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This study examines institutions' contributions to sustainable livelihood activities in rural Uganda, focusing on how these activities adapt in times of crisis and what resilience mechanisms might enhance recovery from disasters. Centred on the Kabuyanda sub-county selected for its vulnerability to frequent droughts and floods, this research employs the sustainable livelihoods framework to investigate institutional roles, community engagement, and the resilience capacity of developmental projects. Data was gathered through a household-level survey, targeting 400 representative households from the 26,000 in Kabuyanda, conducted in November 2021 via the online KoboToolbox platform. The household-focused sampling approach provided nuanced insights into governance processes and relationships from the perspective of governance recipients. Descriptive statistics, including frequency tables and graphs, were used to analyse the data. This study highlights how institutional support, beneficiary participation, and resilience-oriented project designs collectively foster durable livelihoods. The findings underscore the necessity of resiliencefocused strategies in sustainable rural development, providing critical insights for policymakers to align local and global recovery efforts during COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While consumer and marketing research in developed markets is an established field, research on consumers in an Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) setting is less established and mostly conceptual or qualitative. This paper examines the individual heterogeneity and the local context of BoP consumers with an empirical study on consumption of low cost bottled water on the Kenyan coast and the capitals of Uganda and Rwanda. The empirical analysis builds on existing research exploring consumer behavior, and it studies a database of 713 bottled water consumers in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. Consumers with a higher level of education were less likely to be late consumers. Additionally, early consumers were more likely to purchase due to a purposeful search for a bottled drinking water solution. Since we control for location specific effects we highlight the importance of supply driven consumption in the BoP market. Furthermore, the results suggest that the two water companies may not be reaching their targeted low-income consumers but rather middle class consumers. The research contributes to the larger BoP debate by presenting evidence that consumers in a BoP setting may purchase more on the basis of supply of a product rather than other socio-demographic factors such as income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the second in the intended series depicting the vocational pedagogy research carried out by the students of the Masters in Vocational Pedagogy program at Kyambogo University, Uganda. Twenty-one thesis abstracts in vocational pedagogy research were analyzed according to their purposes and findings and collated into themes. The results emphasize the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the contemporary world of work and ICT is highly relevant as a qualification for employment. Well facilitated and efficient ICT training could make VET graduates better adapted to the world of work. Competence based education and training (CBET) as a policy has a place has an important role in the formal Business, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (BTVET). Such policy is practical and useful in courses that emphasise technical tasks. However, CBET may introduce rigidity in thinking based on the acquired ability of specific procedure while the aims of BTVET, especially in institutions of higher learning, requires graduates to acquire functional knowledge based on analytic inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lake Victoria is vulnerable to increasing eutrophication, which has become manifested in ecological changes not yet fully understood. From October 2009 to January 2010, the influence of water quality on zooplankton community structure in three habitats in northern Lake Victoria, including sewage lagoons at the lake shores, Napoleon Gulf (NG) and the interface between the lake and the Nile River (also known as Source of the Nile River), was examined. Selected physico-chemical parameters (dissolved oxygen concentration; water temperature; electrical conductivity; water depth) were measured in-situ, while water samples were collected for chlorophyll-a determinations. Zooplankton was sampled with conical plankton net (mesh size 60 μm; 0.25-m mouth diameter). The NG and Source of the River Nile (SN) sampling sites exhibited significantly higher species richness, relative to the Sewage Lagoons (SL) site ( F2,69 = 68.533; P < 0.05). Higher mean densities and dry biomass of zooplankton was generally a characteristic of the SL site (8715 ± 3241 ind L−1; 1862 ± 451 μg L−1), compared to the NG (119 ± 24 ind L−1; 53 ± 8 μg L−1) and SN sites (151 ± 26 ind L−1; 58 ± 9 μg L−1). Copepoda constituted a high numerical composition of the zooplankton at the NG and SN sites (>90% for both sites), while Rotifera dominated the zooplankton community at the SL site (97%). The mean values (±SE) of soluble reactive phosphorus (4060.7 ± 776.6 μg L−1) and nitrate-nitrogen (2121.7 ± 355.5 μg L−1) were much higher for the SL site, compared with the SN (8.2 ± 1.1 μg L−1; 28.6 ± 5.3 μg L−1, respectively), and NG site (7.8 ± 0.8 μg L−1; 32.7 ± 5.4 μg L−1, respectively). This study indicated the nutrient-rich conditions observed at the SL site suppress the zooplankton species diversity, but favour species-specific abundance and biomass. These study results indicate the zooplankton community structure can be used as a biological indicator of water quality in the Lake Victoria region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Affordable Basic Water Project implemented by Uganda's National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC). Three alternatives to the NWSC service provision scenario are developed using a linear programming model, with the focus on different mixes of three service provision technologies: yard taps, public water points, and public water points with prepaid meters. The alternative scenarios allow better service coverage and improved financial sustainability, compared to the design proposed by the NWSC. The scenarios demonstrate a tradeoff between social acceptability and operational feasibility/payment collection criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermittent water supply networks risk microbial and chemical contamination through multiple mechanisms. In particular, in the cities of developing countries, where intrusion through leaky pipes are more prevalent and the sanitation systems coverage is low, contaminated water can be a public health hazard. Although countries using intermittent water supply systems aim to change to continuous water supply systems—for example, Kampala city is targeting to change to continuous water supply by 2025 through an expansion and rehabilitation of the pipe infrastructure—it is unlikely that this transition will happen soon because of rapid urbanisation and economic feasibility challenges. Therefore, water utilities need to find ways to supply safe drinking water using existing systems until gradually changing to a continuous supply system. This study describes solutions for improving water quality in Mukono town in Uganda through a combination of water quality monitoring (e.g., identifying potential intrusion hotspots into the pipeline using field measurements) and interventions (e.g., booster chlorination). In addition to measuring and analyses of multiple chemical and microbial water quality parameters, we used EPANET 2.0 to simulate the water quality dynamics in the transport pipeline to assess the impact of interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]