A review of Public Policy development in Uganda

A key aspect of public policy development is that government takes the lead and in the process it endeavours to consult other stakeholders such as the citizenry and the third sector in order to develop effective and acceptable policies. This process has its own challenges because public policy operates in an extremely wide and complex environment and there is need to strike a balance among a wide range of competing interests or priorities without losing sight of the desired policy outcome. This paper examines the public policy process in the Ugandan context in juxtaposition with a number of policy models proposed by different scholars and it reveals that the Uganda Government molded its public policy process on the Linear/Rational Policy model. The paper concludes that the public policy process in Uganda can further be strengthened by the Government's vigorous pursuance of a combination of the socioeconomic , institutional, network and group approaches in its public policy development and management framework.

Journal of Governance and Accountability Studies

Purpose: This study set out to assess the level of policy formulation in Hoima district local government for effective service delivery in Uganda. Research methodology: A quantitative case study design was embraced, aiming at 30 local councillors and 60 technical officials. The real sample was 54 respondents. Data were gathered via a self-administered questionnaire and an interview guide. Numerical and non-numerical data were examined by way of descriptive statistics as well as thematic analysis. Results: Results suggest a moderate mean for policy formulation in Hoima as generated from all the five constructs namely; problem identification (µ=2.88; SD= 1.346), problem manifesto (µ=2.76; SD =1.347), policy agenda (µ=2.17; SD =1.268), policy debate (µ=2.58; SD =1.271) and policy decision (µ=2.20; SD =1.268). This was so because the overall mean was 2.52 and the overall SD was 1.300. Nevertheless, the numerous impediments confronted mainly at policy decision disrupted the process. Limi...

State, Bureaucracy and Government: Uganda’s Opportunities, Challenges and Possible Solutions, 2013

The reason for this is that; for long, there has been a challenge in governance and administration systems of state affairs not only at a political level but also among the technocrats. To my analysis, this has been due to the fact that there is not only high level of corruption but also the aspect of separation of powers between the executive, legislature and the Judiciary has been a dilemma in Uganda. Therefore, it’s on that back ground that I will try to point out such aspects and how they can be overcome by the integration of theories and policies set into political reality on ground as a matter of good governance. The most used concepts in this paper are State, Bureaucracy and Government.

The book arguably reveals that social policy has existed as a coherent discipline which has proved its relevancy in the professional space by engaging in various discourses that have led to changes in the social debate, produced new objects of knowledge and created liberal social regimes. When social policy evolved as a discipline, it helped contemporary writers and later historians to adhere to a critical space that prevented a return to a form of subjectivism and positivism in resource allocation.

African Study Monographs, 1992

Uganda has experienced almost two decades of social, political and economic turmoil and turbulence since independence in 1962. In January 1986, the National Resistance 1\lovementlArmy (NRMIA) -a guerrilla grouping that had been at war for five years -assumed powers of government. on a :-adical platform of "fundamental change." Since that time, several developments have occurred in the mode of governance. public accountability, human rights observance and popular people's participation in self government.

2017

The Ugandan state presents an interesting puzzle for the advocates of public sector reforms (PSR). Whereas it has been subjected to several waves of reforms over the last three decades, these changed form but have generally not translated into significant changes in the functionality of central government. This research argues that answers to this conundrum are rooted in the country’s political settlement. Drawing on ESID’s expanded political settlement framework, the study finds that the last 15 years have seen Uganda’s ruling elite exposed to unprecedented internal and external competition leading to a shift in the balance of power from dominant to vulnerable dominant political settlement. Although the president still wields significant power, this has been used to influence government agencies to meet the short-term needs for regime maintenance, as opposed to supporting the goals of PSR implementation. Almost all PSRs are donor driven and the government accepts them not so much a...

This paper begins by noting that Uganda has been a public sector reform leader in Africa. It has pursued reforms actively and consistently for three decades now, and has produced many laws, processes and structures that are 'best in class' in Africa (and beyond). The problem is that many of the reforms have been limited to these kinds of gainsproducing new institutional forms that function poorly and yield limited impacts. Various kinds of data showedin various areas (civil service and public administration, public financial management, revenue management, procurement and anti-corruption)that laws are often not being implemented, processes are being poorly executed, and there is insufficient follow-up to make sure that new mechanisms work as intended. The paper suggests that the government should re-frame its reform agenda to address these limitations and close the gaps between what Uganda's system looks like and how it functions.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, 2014

Many governments in Africa and elsewhere in Asia and Latin America have created new local government (LG) jurisdictions as part of their decentralization policies. However, most decentralization studies have focused on fiscal, political and administrative assignments between levels of government. Much less attention has been given to the number and size of LG jurisdictions. Often, these are considered to be an accident of history, but the reality is not so. This article pursues five propositions concerning the rationale for creating LG jurisdictions and examines their relevance in the Uganda context. The article concludes that creation of LG jurisdictions in Uganda neither conforms to the policy objective of bringing services closer to the people nor to promoting participatory democratic governance. Instead, the practice conforms to central government gerrymandering tactics of forging an electoral alliance with small jurisdictions and to extend neo-patrimonial networks to win votes in order to stay in power. Points for practitioners Donors and development practitioners have often expressed their frustrations on decentralization policies and outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) because they have analysed the policy based on what governments say their intentions are. Until they understand the political economy of decentralization in Africa they will always be bewildered not only by the mismatch between policy objectives and outcomes but also by many unspoken rationales for implementing decentralization reforms. Decentralization can be a facade behind which quite different practices take place. In many countries

2013