Recently, there is a growing recognition that households especially in rural areas that receive their income from diverse portfolio of activities, have higher welfare, yet the evidence on the effects of non-farm incomes on household welfare in developing countries like Uganda remains scanty. This study examines the effects of non-farm incomes (wage employment, non-agricultural enterprises, transfers, property incomes, and remittances) on household welfare in Uganda. Using data from three recent waves of the Uganda National Panel Survey (UNPS)—2011/12, 2013/14 and 2015/16—and applying a fixed effects panel model, the results indicate that; 1) having non-farm incomes has a significant positive differential effect on household welfare; 2) Having Nonagricultural enterprises is associated with the highest positive significant effects on welfare; and 3) higher level of education of the household head is associated with higher household welfare. The key policy message from these findings is that Government needs to focus on the formulation and implementation of policies aimed at encouraging households (especially those in rural areas) to diversify their income sources in order to improve their human well-being. Prioritizing the attainment of higher education levels through increased access and retention at higher education and reducing the high population growth rate. Addressing binding constraints to income diversification, through for instance, enhancing access to affordable finance and entrepreneurship skills of the labour force, is likely to increase non-farm incomes and lead to better standards of living particularly for the households. Keywords: Uganda, Non-farm Incomes, Household Welfare.

This research sought to examine the factors which affecting the adoption of sustainable energy sources in Kampala City using the case of briquettes and the implications of the continued reliance on wood charcoal as a source of cooking energy on the city’s ambition to transition to a low carbon development path. Globally, cities consume up to 75% of energy and emit between 50-60% of the world’s greenhouse gasses. The situation is particularly worse for the rapidly growing African Cities which typically rely on the use of traditional biomass mainly wood charcoal for cooking. In the case of Kampala City, charcoal accounts for over 90% of Household cooking energy. A transition from the traditional biomass to more efficient and sustainable sources of energy in cities is seen as a major pathway to achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals. The study was based on primary data and adopted qualitative and quantitative methods. Data collection was done through semi-structured questionnaires which were administered to a sample of 390 respondents. Using cross tabulations analysis the research finds out that; lack of awareness, limited availability and price of briquettes, emerge as the major factors inhibiting the uptake of briquettes as an alternative source of cooking energy. These factors were found to cut across all the five Divisions of the city. Consistent with earlier studies, the quality of briquettes and type of food cooked were not significant in influencing the choice of cooking energy by households. Therefore City policies and programmes such as radio and television talk shows, dedicated energy days and community awareness campaigns focusing on raising awareness and increasing the access to briquettes among the city residents would provide the greatest potential for scaling up. Supply side interventions like affordable credit to briquette producers will increase supply and competition in the market resulting in lower prices to the final consumers.

Wildlife populations are in a prevalent reduction globally. The decline has been so considerable that it is approximated that the biomass of humans is now a sequence of vastness is higher than that of all wild mammals amalgamated. Habitat demolition and poaching to furnish the international illegal wildlife trade (IWT) are two predominant inducements of this alarming hornets’ nest. The objective of this study is to elucidate the efficacy of the electronic CITES (eCITES) in improving the implementation of the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) by using modern InfoTech to abridge regulated trade and to fight against illicit wildlife commerce. The eCITES comprises electronic application and issuance of CITES permits, management and verification of CITES permits, detailing along with electronic swapping of permits (permit particulars) betwixt the parties. The study employs the doctrinal legal research methodology and qualitative legal research method of using interviews to collect data to establish the findings of the study. Whereas there are impediments affecting the applicability of the eCITES system in combatting illegal wildlife trade such as implementation lapses, uncoordinated responses towards combatting illegal wildlife trade in the region, corruption and inadequate resources, Uganda has profited from eCITES. Some of the gains include; streamlining and ameliorating the operations of Management Authorities and other agencies to effectuate the Convention, improving inspections and targets, identifying those actors that break the law, among others. To address the gaps affecting the implementation of the eCITES permitting system, the study proposes some of the following recommendations; Accelerated enrolment of the eCITES permitting system, prosecuting corrupt officials, capacity building of the relevant stakeholders, adopting fraud and validity proof systems, among others. Automated systems particularly the eCITES are critical to the objective of ensuring legal, sustainable and traceable international wildlife trade. The implementation of the eCITES permitting system is critical in curbing illegal wildlife trade in Uganda.

Presence of illness can induce utilization of health services which can impose high costs on households, particularly where households do not have a healthcare insurance scheme. At the same time the household ability to earn income is hampered due to inability of ill individuals and caregivers to work, thereby affecting the welfare of the household as a whole. Out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare expenditure constitutes about 48 percent of the total healthcare financing in Uganda. Given the fact that Uganda does not yet have a fully established national health insurance scheme, this level of expenditure can be impoverishing to low income households. Thus, understanding how OOP affects the welfare of household across different socioeconomic groups is important for designing appropriate interventions for mitigating catastrophic expenditures for healthcare in Uganda. This study examined the effect of out-of-pocket health expenditure (OOP) on household welfare in Uganda. Household welfare was proxied by two indicators; namely: household food consumption and household asset-base. An Asset-based index was constructed using the Principal Component Analysis. The study used the Uganda National Household Survey 2016/17 data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. A two-stage least square regression analysis was used to examine impact of OOP on household welfare in Uganda. The results show that a unit increase in out-of-pocket health expenses reduce household food consumption expenditure by 9 percent and household asset base by 2 percent. And these results are statistically significant at 1 percent significant level. Other results show that Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) has a statistically significant negative impact on household welfare. Households with NCDs cases have a 1.5 percent reduction in food consumption expenditure as well as 3.3 percent reduction in the asset base. With such negative relationship between OOP and household welfare, poorer households are the most affected and any interventions targeting the poorest socioeconomic groups towards ensuring that they are protected are crucial. Effective implementation of the Uganda National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is needed in order to protect especially poor households from incurring high medical expenses. This social protection will improve their disposable income and that their households’ welfare is improved. Government, development partners and other stakeholders should increase investment in preventive care since most illnesses leading to catastrophic health expenditure can be prevented. Promote a subsidized higher level education because higher education prepares graduates with skills fit to enable them compete for better wages in the job market and finally, a need to promote women empowerment in society is paramount to improve household welfare.

This paper aimed at estimating the tax elasticity and buoyancy of tax revenues and its major components in Uganda. Tax revenues are a major source of government revenues in Uganda and continue to play a major role in funding government expenditures. However, despite the tax reforms in Uganda aimed at boosting the tax revenue, budget deficit has persistently increased. This paper estimated the buoyancy and elasticity of tax revenues spanning the period 1998 to 2019, using the standard regression technique and the Dummy Variable (DV) approach to capture the discretionary tax changes in tax rates and tax structures are applied. Quarterly time series data and the autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model augmented by the bounds test were estimated. The results revealed that government expenditure, Excise duty and Import Duty have a positive impact on the tax revenues in the long run therefore policies like government expenditure towards productive areas, enhancing efficiency of the customs administration and introduction of new goods in the excise tax net should be embraced in order to increase tax revenue.

Teenage pregnancy is both a health and economic issue that requires immediate attention because it threatens the economy’s well-being. The major objective of the study was to explore the relationship between childhood violence and teenage pregnancy in Uganda. Specifically, the study sought to empirically examine the relationship between exposure to sexual, emotional and physical violence and teenage pregnancy and analyse the influence of socio demographic factors on teenage pregnancy in Uganda. The study utilized the 2018 Uganda National household survey dataset of Violence against children conducted by the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development. The study was based on Social Ecological theory to examine the relationship between childhood exposure to violence and Early pregnancy to girls below 18 years. Three logit regression models were estimated i.e Model I, II and III focusing on forms of violence, occurrence of two forms of violence and overlap of sexual, physical and emotional forms of violence at once respectively. The results from the study are consistent with a growing body of literature showing that exposure to emotional, physical and sexual violence leads to early pregnancy in girls below 18 years. Age, education, religion, and household characteristics were found to influence the incidence of teenage pregnancy. Teen girls from small sized households were less likely to get pregnant while still children compared to girls from big sized households. Education of teenage girls and affiliations to religion lessen the exposure of early pregnancies. The study recommends extreme penalties for sexual and emotional violence against adolescent girls to reduce teenage pregnancies. The study also suggests the need of sensitizing parents about the effect of violence on children especially as a cause to early pregnancy. It suggests that in addition to strategies promoted to reduce early pregnancy like use of family planning methods, policies should follow a range of household-level contexts: improving social economic status of households and sensitizing the need to stop violence against girls and women. Key Words: Early pregnancy, violence.

The introduction of devolution in Kenya after the promulgation of the new constitution in 2010 was touted as the panacea to the social, political and economic problems the country had faced since independence. The objectives and rationale of devolution included promoting democracy and accountability, achieving economic development and improving access to public services. Since 2013, there have been unending discussions on whether devolution has achieved the intended objectives given the high hopes the country had in the system. Among the services that were transferred to the counties in the new system include health services and agricultural services. This study has attempted to assess the effect of the different aspects of devolution on the delivery of health services in Kenya. The study has evaluated the degree of fiscal decentralisation, administrative decentralisation and health care financing and how they have affected immunisation coverage over the period 2012 to 2017. We have explored the trends in immunisation coverage over the period 2003 to 2017 and health healthcare financing by the government over the period 2006 to 2017. The study utilised a quantitative research approach by using descriptive and econometric estimation techniques to present the results. The data used in the study comprised a panel of variables covering immunization coverage (2003-2017, budget information (2006-2018) and social economic factors (as of 2013) for the county and national aggregates. The data sources mainly comprised government reports especially Economic Surveys, statistical abstracts, annual budget reports and reports by development partners and non-state actors. The findings from the study showed that healthcare financing by the government has not been affected by devolution with counties allocating more than 30 per cent of their budgets to the health sector and the total allocation by both levels averaging about 6 per cent. On the other hand, devolution has negatively affected the provision of immunisation coverage with the full immunisation coverage declining from over 80% in 2012 to 63 % in 2017. The study established that fiscal decentralisation measured by the percentage of local revenue to the counties has a positive relationship with immunization coverage. This clearly calls for policy reforms to address the shortcomings of the devolution framework to address the gaps in key service delivery challenges in the health sector. Efforts must be geared towards ensuring proper coordination between the two levels government and ensuring clear service provision standards across all counties. There is also a need to strengthen devolution by improving the capacity of the counties to generate their own revenues.

This study is entitled The Digital era: A comparative analysis of Uganda and South Africa’s copyright regulatory regime, post 2006. To comprehend the analysis, the study reviewed literature from different resources at a global and domestic level as guided by the objectives to; evaluate the nature and extent of rights protected in copyrightable computer works; examine the effectiveness of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act (2006) in responding to the challenges posed by the internet to copyright protection vis-à-vis the WIPO Internet Treaties; Identifying the underlying legal and institutional challenges of the digital-age leeway overshadowing the enforcement of copyright in computer works; providing suggestions to the improvement of copyright law and administration in the digital economy. The study used a combination of research approaches including comparative evaluation, doctrinal, and qualitative researches approaches where written laws, judicial decisions and relevant literature were studied but by a few interviews conducted. These helped to understand copyright regulation and enforcement in order to follow on discrepancies in framework and transformations in computer works under a digital age to recommend appropriately. The study established that CNRA (2006) is a great tool in the protection of the computer works in Uganda, however it has not clearly described the protectable aspects in computer programs, databases, compilations and software neither the penalties and conciliations in an infringement and much has been left to courts to ascertain. Piracy of global IP materials is at peak in Uganda and the upcoming inventors in Uganda take no initiative to register their work despite the benefits of copyright registration. The level of copyright infringement remains nearly naked causing millions of loses to right holders and government alike. The study discovered the necessity of defining property/material clearly, obtaining site licenses both off-line and on-line, the use of encrypted passwords, and using technology and procedures that are in line with Ugandan political measures and much more as being significant determinants of the CNRA’s efficacy in protecting computer works in Uganda. The study recommends that the Government should institute avenues to enhance co-operation between information creators and the government. In addition, the Government of Uganda should enforce punitive measures against people who violet the CNRA to ensure adequate safeguards against abuses.

Women’s Empowerment has become quite the “buzz term” in the development arena over the last six decades. Microfinance as a tool to increase women’s economic and social empowerment has registered mixed reports of being a ‘magic bullet’ as well as a ‘vicious constraint.’ Microfinance has several models, among which is the popular community-based savings-led model. The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of savings group membership on rural women’s empowerment in, Zombo district in Uganda. The study aimed to establish the relationship between vulnerable rural women’s involvement in savings and women empowerment. Specifically, the study sought to establish the relationship between vulnerable rural women’s involvement in savings groups and; i) asset ownership, ii) business ownership, iii) decision making in the household, and iv) participation in leadership. The case study of this research was Zombo district in North Western Uganda. The study involved Two hundred and fifty six (256) rural women. Data was collected using questionnaires, was processed and analyzed mainly using STATA 14. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with selected women, key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with community Development Officers and SG chairpersons were also carried out coded and analyzed accordingly. The women were classified into; Savings group members (SG members) and SG non-members (SG Non-members) in order to draw comparison between the responses of those that were involved in Savings groups and those that were not members of any savings group. The analysis of the results was made using regressions and measures of central tendency such as Mean and Frequency. The findings of the study showed that savings group membership positively influences rural women’s asset ownership, business ownership, ability to make some household purchase decisions and leadership participation. It was further established that savings group membership significantly augments the likelihood of economic, social empowerment and overall empowerment of rural women. Policy makers and leaders in both government and non-governmental agencies involved in establishing savings groups should continue to target the most resource-poor such as vulnerable rural women. Further studies pertaining to the following could be conducted; the factors that influence the sustainability of savings groups, a comparative analysis of the performance of same-gender savings groups versus that of the mixed-gender savings groups, among others.

The main objective of this study was to assess change in maize price and its effect on farmer’s income. Specifically, the research examines the trend of maize prices and marketed production in Uganda during the period between 2019 and 2020. The study also examines the effect of price change on farmer’s income in Uganda. The study analysis relies on Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) Living standard data. Descriptive analysis is used to achieve objective one. An ordinary Least Square (OLS) model was estimated to achieve objective two. The findings of the study analysis show that maize price per kilogram (kg) declined for the period between 2019 to 2020 by -88.12 Uganda Shillings (UGX). This difference was mainly due to good weather conditions like favourable rainfall that led to unexpected increase in maize output. An increase in marketed production caused a decline in maize price. A combination of a higher maize price in the previous year (2019) and higher production in subsequent seasons led to more maize production and a decline in maize price in 2020. Estimation results of the OLS model show that the maize prices do not significantly affect the income of maize growing households. However, other factors such as: sex of the household head, use of hired labor, and use of inorganic fertilizers are found to significantly influence the income of maize growing households. The study therefore recommends that farmers adopt more advanced technology. This can be in terms of more use of inorganic fertilizers, participation in irrigation schemes, use of machinery for ploughing, all of which are shown to increase maize output. Farmers need to be organized into maize produce marketing groups to share information about market prices and also enhance their bargaining power to accept a much higher price for their maize marketed production.