Gasification of biomass for electricity power generation has been a proven technology in a number of countries in the world. MSW consists of biomass, glass, plastics, metallic scrap and street debris. Biomass constitutes the highest proportion of MSW and being an energy resource, implies that it can contribute tremendously to the energy needs of any country since every country is endowed with this resource which is generated in enormous tonnes per day. The challenge would then be the choice of the technology to harness this abundant energy resource subject to financial and environmental constraints.    In Uganda, MSW gasification for power generation has never been implemented in spite of the 500-600 tonnes of MSW collected per day, the biomass component of the MSW comprising 88%. MSW is instead collected in skips, transported by trucks to a landfill were it is deposited and left to decompose releasing methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) gases which are highly potent greenhouse gases. In this regard, the many tonnes per day of MSW collected in Kampala city (area of the study) portray significant potential of generating producer gas using the technology of gasification to run engines for power generation and this study evaluated possible gasifier-engine system applications for power generation. Experiments were carried out  at the Faculty of Technology, Makerere University to determine biomass characteristics (e.g. moisture content, ash content) and gasification parameters(e.g. lower heating value)  of MSW required for gasifier-engine applications. After establishing the lower heating value of the producer gas from MSW, a theoretical design of a gasifier-engine system was investigated for possible applications with the biomass component of MSW and an economic analysis was done to assess the feasibility of the project.

This study aims to identify potential ways in which the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) improves the quality of life for IDPs. Relying on the concept of bare life, it answers if and how the convention prevents bare life. Drawing on theory and previous research on bare life in relation to IDPs, the analytical framework forms four theoretical dimensions to which the Kampala Convention, Translating The Kampala Convention Into Practice: A Stocktaking Exercise (ICRC, 2017) and The Kampala Convention: Key Recommendations Ten Years On (ICRC, 2019) are applied. Based on a grading, the results tell of the convention’s effects. The IDPs’ rights and political agency are adequately respected; quotidian culture and prevention of exclusionary practices are promoted yet insufficiently. Adding humanitarianism, biopolitics and host communities as additional findings, there are areas that should be carefully respected, but bare life is mostly prevented. Hopefully, this study can add knowledge to the progress of the Kampala Convention and provide a framework for similar analyses of policy and practice on aiding people in distress.

This thesis explores agency in urban refugee spaces and the factors and skills seen to facilitate refugee journeys towards self-reliance in protracted situations. An ethnographic case study was carried out in Kampala, Uganda, where observations and conversations were held with refugee leaders, business owners, and with practitioners at refugee-led organizations. The reasoning is based on Hannah Arendt's notion on what it means to have agency and on wider connections to agency in relation to spaces, storytelling, resilience, and a sense of community. Hermeneutics was applied to the planning and execution of the research, while a narrative approach was adopted to exhibit the findings. The stories presented lay a foundation for proposing a new agency-led approach of how to critically reflect and rethink refugee support in ways that are cost-effective, ethical, and durable over time. This proposed agency-led approach was made by learning from the field and comprises four parts: (i) organizational resilience; (ii) meaningful ownership; (iii) meaningful representation; and (iv) meaningful participation. The new approach is presented to practitioners, potential donors, and those interested in learning how, but also why, we must rethink refugees as actors.

This thesis explores what role Pentecostalism has as an emerging actor in Uganda in terms of empowering the largely marginalised youth population. Therefore, the purpose of the thesis is to examine how Pentecostalism may contribute to youth´s participation and influence in society and, as such, the realisation of their civil rights as the sovereigns of the country. Based on two months of field research, the thesis is constituted mainly by empirical material from interviews with Pentecostal youth1 in Kampala, as well as contextualising secondary material. This material is then analysed through a theoretical framework based, mainly, on agency theory as it explores the social circumstances in which the agency of the youth is both disabled and enabled, as well as marginalisation and identity-making theory. First, it is argued that the generational gap, characterised by patronage, as well as government`s deployment of physical and psychical violence against youth has worked against the youth and deprived them of their agency. Second, it is argued that Pentecostal churches empower youth to critically reflect over their marginalised position in society, out of which as sense of agency may grow at an individual level. Finally, it is argued that as the churches establishes constructive behaviours among the church youth, this has positively contributed to their social standing in society and the realisation of their civic influence. In turn, potentially contributing also to the wider youth population´s influence, as well as the democratic development and security in Uganda.