate diagnostic infrastructure to confirm cause of infection. Most febrile illnesses (>60%) are non-malarial, with a significant proportion being zoonotic and…
Working paper
Hosting New Neighbors : Perspectives of Host Communities on Social Cohesion in Eastern DRC
Situations of forced displacement create unique challenges for social cohesion because of the major disruption of social dynamics among both displaced persons and host communities. This paper uses a sequential mixed method approach to analyze the relationship between hosting displaced…
Research paper
Covid-19 Riskscapes: Viral Risk Perceptions in the African Great Lakes
In this article we explore Covid-19 riskscapes across the African Great Lakes region. Drawing on fieldwork across Uganda and Malawi, our analysis centers around how two mobile, trans-border figures – truck drivers and migrant traders – came to be understood…
Research paper
“Maybe we should take the legal ways”: Citizen engagement with lower state courts in post-war northern Uganda
Lower state courts are the focus of both international and national access to justice policies and programs but remain understudied in Uganda. Drawing on 3 years of ethnographically informed research on citizen engagement with a busy magistrates’ court in post-war northern…
Background report
Aid Seen from the Bottom: Community realities and representations of aid in Eastern DRC
Africa’s Great Lakes region has been plagued by deadly armed conflicts for almost three decades, resulting in internal and international displacement. Marked by issues of governance, natural resource management, land grab- bing, and food insecurity, Eastern DRC is at the…
Research paper
Violence, abuse and exploitation among trafficked women and girls: a mixed-methods study in Nigeria and Uganda
Africa is the global region where modern-slavery is most prevalent, especially among women and girls. Despite the severe health consequences of human trafficking, evidence on the risks and experiences of trafficked adolescents and young women is scarce for the region.…
Research paper
A qualitative study exploring parent–daughter approaches for communicating about sex and transactional sex in Central Uganda: Implications for comprehensive sexuality education interventions
Ugandan adolescent girls and young women are disproportionately impacted by human immunodeficiency virus, and this is largely driven by their engagement in transactional sex. Globally, parent–daughter communication about sex is associated with increased contraceptive use and delayed/decreased sexual activity, but…
Research paper
“We saw that jealousy can also bring violence”: A qualitative exploration of the intersections between jealousy, infidelity and intimate partner violence in Rwanda and Uganda
Efforts to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) have been informed by emerging research on common triggers of IPV and the importance of engaging with couple dynamics. This paper reports on secondary data analysis from the qualitative evaluations of the SASA!…
Research paper
Contesting the crisis narrative: epidemic accounts in Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Democratic Republic of the Congo
Scientists and global commentators watched African countries closely in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, predicting an impending disaster: the virus was projected to overwhelm already weak health systems. These expectations were informed by imaginaries of Africa as an…
Research paper
Identifying transferable lessons from cholera epidemic responses by Médecins Sans Frontières in Mozambique, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2015–2018: a scoping review
Cholera epidemics occur frequently in low-income countries affected by concurrent humanitarian crises. Evaluations of these epidemic responses remains largely unpublished and there is a need to generate evidence on response efforts to inform future programmes. This review of MSF cholera…
Background report
Aid Seen from the Bottom: Community realities and representations of aid in Eastern DRC
This report investigates community perceptions of the actions carried out by NGOs working to address intersecting crises in Eastern DRC, in Kalehe and Uvira (Ruzizi Plain) territories. These two areas are characterized by a significant presence of humanitarian, development and…
Communicative Health Promotion for Refugee Children in Uganda
Uganda’s refugee policy framework seeks to cover health care needs of refugees within a dynamic social context. Focusing on the ecosystem of urban refugees, the authors examine refugee health care expectations, support networks, and how health communication traditions and perspectives…
Research paper
Barriers of HIV treatment-seeking behavior among youths living with HIV in Uganda: a qualitative study
This study aimed to explore experienced barriers to seek human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment and care among youth living with HIV and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Uganda. The study demonstrated that barriers to using HIV care included fear of…
Background report
Vacuum Governance in Eastern DRC: Understanding the Social, Economic and Security Dynamics of Shabunda
Vacuum Governance in Eastern DRC: Understanding the Social, Economic and Security Dynamics of ShabundaThis report investigates the social and security dynamics in Shabunda territory (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Located in westernmost South Kivu province and bordering Maniema province, Shabunda…
Research paper
Male partners of female sex workers: The intersectional risk environment of HIV/AIDS in a Kampala informal settlement
This study examined the context and drivers of HIV risk and vulnerability among male partners of female sex workers in Kampala, Uganda, using an “intersectional risk environment” framework.
Working paper
Indigenous lockdowns: a historical exploration of epidemic containment in Arua District, West Nile sub-region, Uganda
This working paper explores histories of containing epidemic diseases in West Nile, North West Uganda. It focuses particularly on strategies devised since the colonial period among Lugbara-speaking populations in present-day Arua and Maracha Districts to contain disease outbreaks. The paper…
Working paper
An enquiry into the use of Covid-19 herbal medicines in Uganda
This working paper explores the use of herbal medicines as reported prevention and cures for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We focus particularly on interviews with residents of Arua City, West Nile sub-region, Northern Uganda.
Working paper
A retrospective assessment of Covid-19 viewed from Arua Regional Referral Hospital, West Nile Sub-Region, Uganda: Emmanuel Candia in conversation with Solomon Kamurari
The following paper is an interview with Dr Emmanuel Chandia, a Medical Officer at Arua Regional Referral Hospital. He is the emergency care coordinator for the West Nile sub-region and has coordinated the response to COVID-19 at Arual Regional Referral…
Blog
Social media and trust in strangers have grown Uganda’s market for COVID-19 treatments
The COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda has coincided with an ‘epidemic’ of misinformation, spread in part through social media platforms such as WhatsApp. Against a backdrop of unaffordable formal healthcare, this has grown the market for herbal and traditional treatments, with…
Article
Borders areas should be used, not feared, in pandemic responses
This report moves beyond abstract assumptions and global-level debates to understand the reality of the struggles and strategies of local and national organisations during complex emergencies. We focus on the histories, politicoeconomic dynamics and everyday realities of South Sudanese NGOs…
Research paper
Integrated disease surveillance and response in humanitarian context: South Sudan experience
This paper reviews the progress and outcomes of rolling out IDSR in South Sudan, using epidemiological and program data for 2019-20 to provide detailed assessments of surveillance priorities, core and support functions, and surveillance system structure and quality. Progress has…
Report
Mobile Livelihoods: Borderland dynamics between Uganda and South Sudan
This report from the Rift Valley Institute explores the dynamics of transnational movement and networks of kin of South Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees in Uganda.
Research paper
Resistant Resilience: Agency and Resilience Among Refugees Resisting Humanitarian Corruption in Uganda
Resilience is a dominant humanitarian-development theme. Nonetheless, some humanitarian-development programmes have demonstrably negative impacts which encourage vulnerable people to actively resist these programmes. Based on 12 months ethnographic fieldwork in a Ugandan refugee settlement during 2017–18, this paper argues refugee residents…
Research paper
The Implications of Sugarcane Contract Farming on Land Rights, Labor, and Food Security in the Bunyoro Sub-Region, Uganda
The Ugandan government has long promoted agricultural commercialization as key to Uganda’s economic future. Sugarcane commercialization, in the form of contract farming (CF), has been a preferred instrument, leading to the emergence of large and medium sugar corporations in Uganda’s…
Research paper
“One Man’s Meat Is Another Man’s Poison”: Marungi and Realities of Resilience in North West Uganda
Approaches to resilience in post-war contexts prioritise systems-based thinking above everyday realities. This paper explores reconstruction through marungi (khat) in North-West Uganda. Presenting ethnographic evidence, we chart connections between marungi and resilience among growers, traders and “eaters”. Firstly, we argue…
Thesis
Antibiotics in Society: a multi-sited ethnography in rural and urban Uganda
This thesis employed a multi-sited ethnographic approach in urban and rural settings in Uganda to study the social and economic factors that shape antibiotic use. It found that these included everyday insecurities, availability of resources, and professional and patient expectations…
Research paper
Reconciling imperatives: Clinical guidelines, antibiotic prescribing and the enactment of good care in lower-level health facilities in Tororo, Uganda.
Faced with the threat of antimicrobial resistance, health workers are urged to reduce unnecessary prescription of antimicrobials. Clinical guidelines are expected to form the basis of prescribing. Emerging through evaluations of best practice, guidelines also create benchmarks to assess practice…
Research paper
Antibiotic Arrivals in Africa: A Case Study of Yaws and Syphilis in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Uganda
The significance of the ways in which antibiotics co-constituted colonial regimes has not been systematically described. Through a case study of yaws and syphilis, this article traces arrivals of antibiotics in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. We draw attention to the…
Research paper
Use of Services among Female Sex Workers Receiving a Comprehensive HIV Enhanced Prevention Intervention in Kampala, Uganda: A Cross-sectional Study
We estimated the prevalence and factors associated with the use of a dedicated HIV prevention, care, and treatment service for female sex workers (FSWs) in Kampala, Uganda. Between October 2017 to January 2018, we conducted a cross-sectional study among FSWs…
Research paper
From crisis to context: Reviewing the future of sustainable charcoal in Africa
Is charcoal a sustainable energy source in Africa? This is a crucial question, given charcoal’s key importance to urban energy. In today’s dominant policy narrative – the charcoal-crisis narrative – charcoal is deemed incompatible with sustainable and modern energy, blamed…
Briefing
One year after the coup: What next for Sudan’s Juba Peace Agreement?
This briefing considers the changing political situation in Sudan, exploring how the relationship between two key factions in the conflict has complicated discussions around the formation of a new political arrangement in Sudan.
Research paper
Repatriation of South Sudanese refugees from the West Nile districts, Uganda. What do we learn from the process?
The paper highlights the fundamental steps followed during a well-planned, structured, and effective repatriation of South Sudanese refugees from Uganda. Understanding repatriation requires an appreciation of how it is implemented to support offering an effective, durable, and lasting solution to…
Research paper
Water insecurity and sexual and gender-based violence among refugee youth: qualitative insights from a humanitarian setting in Uganda
This paper argues that youth and communities should be meaningfully engaged in developing contextually relevant, gender transformative services to mitigate SGBV risks and advance health and rights.
Research paper
Relational Factors and HIV Testing Practices: Qualitative Insights from Urban Refugee Youth in Kampala, Uganda
This paper explores perspectives, experiences, and preferences for social support in HIV testing among refugee youth aged 16–24 in Kampala, Uganda.
