The increased cases of NCDs in Uganda have become a threat to lives of many people in both urban and rural areas, despite various efforts which have been put in place. Consequently, there is still a need to document what public health laws and policy frameworks have contributed in the fight against NCDs. Four main objectives were used to guide this study and these were to: analyze the public health policy, legal and institutional frameworks in prevention and management of NCDs; carry out a comparative analysis of international instruments and national legal frameworks; assess the level of awareness and public’s perception on public health law towards regulation aimed at fighting NCDs; and examine the main setbacks facing efforts to implement the existing legislation on control of NCDs in Uganda. The study was buttressed by a human rights-based approach emphasizing the fact that it is the primary duty of the government to provide NCDs prevention. A sample of 20 professional participants was used on a descriptive case study design. The study established that the government of Uganda has a number of public health laws in place aiming at everting the scourge of NCDs. However, some of these laws have never been updated since they were made in 1960s, while some lack implementation mechanisms. The study concludes that albeit Uganda has put in place public health laws, some of these laws are outdated and outmoded while others lack adequate implementation. The study thus recommends repeal or reform of existing laws in order to bring them in concordance with the challenges posed by NCDs. The study also calls for effective implementation of the few progressive policies and other interventions in order to effectively tackle the NCDs. This can be done by increasing the budgetary allocation and human capital to the Ministry of Health as an institution, which is mandated to reduce NCDs in the country. The government should also increase network synergies through which awareness and access to medical services against NCDs can reach the people. These among others include worship places, national and regional fora like televisions radios and academic institutions such as schools.

This study examined the major determinants of interest rate spread in Uganda using secondary annual time series data for the period 1990-2016. The macroeconomic variables used include GDP growth, real effective exchange rate, broad money supply, and inflation rates. The model was estimated using co-integration and error correction model to analyze the short and long run equilibrium among the variables. The ADF test shows that all variables except broad money supply were stationary at both level and at first difference. Results of the study showed that all variables play a significant role in determining the interest rate spread in Uganda. Basing on the error correction model results, the study concludes that the speed of adjustment is 98.04 percent which means that the model will correct short run disequilibrium position at the rate of 98.04 percent annually. The paper recommends the government to embark on policies and reforms that reduce inflation like contractionary monetary policy.

The thematic curriculum was rolled out in primary schools in Uganda in the year 2007. This was a recommendation of a report by the Education Policy Review Commission of 1989. The study examined the status of implementation of the Thematic Curriculum, the local language terminologies that enhance Science Education in the Thematic Curriculum and also the folklore attributes that can be used to teach Science in lower primary. A cross sectional survey research design was employed in the study. Data was gathered by purposive and snowball sampling. A total of 60 persons were involved in the study, 30 of these were teachers in lower primary and 30 were elders from the traditional community. The findings indicated that majority of the teachers understand the thematic curriculum and are aware of the science in it, though not able to mention the terminologies they use to teach Science. Majority do not use teaching aids because of inadequate resource books in local languages. Results also indicated that Runyankole - Rukiga has a well-developed vocabulary used as Language of Teaching and Learning (LoTL) science, though more development is required to include more scientific terms. The language has folklore attributes that can be used to enable students learn science. The study concluded that the teaching of science using local language is generally not being conducted well. The teachers have inadequate skills to translate and use folklore attributes such as songs, poems, riddles to teach science in the thematic curriculum. The study recommended that teachers should be trained to use the local languages as LoTL in their teacher training colleges, and resource materials are needed to teach science and teachers should learn to use folklore to teach science.

The reduced performance of science subjects by students at secondary school level has been one of the challenges to the government, teachers, parents and the general public. This has aroused various questions seeking to get possible solution. It has been found that one of the reasons for the failures in science subject is the nature of the teachers who have been models to instill confidence, self-ability, and esteem to students. As part of the greater approaches seeking solutions, this study was carried out to examine the relationship between science teaching and self- efficacy by pre-service teachers at Makerere University with recourse to the observational learning theory. Three specific objectives guided the study and these include to; find out the relationship between gender and teaching self-efficacy; find out the relationship between prior academic achievement and teaching self-efficacy; and to find out the relationship between subject of specialization and teaching self-efficacy of science pre-service secondary school teachers. a correlational study design was used and a sample of 200 participants were used in this case. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the data, and the Pearson Correlation used to analyze the data, having entered into the Social Package for the Social Scientist. Results show that there is a relationship between gender, prior academic achievement and subject of specialization with teachers’ self-efficacy although not significant. The study concludes by emphasizing the use of observational learning theory at different levels if the self-efficacy is to transcend to its order up to students of secondary schools. the main recommendation of the study was to make the university of Makerere university a conducive environment for teaching – learning so that lecturers can become better of self-efficacy to teachers.

Different empirical studies show that not all countries that have good governance have performed well in economic growth. Some with bad quality governance like corruption, poor democracy have actually shown good economic performances. Is East Africa gaining much from all the huge resources it has put in promoting governance is the question that this study there sought to give the answer. We examine the impact of governance on the economic growth of EAC countries more specifically, scrutinize the effects of the six World Governance Indicators which are computed by World Bank namely: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption together with Social and Macroeconomic factors that affect economic growth in the region. The study utilized the panel data obtained from the five countries Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda,Tanzania and Uganda for the period 1996 - 2016. Panel data technique was used to estimate the model where the random effect model was appropriate and the study used GLS model to run the regression to mitigate violation of any classical assumptions. The findings revealed that among the governance indicators proposed; control off Corruption, Government effectiveness, and regulatory quality have a positive and significant impact on growth. On the other hand trade openness wasfound to be positively and significantly related to the Economic Growth in EAC countries while inflation was found to be negatively affecting the economy. The main policy implication is that EAC governments should continue to fund governance initiatives as they have a strong positive impact on growth and improve on inventions to control corruption through increasing salaries of public servants give that EAC is still developing.

The quality of institutions matters in enhancing the effectiveness of health expenditure on economic growth. However, East Africa as a sub region has limited studies that inform policies on health expenditure, institutional quality and economic growth. Therefore, this study sought to address this gap by incorporating the role of institutional quality in determining the effect of health expenditure on economic growth in East Africa that has been overlooked in the empirical literature. The study used panel data from the World Development Indicators, World Governance Indicators and Global Health Expenditure Database for the period 2000 – 2017 for a sample of five East African Countries. The study employed the Panel Feasible Generalized Least Square estimation technique to capture the effect of institutional quality on the relationship between health expenditure and economic growth. The study finds that the interacted term between health expenditure and institutional quality has a positive and significant effect on economic growth. In particular, a 1% increase in the health expenditures adjusted for the quality of institutions leads to a 0.113 increase in GDP per capita in East Africa. This result means that if health expenditures are adjusted for the quality of institutions, then if health expenditures increase by 100%, resulting economic growth increases by 11.3%. Therefore, the study suggests that in order to improve health expenditure effectiveness, there is need to improve the quality of institutions in East Africa. This is because good quality institutions minimize leakages of financial resources allocated to the health sector and subsequently leads to low infant mortality rates. Furthermore, East African countries and health development partners need to increase investment in health by increasing the budgetary allocations to the health sector.

The study makes a comprehensive comparative review and analysis of legal and policy frameworks for the realization of maternal healthcare rights of women with disabilities in Uganda and Kenya. In this respect, the researcher embarked on establishing and analyzing the efficacy of legal and policy frameworks, establishing the contradictions that exist between the two country’s human rights commitments and obligations and their treatment of women with disabilities; making a comparative analysis and drawing some lessons for Uganda from Kenya, and advancing proposals and practical solutions to ensure equity. This study is mainly a legal doctrinal analysis. It consists of a critical legal, policy and historical examination of the relevant documentary materials, jurisprudence and frameworks, which are in line with the study objectives. In terms of methods of investigation and the handling of data, the study is mainly qualitative, as it is a doctrinal and historical analysis not an empirical one. The information obtained was not coded and tabulated as data, considering the nature of the study, but was analysed and quoted. The key findings of the study reveal that Kenya is doing much better than Uganda (especially with an explicit provision on SRHR in Kenya’s Constitution of 2010) in providing maternal healthcare to women with disabilities, both in legal and policy frameworks. Even though laws in the two countries illustrate that women with disabilities are entitled to the same SRHR as their peers without disabilities, the research reveals consistent violations of these rights in communities. Considering these violations, proposals and solutions to ensure equity have been advanced and they include: (i) reforming national laws and policies (ii) adhering to international standards (iii) ending stigma and discrimination (iv) inclusion and participation of women with disabilities (v) transforming norms into reality (vi) decriminalizing abortion (vii) adopt twin-track approaches (viii) employ context and identity specific approaches (ix) capacity development and awareness-raising (x) disability and gender specific budgeting (xi) monitoring and evaluation (x) comprehensive sexuality education (xii) data collection and research (xii) participation and inclusion of civil society.

Developing countries operating a flexible exchange rate regime, without exception, experience disruptive volatility in the exchange rates. The existing empirical evidence reveals that fluctuations in exchange rates can potentially generate distortions in the economy. Although macroeconomic performance has improved after the reforms, economies are still confronted with series challenges including persistent trade deficits and inflation, leading to macroeconomic instability. The causes and effects of exchange rate fluctuation on the macroeconomy has been a subject of interest among economists and policy makers. However, the insufficient empirical evidence on EACs exists. Thus, this study aims to contribute to the empirical literature and debate on the behaviour of exchange rates and its effects on the macroeconomic performance in the East African countries. The specific issues addressed include to model exchange rate characteristic, assess the determinants of exchange rate fluctuations, and examine the effects of exchange rate volatility on international trade and economic growth. Various methods including the descriptive method, generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity, Johannsen cointegration and panel vector error correction approaches are employed in the analysis of the data used in this study. The study comprises of four empirical studies. The bilateral exchange rate against the US dollar using monthly data for the period January 1995 to December 2016 is used, results suggest that exchange rate volatility is characterised by conditional volatility, implying that its quite persistent and exhibits volatility clustering. The causes and effects of exchange rate volatility, annual time series data for the period 1995 to 2016 are used. The results show the existence of a long run stable relationship among variables. The study finds that a positive influence of money supply on a long run effect of exchange rate volatility. The results show that real gross domestic product, trade openness and foreign exchange reserves have a negative long run effect on exchange rate volatility in the EACs. The study findings show that exchange rate volatility has a long run negative effect on international trade and economic growth of the EACs. The implication is that exchange rate volatility increases the degree of risk aversion of traders, which results in the reduction of trade and economic growth. The other key determinants of international trade are income and relative prices. As for economic growth, other determinants show that government expenditure and inflation have negative long run effect while gross fixed capital formation, financial development, trade openness and money supply have long run positive effect on economic growth. In summary, adoption of flexible exchange rate systems introduced a series of fluctuations in the exchange rates. For small open economies that heavily rely on imported goods, such fluctuations may affect domestic prices and overall macroeconomic stability. In addition, with widening gap between exports and imports that has led to worsening trade deficits, has implications for economic growth. The policy implications, suggest the need for policy makers to stabilise exchange rate volatility while focusing on the factors that cause exchange rate volatility. Exchange rate volatility plays a key part in international trade and economic growth, thus trade activities and economic growth in these countries can be improved further with the aim to maintain a stable exchange rate system. The need to pursue measures that would contribute to increased productivity and the enhancement of international competitiveness through diversification of the export sector and trade policies that encourage exportation. The findings of the study show that it is important for monetary authorities to ensure that the exchange rate is always at an appropriate level to avoid the negative implications of exchange rate volatility on international trade and economic growth.

The major concern of this work is to examine the use of symbolism in Ankole marriage songs. These songs help to bring out various significances towards the development of themes, characterization. The researcher analyzed and discovered that less concern has been put on symbolism in marriage songs. The research involved data collection methods like interviewing, observation, library research and recording of information. The study was conducted in kigoma-Ishaka Bushenyi district about the Banyankole marriage songs A conclusion was made that these marriage songs in Ankole are still avenues of passing out information to the young couple joining marriage and parents thus becoming an important aspect in Ankole culture and society.