Department of Community Engagement and Service Learning
http://ir.must.ac.ug/xmlui/handle/123456789/305
2024-03-29T12:40:59ZThe lifeways of small-scale gold miners: Addressing sustainability transformations
http://ir.must.ac.ug/xmlui/handle/123456789/3102
The lifeways of small-scale gold miners: Addressing sustainability transformations
Fisher, Eleanor; Theije, Marjo de; Araujo, Carlos H.X.; Calvimontes, Jorge; Camp, Esther van de; D’Angelo, Lorenzo; Lanzano, Cristiano; Luning, Sabine; Massaro, Luciana; Mello, Januaria; Ouedraogo, Alizeta; Pijpers, Robert J.; Moraes, Raíssa Resende de; Sawadogo, Christophe; Tuhumwire, Margaret; Twongyirwe, Ronald
Small-scale gold mining sustains millions of people’s lives and yet it stimulates environmental harms and social conflicts. Global environmental crises drive calls for fundamental change to how people live on the planet. For small-scale gold mining, this raises questions about whether current dynamics can provide a basis for sustainability transformations. Proposing the notion of gold lifeways to focus on the lived experience of mining and gold resources as relational phenomena, we ask what sustainability looks like from different miners’ perspectives and probe the practice dynamics of current transformation. Our methodology is social science-led and transdisciplinary. From multi-sited and trans-regional research between South America and Africa, we draw cases from Suriname, Guinea Conakry, and Uganda. Our study finds that gold lifeways give expression to different strands of sustainability: sustaining everyday life in mining; discourses framing mining practices; and government repression of mining. Hence, as our empirical data demonstrates, miner perspectives on sustainability gain content not in isolation, but as part of gold lifeways embedded within different contexts and shaped by societal dynamics. Ultimately, the transformative potency of small-scale gold mining is located in personal lives and precarious dynamics rather than glittering promises of a sustainable future.
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZIs Oil and Gas Discovery a Generational Curse? The Plight of Children in Land Compensation Dispossession in Uganda
http://ir.must.ac.ug/xmlui/handle/123456789/2819
Is Oil and Gas Discovery a Generational Curse? The Plight of Children in Land Compensation Dispossession in Uganda
Twinamasiko, Specioza; Karooma, Cleophas Clare; Nyemara, Novatus; Asasira, Justus
It is estimated globally that a total number of 44,000,400 are internally displaced persons, with women and children constituting over 70% of this. However, limited focus has been put on the growing generation of children that are affected by oil and gas development projects which leave both family and public property dispossessed. The main goal of this paper is to examine the plight of children in a displaced and resettled situation who are partly impacted by the mother's loss of livelihood, and how this predicts the status of the future generation. A phenomenological research design was used to acquire the lived experiences of the women, mothers and children. Focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and direct observation methods were employed to collect data; the research was guided by the principle of confidentiality. It is concretized that when forced dispossession, compensation and resettlement occur, the plight of the children in the form of a normal process of social, natural, and psychological growth becomes aversive. This implies that the future of these children is consequently antagonized by the severe situation of undesirable actions. We recommend designing a policy that considers the plight of these children through comprehensive compensation where reasonable percentages of the benefits are allocated to mothers and other women caretakers. Additionally, ensure resettling all the former infrastructure that benefits children and the entire society, as well as granting children’s proper choices of continuity in the resettlement conditions.
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZPublic-Private Partnerships and Health Care Delivery: A Case of Mbarara Municipality
http://ir.must.ac.ug/xmlui/handle/123456789/2779
Public-Private Partnerships and Health Care Delivery: A Case of Mbarara Municipality
Asasira, Justus
Public-Private Partnerships in healthcare is one of the approaches that has been embraced in Uganda’s health sector to realize a change in deteriorating health services. In Mbarara municipality there are many facilities that have embraced the partnerships and the study in four private health facilities bases on some of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) facilities to document the contribution of these private partners in the health sector. The study used mixed methods; qualitative and quantitative and two designs descriptive and case study. A sample of 58 respondents was drawn from health workers, clients (patients seeking healthcare from these facilities on the day of data collection), health inspector and hospital administrators from the 4 facilities. From the findings, 67.2% of the patients who sought services from these facilities were females and 32.8% males, majority of clients were peasants by occupation, average number of days spent inpatients (admitted) in the hospital was 3 days and for outpatient department, patients were spending an average of 81.6 minutes an equivalent of 1hour and 21minutes. The services supported under the partnership include: ART drugs and HIV/AIDS care, immunization, maternal child health, anti-malarial treatment, malaria control programs including provision of free mosquito nets to community members and outreach programs. Some of the services are free, others subsidized to make them affordable to users. The facilities get support in form of Primary Health Care (PHC) fund to support outreach programs, some hospitals had sub-seconded staff, get medical supplies from Joint Medical Stores (JMS), medical access and National Medical Stores (NMS). These facilities also get funding from charities and donors. Clients seeking ART meet a cost between Uganda shs 15,000 and 20,000/= to have them registered at the facility. Other healthcare services offered in these facilities are subsidized and clients meet a cost between Uganda shs 10,000 and 25,000 for outpatients and 25,000 to 50,000/= for inpatients depending on the number of days spent in the hospital. The clients’ user fees is the main source of revenue for these facilities. Patients requiring operation services found it expensive for example at RMH found the packages for eye operate costing 230,000 and 350,000= shs for one and both eyes respectively. Beneficiaries’ satisfaction was generally ranked higher than in public facilities and 97.1% of the patients would prefer to visit a Public Private Partnership facility the next visit. The study concluded that Public Private Partnership in health are making a difference, clients appreciate the healthcare packages under the partnerships. Patients turn up in faith based facilities was found higher than in non-faith based. PPP have created external links with other countries as they offer charities and donations to subsidize the services more. The study recommended that support to these private facilities be increased from the current amount, and other forms of support be given. The Primary Health Care fund for Mbarara Community Hospital should be re-instated to make it more efficiency. Continuous monitoring of the services provided in these facilities should be ensured such that they don’t deteriorate like it is a case in public facilities. A theatre at Holy Innocents Children’s Hospital should be completed and handle more pediatric cases as it’s a referral for these cases in western region. This will reduce referral cases at Cure hospital.
2017-09-01T00:00:00ZOrganizational Rewards and Performance of Health Centre IV Workers in Greater Mbarara District, Uganda
http://ir.must.ac.ug/xmlui/handle/123456789/2778
Organizational Rewards and Performance of Health Centre IV Workers in Greater Mbarara District, Uganda
Atwiine, Johnson; Atukunda, Gershom; Tumwesigye, Wycliffe; Asasira, Justus
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study relationship between organizational rewards, and
performance of Health Centre IV workers in greater Mbarara District.
Methods: This study used cross-sectional, explanatory and correlational approaches, and it utilised health center IV’s workers’ data that were collected by using a questionnaire survey from a sample of 200 health workers from 11 health centres from greater Mbarara district.
Findings: Results revealed that rewards, were significantly associated with health workers’ performances. Contrary to previous thinking, organizational rewards and constructs do not significantly predict health workers’ performance. Once health centre IV’s have appropriate reward strategies for their health workers in health facilities, they are likely to work hard by meeting deadlines, being available at their work station and they would eventually enhance on job performance.
Research limitations/implications: This study focuses on rewards, and performance of health workers’ in health centres iv in greater Mbarara and it is possible that these results are only applicable to the public health centres iv in greater Mbarara. More research is therefore needed to further understand the relationship between rewards, and performance of health workers in other sectors such as the private health sector and in other areas of the country like northern, central and eastern Uganda.
Practical implications: The results are important for health policy development and implementation, for example, in terms of primary health care and reporting lines for the health workers so as to enhance on their performance in public health sector.
Originality/value: As far as the authors are aware, no research has hitherto been undertaken that
investigates the relationship between reward practices on health workers’ performance in health centres IV in greater Mbarara district. Thus the results of this study will provide health practitioners with better insights in some reward practices that could be adopted by government/health practitioners so as to improve the performance of health centres IV workers
2020-01-01T00:00:00Z