The Governance Gap

16/03/2012 You must have heard about the internet hype around ‘Kony2012’ ; a campaign by the American organisation Invisible Children to capture the rebel leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony. ‘Kony2012’ shows the acute suffering of LRA victims, especially children. But what really remains invisible are wounds of a society years after the LRA left. This is told in the recent film The Governance Gap ; to stop Kony does not put an end to the suffering of people.

The Governance Gap

16/03/2012 You must have heard about the internet hype around ‘Kony2012’ ; a campaign by the American organisation Invisible Children to capture the rebel leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony. ‘Kony2012’ shows the acute suffering of LRA victims, especially children. But what really remains invisible are wounds of a society years after the LRA left. This is told in the recent film The Governance Gap ; to stop Kony does not put an end to the suffering of people.

When Civics go Governance

In ‘When Civics go governance’ Ria Brouwers analyses the stormy ascent of African NGOs in the field of good governance. Tracing the tracks of the NGO-boom in Africa, Brouwers brings together key academic writings with ISS led field on NGO interventions in Zambia, Uganda, Kenia and Tanzania conducted under the banner of the Hivos/ISS Civil Society Building Knowledge Programme.

"MUSEVENOMICS" analyzed

Popular understanding as postulated by Ugandan President Museveni suggests that if the prices of commodity prices go up, farmers should benefit by way of higher income. Morrison Rwakakamba from Uganda, a practicing economist and an active member of the  Knowledge Programme on “Small Producers’ Agency in Globalised Markets” argues that while this might theoretically be true, the practice is a bit detached from the theory. He explains that certain structural factors inhibit the farmers fro...

The governance gap in Acholi

How do citizens exercise agency and claim their rights in post-conflict settings? This is the central question in a research project by Marjoke Oosterom, which is supported by IDS, Hivos and ICCO. Marjoke is working with remote communities in Northern Uganda  and is now adding a documentary to share some of the emerging insights and impressions more widely. The documentary is made in partnership with the Refuge Law Project and documentary makers Tim van der Maden and Esther Kool to make...

Nothing as it Seems

What is the role of external donors in local development and local governance in Ethiopia? ISS-student Ephrem Shiferaw is currently blogging from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His reflections and thoughts give us the feeling that there's so much more lurking under the surface of the muddy development-waters. We're looking forward to finding out more about his discoveries in the coming up weeks. The power of community-based organizations/CBO’s It has been three weeks since I started my research on co...

Self-portrait - Victor Juliet Mukasa

My name is Victor Juliet Mukasa, 32, a transgender lesbian from Uganda. I am a human rights defender and a banker by profession. I am currently working with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission as research and policy associate for East, Central andHorn of Africa.

Beyond Economics - East Africa

This dialogue will be an occasion to bring together African networks involved in research and advocacy on African based network looking at the impact of the systemic crises on African development. The launch/dialogue will invite participants to reflect on the performance of Southern and East African economies in relation to the current multiple crises (financial, food, fuel, care). It will ask participants to look at the way the crises are playing out in Africa, specifically at the socio-econ...

Post-conflict Participation

This project delves into the possibilities for civil society participation in post-conflict settings. It focuses on forms of civic engagement and mechanisms that facilitate interactions between local level state institutions and social actors in the specific context of a post-conflict situation. It concentrates on how violent conflict has affected different forms of social organisation. It will single out the crucial social-political factors for engagement, and the characteristics of state in...

KP “Smallholders Agency” lands in Africa

The initiating team of “Smallholders Agency” (from Hivos, IIED and Mainumby) went to Uganda and Kenya from 20 to 28 November. The aim was to find out how the knowledge program can become embedded in East Africa and to find African members for the Learning Network.

Promoting pluralism? Diminish the donor dependency!

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, human rights activist and researcher on Islam and secularism, has been fighting for decades to promote the acceptance of human rights in Muslim countries. Foreign donors can only play a limited role, he thinks.

Ethnic and Political Diversity in Uganda

Uganda is an East-African country, bordered by Sudan in the north, Kenya in the east, Lake Victoria as natural border and Tanzania in the south and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the west. With a population of more than 31 million people, the country is the home of over 40 ethnic groups. It is thus not surprising that the people of Uganda think of ethnic diversity when speaking about ‘pluralism’. There is, however, one other important line of thinking when it comes to pluralism in Ugand...