In 2007, Uganda had one of the lowest levels of access to electricity in the world. Given the influence of multilateral and bilateral agencies in Uganda; the strong international reputation and domestic influence of its President; the country’s historic achievements in public sector and economic reform; and the intimate connection between economic performance, social well-being and access to electricity, the problems with Uganda’s electricity sector have proven deeply frustrating and, indeed, puzzling. Following increased scholarly attention to the relationship between political change, policymaking, and public sector reform in sub-Saharan Africa and the developing world generally, this thesis examines the multilevel politics of Uganda’s electricity sector reform process. This study contends that explanations for Uganda’s electricity sector reform problems generally, and hydroelectric dam construction efforts specifically, must move beyond technical and financial factors. Problems in this sector have also been the result of a model of reform (promoted by the World Bank) that failed adequately to account for the character of political change. Indeed, the model of reform that was promoted and implemented was risky and it was deeply antagonistic to domestic and international civil society organizations. In addition, it was presented as a linear, technical, apolitical exercise. Finally the model was inconsistent with key principles the Bank itself, and public policy literature generally, suggest are needed for success. Based on this analysis, the thesis contends that policymaking and reform must be understood as deeply political processes, which not only define access to services, but also participation in, and exclusion from, national debates. Future approaches to reform and policymaking must anticipate the complex, multilevel, non-linear character of ‘second-generation’ policy issues like electricity, and the political and institutional capacity needed to increase the potential for success. At the heart of this approach is a need to carefully consider how the character of state-society relations in the country – “governance” – will influence reform processes and outcomes.

This thesis presents the results of contemporary limnological and palaeolimnological investigations of a series of crater lakes in order to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental history of western Uganda, East Africa. The research examines questions of spatial and temporal heterogeneity of climate changes in the context of growing human impacts on the landscape over the last millennium. Sediment records from two lakes, Nyamogusingiri and Kyasanduka within the Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) were investigated to look at the long term records of climate and environmental change (spanning the last c. 1000 years). Five shorter cores across a land-use gradient were retrieved to assess the impact of human activity on the palaeoenvironmental record over the last ~150 years. High-resolution (sub-decadal), multiproxy analyses of lake sediment cores based on diatoms, bulk geochemistry (C/N and δ13C) and sedimentary variables (loss-on-ignition, magnetic properties and physical properties) provide independent lines of evidence that allow the reconstruction of past climate and environmental changes. This multiproxy approach provides a powerful means to reconstruct past environments, whilst the multi-lake approach assists in the identification and separation of local (e.g. catchment-scale modifications and groundwater influences) and regional effects (e.g. climatic changes). The results of a modern limnological survey of 24 lakes were used in conjunction with diatom surface sediment samples (and corresponding water chemistry) from 64 lakes across a natural conductivity gradient in western Uganda (reflecting a regional climatic gradient of effective moisture) to explore factors controlling diatom distribution. The relationships between water chemistry and diatom distributions were explored using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and partial CCA. Variance partitioning indicated that conductivity accounted for a significant and independent portion of this variation. A transfer function was developed for conductivity (r2jack = 0.74). Prediction errors, estimated using jack-knifing, are low for the conductivity model (0.256 log units). The final model was applied to the core sediment data.This study highlights the potential for diatom-based quantitative palaeoenvironmental reconstructions from the crater lakes in western Uganda. Sedimentary archives from the Ugandan crater lakes can provide high-resolution, annual to sub-decadal records of environmental change. Whilst all of the lakes studied here demonstrate an individualistic response to external (e.g. climatic) drivers, the broad patterns observed in Uganda and across East Africa suggest that the crater lakes are indeed sensitive to climatic perturbations such as a dry Mediaeval Warm Period (MWP; AD 1000-1200) and a relatively drier climate during the main phase of the Little Ice Age (LIA; c. AD 1500-1800); though lake levels in western Uganda do fluctuate, with a high stand c. AD 1575-1600). The general trends support the hypothesis of an east to west (wet to dry) gradient across East Africa during the LIA, however, the relationship breaks down and is more complex towards the end of the LIA (c. AD 1700-1750) when the inferred changes in lake levels at Nyamogusingiri and Kyasanduka are synchronous with changes observed at Lakes Naivasha (Kenya) and Victoria and diverge from local lake level records (from Edward, Kasenda and Wandakara). Significant changes in the lake ecosystems have occurred over the last 50-75 years, with major shifts in diatom assemblages to benthic-dominated systems and an inferred increase in nutrient levels. These changes are coincident with large sediment influx to the lakes, perhaps as a result of increasing human activity within many of the lake catchments.

The importance of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as a prerequisite for national development has been emphasized in recent years by developing countries and by donor agencies. Research findings point to the benefits children, as well as nations, derive from ECCE provision. For children, these benefits include school readiness; and for nations, benefits address the reduction of social inequality, possibilities for increased tax revenue through eventual improved employment prospects, and development of societal values. In 1990 at Jomtien in Thailand, 155 nations of the world agreed on a joint plan of action to fulfill six Education For All goals. The first goal required nations to work towards the expansion and improvement of comprehensive ECCE by the year 2015. The responsibility of poor countries was to make necessary budget allocations and policy commitments; rich countries were to provide both intellectual and financial support. Whilst some progress has been made, many developing countries especially in Sub-Saharan Africa are still at risk of not achieving EFA by 2015. Uganda is one country where there are difficulties in attaining EFA and ECCE in particular. This has been exacerbated by the prevailing economic, social, geographical, and cultural differences, as well as general beliefs about ECCE. This study investigates the present quality and accessibility in ECCE provision in Uganda. It explores the extent to which Uganda has expanded and improved ECCE and raises the key question as to why even with international donor support and government commitment to institutional changes, ECCE is an area of education still riven with problems. The study uses participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and photography in six selected schools in three Districts. Research findings reveal that the majority of children are not accessing ECCE provision, while many of those that do are being educated in environments not conducive to their learning and development. Findings show that there are a number of factors both internal and external to Uganda that impact upon efforts to fulfil the commitment made at Jomtien in 1990. This research concludes that first and foremost, there should be a national, ‘Ugandan’ approach to and policies about ECCE. Rather than being led by international pressure and policies, approaches to improving quality and accessibility in ECCE provision should be refocused away from ‘top-heavy’, ‘lop-sided’ approaches to a more pre-school-level focused approach. This will help in establishing and addressing culturally relevant and economically achievable quality targets. Secondly, there is need for public awareness of the importance of ECCE. This will not only give rise to increased community participation in the establishment of community-based ECCE centres, but also the involvement of stakeholders in the identification and implementation of solutions to the problems facing ECCE. And finally, rather than looking to the West for funding, Uganda should develop in-country funding strategies from both public and private sources. This will help to remove the negative impact of ‘modalities’, these often being required by external donor funding. In-country funding sources will as a result give Uganda room to ‘manoeuvre’ when planning for ECCE.

This thesis investigates the place of African states in the international system and seeks to understand what space exists for aid-dependent governments to exercise agency in relations with donors. In exploring these issues I focus on the case of Uganda’s NRM regime which has enjoyed very substantial international support despite its increasingly authoritarian nature, destabilising regional policy and questionable human rights record. The two central questions posed are therefore: ‘why has Uganda benefited from such uncritical international support and what role has the NRM regime itself played in bringing about this situation?’ The thesis also compares Uganda’s experience to those of Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda to demonstrate the broader relevance of these questions. I argue that donors have taken a lenient approach to Uganda because they perceive it as valuable as an economic success story, an ally in the ‘War on Terror’ and a guarantor of regional stability. The study stresses, however, that these perceptions are just that: perceptions. They do not necessarily reflect reality nor are they formed without input from Africa, as some inadvertently suggest. Indeed, the principal contention of this thesis is that these three donor perceptions of Uganda have been actively constructed, moulded, managed and bolstered by Kampala itself in an effort to shore-up international support. Using a variety of ‘image management’ strategies the regime has succeeded in convincing its donors to see it as a valuable ally worth supporting. The same is true of the Rwandan and Ethiopian governments, I suggest, but not of the Kenyan. In doing so, the thesis contends, Kampala has carved out a subtle but substantial degree of agency in relations with donors and this raises important questions for scholars and policy-makers.

This thesis examines the role of missionaries, the colonial government, and leprosy patients in the formation of leprosy settlements in Uganda, from the first inception of the settlements in 1927, until 1951 when the nature of leprosy control in Uganda changed, with the government appointment of a Protectorate leprologist and the creation of more treatment centres. It focuses on four leprosy settlements opened between 1930 and 1934 by the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the British and Irish Catholic Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa (FMSA) and Mill Hill Mission (MHM). Firstly, this thesis explores the ways in which the differing goals, ideologies, and resources of the Protestant CMS and the Catholic FMSA and MHM shaped the formation of and social environment within leprosy settlements in a highly Christianised and denominationally divided Uganda. Secondly, it examines the relationship between the CMS and Franciscan leprosy missions and the government, exploring the cooperation and conflict that their spiritual and medical priorities had upon the social lives of patients within Uganda’s leprosy settlements. Thirdly, this thesis assesses the extent to which missionaries consciously endeavoured to engineer a social environment for leprosy patients within settlements that conformed to their ideal of Christianised, modern African communities, as well the roles that healthy and leprous Ugandans chose to play in response to these attempts at social engineering. Missionaries and Ugandan leprosy patients had different priorities, but far from being passive receptacles of the ‘civilising’ mission, most leprosy patients were active agents in pursuing their own medical, social, and economic priorities through life in the settlements.

Given the problems of economic development, the purpose of this thesis is to examine, analyze, and reevaluate the impact of human, social, economic, and political problems on the economic development of Uganda. The strategy adopted in the study of the problems involved in the economic development of Uganda is historical. In short, the study examines past, recent, and present literature on economic development of Uganda.

Education in conflict settings is a new field of inquiry and there is a paucity of research about this topic as regards the education of children with disabilities. This qualitative study set out to gain insight into how children with disabilities are educated in the conflict setting of Uganda and how it could be improved. This study used a critical, constructivist and grounded research style to generate data. It was critical because its aims and questions focused on addressing the injustices experienced by children with disabilities. It was constructivist as both the participants and myself co-constructed knowledge. It also had some grounded theory features such as emergence and iteration in its methods and tools. For instance, it had three distinct but interrelated stages. The first stage involved an exploratory study which used online methods to gather data from 27 participants who had lived or worked in Uganda. The second stage was an experiential study in two sites in Uganda which used observation and interview methods to collect data from 35 participants. The third and final stage synthesised significant codes and memos constructed from the exploratory and experiential stages into a theory of education. There were four main findings in this study. First, it revealed the nature and extent of the challenges faced by all children living in conflict settings: forced displacement, dehumanisation, rampant poverty and weakened leadership. Second, it discovered that disabled people experienced rejection in their communities and invisibility in the provision of services such as education. Whilst these practices prevailed in non-conflict situations, they were intensified in conflict settings and were counter to the African beliefs on what it meant to be human and live in a community. Third, education in Uganda was likened to disabled people and considered 'creeping' or 'crippled' because of demotivated teachers, disengaged parents, ailing infrastructure and decreasing quality. Fourth and last, participants had visions of educational change which involved modifying it and transforming it into an education that develops conscience in children, reinforces hope and widens opportunities. This research made the following original contributions: generating original data, conceptualising Africanised interviews, and constructing a theory of Africanising education. According to my knowledge I could claim originality to this study in that by 2012, no other study had generated original data on the interfaces between education, disability and conflict in Northern Uganda using a critical, constructivist, and grounded research style. In addition, this research style led to the emergence of Africanised interviews: interviews embedded in the customs and practices of the African people. Importantly, this study led to the construction of a theory which contained critical knowledge on how Africanisation could be thought of and brought about in the setting. Africanisation was understood as the process of using African philosophies such as 'ubuntu' and communalism to transform the 'creeping' education system, reform the colonial curriculum, renew teacher professionalism, mend communities, and re-humanise the relationships between disabled and non-disabled people. Africanisation also entailed decolonising scholarship and this involved quoting African scholars and exposing their philosophies which had been marginalised by Western scholars.

Thesis topic "Witch cults and alternative treatment methods in equatorial Africa" deals with the problems of shamanism and treatment methods in Africa, mainly in the equatorial area. Introduces witchcraft and compares it to shamanism, healing and other methods of the African aboriginal tribes and specific healing methods which are practised by shamans, medicine men and healers. At the same time it compares these methods to the quality of the medical services which are available in the given area. Practical part shows research solutions analysing the relations of the citizens from an Ugandan village Nyakyera and surrounding areas to healthcare and their attitude towards the shaman healers.

The International Criminal Court and the principle of complementarity Abstract The principle of complementarity is often referred to as the cornerstone of the International Criminal Court's functioning ("Court" or "ICC"), so the purpose of my thesis is to analyze complementarity in more detail. The Preamble of the Rome Statute ("Statute") provides that the Court "shall be complementary to national criminal jurisdictions". Complementarity means that the ICC will act only when domestic authorities fail to take the certain steps in the investigation or prosecution of crimes enumerated under article 5 of the Statute. My thesis consists of seven chapters. First three chapters are introductory and show a historical and practical background of the establishment of the ICC. Chapter four explains that there exist various forms of the relationship between an international criminal jurisdiction and national jurisdictions, not just complementary. This chapter is subdivided into several parts which firstly describe a particular forms of these relationships and then give an example of such a relations existing in reality. The following chapter inquires into the roots of complementary idea. It highlights that the principle of complementarity included in the Statute was not the outcome of the International Law Commission's...

Over the past two decades movement of cattle towards the north of Uganda has enabled the Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense focus in south-eastern Uganda to spread into previously unaffected districts. This thesis brings together important epidemiological data regarding the impact of mass cattle drug treatment on the point prevalence of several different species of trypanosome in a newly endemic area of human sleeping sickness. Crucially the findings illustrate mass drug treatment is effective in reducing the prevalence of T. b. rhodesiense in cattle, thus minimising the reservoir potential of these animals in the epidemiology of human disease. During 2006 a control programme was launched to halt the northward spread of this zoonotic parasite. This programme, entitled ‘Stamping Out Sleeping Sickness’ (SOS) proposed to reduce the prevalence of Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) in the newly affected districts by reducing the prevalence of this parasite in the main animal reservoir of infection – domestic cattle. Cattle were mass treated using trypanocides to clear infections. Previous work demonstrated the prevalence of T. brucei s. l. and T. b. rhodesiense in cattle was higher in the districts of Dokolo and Kaberamaido than in the other SOS intervention districts (Selby 2011). To determine whether animals in these areas were also exposed to pathogenic cattle trypanosomes samples were screened for the presence of T. vivax and T. congolense savannah using PCR. Chapter three of this thesis determined the prevalence of these trypanosomes in cattle in these districts. Before treatment had taken place the prevalence of T. vivax was 2% (4/200, 95% CI 3.57 – 0.12%) in Dokolo and 7.3% (21/310, 95% CI 10.17 - 4.24 %) in Kaberamaido. The prevalence of T. congolense savannah at baseline was 3.5% (7/200, 95% CI 7.08–1.42 %) in Dokolo and 9.1% (21/230, 95% CI13.6–5.7 %) in Kaberamaido. Monitoring was conducted three, nine and 18 months post treatment and both pathogens were detected at all time points. The impact the treatment had on point prevalence varied by trypanosome species and between the two districts. Several clusters of villages in Dokolo and Kaberamaido continued to report cases of HAT after the initial SOS intervention due in part to their proximity to livestock markets (Batchelor et al., 2009). In 2008 re-treatment of these ‘high risk’ areas was undertaken. Monitoring was performed before and six months after treatment. Cattle blood samples were collected at 20 village sites from ten ‘case-positive villages’ (from which human sleeping sickness cases had been reported six months prior to June 2007) and from ten ‘case-negative villages’ (no reported human sleeping sickness cases six months prior to June 2007). These samples were screened for all of the aforementioned trypanosomes using species specific PCR protocols. Chapter five details the results of this screening, and assessed whether re-treatment in Dokolo and Kaberamaido was effective in reducing the prevalence of trypanosomiasis. The re-treatment had a dramatic effect, significantly reducing the point prevalence of overall trypanosomiasis in the 20 villages screened from 38.1% (95% CI = 40.5 – 35.79%) at baseline to 26.9% (95% CI 28.96 – 24.97, p < 0.0001) at six months. Looking at each species separately, point prevalence of three out of four detected species of trypanosome fell significantly, including T. b. rhodesiense, which was reduced to 25% of its baseline prevalence. Finally the two SOS treatment cycles were compared both statistically and spatially with emphasis on trends at village level and the occurrence of mixed infections.