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22. Analysis of the Implementation of Auditor General’s Recommendations in Local Governments to Enhance Accountability
- Author:
- David Andrew Omona, Isaac Katono, Jeremy Waiswa, Maurice Olobo, Alfred Wonyaka, and Simon Peter Mukisa
- Publication Date:
- 01-2023
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
- Abstract:
- This research paper presents the findings of the study on the status of implementation of the Auditor General’s (AG’s) recommendations in Local Governments (LGs) in Uganda. In implementing their mandates, local governments are expected to ensure compliance with existing laws and guidelines. As such, the Local Governments, through the National Performance Assessments conducted by the Office of the Prime Minister, are assessed on their level of compliance and accountability. The findings noted that contrary to the other requirements beyond the timely submission of information to the Permanent Secretary/ Secretary to the Treasury, the status of implementation of the Internal Auditor General and the Auditor General’s findings from the previous financial years remains a challenge for most Local Governments. It is on this basis that this study was conceptualised. The main objective of the study was to analyse the level of implementation of the Auditor General’s recommendations in local governments to enhance accountability. Specifically, the study sought to: (a) Establish the status of implementation of the Auditor General’s recommendations in selected districts, (b) Establish the status of Action on Parliament’s resolutions on District Local Governments (DLGs), Auditor General’s recommendations, (c) Examine challenges that affect the implementations of the Auditor General’s recommendations at District Local Governments and Parliament levels and (d) Make proposals to improve on the level of implementation and enforcement of the Auditor General’s recommendations. The study has important implications for promoting transparency, accountability, and good governance in local governments in Uganda.
- Topic:
- Governance, Transparency, Compliance, Local Government, and Implementation
- Political Geography:
- Uganda and Africa
23. Analysis of the National Budget Estimates FY 2023/24: Budget Lines for Local Government Mandates under Central Government MDAs and Proposals for Re-Allocation
- Author:
- Daniel Lukwago
- Publication Date:
- 01-2023
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
- Abstract:
- To enable Local Governments (LGs) to provide services to the citizens, the Central Government (CG) of Uganda is required to provide them grants in the form of unconditional, conditional and equalisation. However, over the last decade, there has been a decline in the share of transfers from CG to LGs. The share of the national budget allocated to LG programmes has reduced from 22 per cent in FY 2010/11 to 13 per cent in FY 2015/16 and fell further to 9.8 per cent in FY 2023/14. The decline is largely attributed to recentralization of functions and resources which by law are mandated under LGs. A study by ACODE in 2020, which was a follow-up study, found that despite recommendations of the 2019 study, the allocation of funds meant for LGs to Central Government Ministries Departments and Agencies n(MDAs) had not only persisted, but the absolute amounts as well as the proportion of the budget being retained at the CG had increased. The total amount retained at CG MDAs had grown to UGX 1.32 trillion in FY2020/21 from UGX 1.066 trillion in FY 2019/20. Consequently, with funding from the Royal Danish Embassy (RDE), ACODE commissioned this follow-up study to examine the approved national budget estimates for FY 2023/24 to identify budget lines for devolved services under CG MDAs. The study extensively reviewed all relevant budget documents, focusing mainly on the approved estimates of revenue and expenditure (recurrent and development) FY 2023/24. The study analysed ten programmes with decentralised functions as prescribed in the Local Government Act, CAP 243 (second Schedule) and identified funds retained by the CG MDAs, yet they are mandated for LGs. The programmes analysed were Agro-Industralisation; Natural Resources, Environment, Climate Change, Land and Water Management; Private Sector Development; Integrated Transport Infrastructure and Services; Sustainable Urbanization and Housing; Human Capital Development, Community Mobilization and Mindset Change Regional Development; Public Sector Transformation and Tourism Development.
- Topic:
- Budget, Decentralization, Assessment, and Local Government
- Political Geography:
- Uganda and Africa
24. The South China Sea and Indo-Pacific in an Era of “Multipolar” Competition
- Author:
- Zachary Paikin, Gilang Kembara, Andrew Mantong, and Steven Blockmans
- Publication Date:
- 02-2023
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- A longstanding territorial dispute between claimants in the South China Sea now finds itself nested within a new imagined ‘Indo-Pacific’ region, which itself has become a key theatre in a deepening great power conflict. The EU is geographically distant and a relative newcomer to the strategic terrain in these two regions, yet it cannot afford to ignore them given their crucial economic and geopolitical importance. While the EU’s ability to reduce the constraints on its freedom of manoeuvre is limited, the Union should nonetheless gradually nurture its strategic autonomy by carving out a delineated hard security role in the South China Sea while maintaining a degree of distance from the US approach towards China and the Indo-Pacific.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, European Union, Strategic Competition, and Multipolarity
- Political Geography:
- Asia, Indo-Pacific, and South China Sea
25. The Unfulfilled Promise of EU Foreign and Security Policy towards Iran
- Author:
- Riccardo Alcaro, Steven Blockmans, Akin Unver, and Sine Özkaraşahin
- Publication Date:
- 02-2023
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- With the 2015 nuclear deal dead in all but name, Iran is getting closer to Russia and more repressive at home, while EU member states’ priorities about the Islamic Republic now extend beyond nuclear proliferation to human rights and European security. This shift in priorities cements a re-orientation of the EU’s approach to Iran from conditional engagement to confrontation. EU member states’ options are limited, however. Pressure worked prior to the nuclear agreement because the EU cut off significant trade with Iran. But US extraterritorial sanctions, re-imposed after the United States left the deal in 2018, have rendered EU-Iran trade so modest that cutting it would have little impact. The EU could get more leverage by providing incentives, yet the political inexpediency of rewarding Iran at a time of rising belligerence of the Islamic Republic greatly restricts the range of benefits potentially on offer. Still, in the mid- to longer term, the EU and its member states will need to combine pressure with some form of incentives if they want to defend their interests in non-proliferation, European security and the protection of human rights in Iran. They also need to resort to a variety of international partnerships in order to maximise their residual leverage.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, European Union, and JCPOA
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Iran, and Middle East
26. How to Reduce the Impact of Internal Contestation, Regional Fragmentation and Multipolar Competition on EU Foreign and Security Policy
- Author:
- Sarah van Bentum, Caterina Bedin, Gregor Walter-Drop, Steven Blockmans, Agnès Levallois, and Tiffany Guendouz
- Publication Date:
- 05-2023
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- In a Union of 27 Member States, differences in (geo)political interests, socio-economic realities, historical trajectories and national identity construction constantly threaten internal unity and thus also the external coherence of the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy (EUFSP). The following three factors and their mutually reinforcing interplay appear to have a significant impact on the creation and shaping of EUFSP, especially when it comes to managing international crises and conflicts: internal contestation, regional fragmentation and multipolar competition. The analysis in this paper draws on the main findings from nine case studies carried out under the Horizon 2020 JOINT project. The paper first assesses the (generally negative) impact of the three factors on EUFSP in these contexts of international crises, identifies common patterns and divergent approaches. The second part of the paper identifies strategies to mitigate and/or reduce the (negative) impact of these challenges on EUFSP and points towards windows of opportunity to take action moving forward. The ultimate aim of this research is to provide experts and officials with concrete ideas about how EU policy decision-making processes can enable greater coherence among EU institutions and Member States in their response to international crises and conflicts.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, European Union, Regional Integration, Multipolarity, and Fragmentation
- Political Geography:
- Europe
27. Urban Politics in the Middle East
- Author:
- Mona Harb, Marc Lynch, Jillian Schwedler, Gehad Abaza, and Munqeth Othman
- Publication Date:
- 10-2023
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
- Abstract:
- Urban politics has received growing attention in the anthropology, sociology, and political science of the MENA region. In line with global trends, questions of scale, territory, flows and connectivities and materialities have come to the fore, with a wide range of creative and novel lines of inquiry connecting the global to the hyper-local and every scale in between. In February 2023, POMEPS partnered with the Beirut Urban Lab at the American University of Beirut and The Policy Initiative think tank for a workshop in Beirut to bring together an interdisciplinary group of young scholars from across the region to explore questions of urban life, politics, and culture. The papers moved beyond more traditional political science topics such as municipal government, decentralization, clientelistic voting, protests, and clientelism. While those themes certainly operated in the background, the authors assembled in Beirut pushed to shift the lens towards multi-scalar ethnographic modes of inquiry, highlighting the materialities and relationalities of the hyper-local, examining sites and places which concentrate power dynamics.
- Topic:
- Economics, Migration, Politics, Race, Religion, Sectarianism, Culture, Syrian War, Mobility, Urban, Trade, Music, Transportation, Cities, Heritage, Resistance, Labor Market, Domestic Work, and Urbicide
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Iran, Middle East, Tehran, Baghdad, Algeria, North Africa, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Beirut, Cairo, Tunis, and Aqaba
28. From a space of conflict to a space of peace: The role of urban planners in advancing the peace process
- Author:
- Oded Haas
- Publication Date:
- 02-2023
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies
- Abstract:
- This review paper is based on the concept of creating space to understand the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In fact, the paper argues, the conflict produces and is produced by a process of creating conflict spaces. Therefore, intervention is proposed in the process of generating space in order to create an alternative to the conflict space – a space for peace. A joint planning model places urban planners at the heart of the space producing process, and identifies urban planning as activity with great impact potential, both because it mediates between the global economy, national policy, and individual daily life in the production of space, and because it can promote the creation of a peace space born of professional consensus. Joint planning is the practice of bringing knowledge, experience and an alternative perspective into the planning process. Mixed cities that constitute core spaces in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are proposed as spaces that currently offer an opportunity to create change, or can be created as change, which will serve as a basis for turning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict space into the Israeli-Palestinian peace space.
- Topic:
- Conflict, Peace, Urban Planning, and Peacebuilding
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Israel, and Palestine
29. The Functionality of Uganda’s Single Spine Agricultural Extension System
- Author:
- Elijah Dickens Mushemeza
- Publication Date:
- 01-2023
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
- Abstract:
- This report presents the findings and discussions on the functionality of the single-spine agricultural extension system in Uganda. The recommendations from the research process will potentially inform the implementation of the new national agricultural extension strategy aligned to the NDP III, the Parish Model and the national agenda of socio-economic transformation. The single spine extension system was conceptualized as a well-coordinated, harmonized, public sectorled pluralistic extension system. The aim was to eliminate the parallel institutional arrangements that emerged during the NAADS program implementation. It aims at enhancing agricultural production and productivity, value addition, food security, household income and export. In addition, it focuses on building the capacity of individual farmers and farmer institutions to have greater access to and control over structures and processes that transform their resources and assets into the outcomes that they desire to achieve their goals. The study sought to address four objectives: (i) assessing the effectiveness of coordination among key actors (including clarity of mandates) in the delivery of agricultural extension; (ii) assessing the functionality of transparency and accountability mechanisms in the single spine agricultural extension system; (iii) assessing the performance of the system in the attainment of key agricultural extension outcomes; and (iii) assessing the effects of COVID-19 on the delivery of agricultural extension services. The report gives a background to the reform and an overview of the strategy that has been used to implement it. The report gives the methodology utilised in the research process, the limitations of the study and how methodological challenges were addressed. The report brings out the findings in relation to the objectives set and in particular; on coordination dilemmas, transparency and accountability mechanisms, and performance of the system and the effects of COVID-19 on the delivery of agricultural extension service.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Governance, Reform, and Policy Implementation
- Political Geography:
- Uganda and Africa
30. Compliance Assessment of the FY 2023/24 Budget to Climate Change Interventions in the Third National Development Plan (NDPIII)
- Author:
- Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
- Publication Date:
- 01-2023
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
- Abstract:
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) affirms that climate change is occurring in the world today. Climate change is a global development challenge with adverse effects manifested in different ways at national and local levels especially in the vulnerable least prepared countries like Uganda. It is associated with negative severe effects on human well-being and ecosystems which equally hinders the achievement of sustainable development and social equity goals hence becoming one of the drivers of exclusion. This makes it an urgent problem that requires global, regional and national efforts towards effective mitigation and adaptation responses. Swift effective response to climate change could significantly contribute to the attainment of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while delayed action is predicted to have severe and irreversible consequences for natural and human systems. Uganda’s frameworks to sustainable development (Uganda’s Vision 2040, the NDP III, sectoral policies and plans) highlight climate change as an outstanding development challenge. This implies that the attainment of the country’s long-term development goals and the building of resilient communities that will mitigate and adapt to climate change largely depends on the significant allocation of financial resources to climate change interventions specified in the development frameworks. The NDPIII 2020/21-2024/25) not only integrates climate change across all its twenty (20) programmes but also provides for their strategic interventions and targets. This integration trickles down to the NDPIII Results Framework and Programme Implementation Action Plans (PEAPs) and is also supposed to fully cascade down to the national budget. This report presents the compliance assessment of the FY 2023/24 budget to climate change interventions in the third National Development Plan (NDPIII) based on ten (10) priority programmes selected due to their real or potential contribution to climate change and their strategic importance to the development process. Overall, the analysis revealed that the FY2023/24 Annual Budget (AB) to climate change interventions in NDP III is unsatisfactory at 55.35 percent which is slightly lower than last year’s compliance level of 64.7 percent. However, there were variations in the compliance levels of the different programmes. The programmes on Sustainable Development of Petroleum Resources programme (83.3%), and Sustainable Minerals Development programme (80%) had a satisfactory level of compliance. On the other hand, the programmes of Human Capital Development (62.5%), Integrated transport infrastructure and services (61.1%), and Tourism development (66.7%) had a moderately satisfactory level of compliance. Lastly, the programmes of Sustainable Urbanisation and housing (56.7%), Natural Resources, Environment, Climate Change, Water and Land Management (56.3%), Agro-industrialization programme (28%), Digital transformation (40%), Private Sector Development (0%) had a far below an unsatisfactory level of compliance (below 60%).
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Budget, and Sustainable Development Goals
- Political Geography:
- Uganda and Africa