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Illustration of the East African Rift Valley, Including the Western (Albertine Rift) and Eastern Branches (Gregory Rift).
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The Baseline Report of the Rwenzori Region case study has been developed to document the current state of the environment, people and governance systems for natural resource management (NRM), with special emphasis on their spatial nature and distribution in the region. The Baseline Report is part of the Afromaison Project Work Package 2 which focus...
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Trust is an important element of social capital that is increasingly recognized as integral to effective natural resource management, yet the concept remains relatively unexplored in the environmental social sciences. In large, complex resource systems where numerous and diverse stakeholders receive information from a variety of sources, managers m...
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... The Rwenzori region is estimated to cover an area of 7500 km 2 (approximately 3.1% of the country) that is close to the equator along the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) [49]. The region is bounded by the Kazinga channel, Lakes George and Edward to the south, protected areas to the east, Lake Albert to the north, and DRC and Rwenzori mountain ranges to the west [49]. ...
... The Rwenzori region is estimated to cover an area of 7500 km 2 (approximately 3.1% of the country) that is close to the equator along the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) [49]. The region is bounded by the Kazinga channel, Lakes George and Edward to the south, protected areas to the east, Lake Albert to the north, and DRC and Rwenzori mountain ranges to the west [49]. Among the nine districts of the Rwenzori region, the study area in this exercise covered four sites from three districts (Kasese, Kabarole, and Ntoroko, Figure 2). ...
... Such characteristics, coupled with the rugged terrain of the region (characterized by high and steep slopes) led to the high omission errors. Lara et al. (2013) [49] noted that the streams draining the Rwenzori mountains are generally small and of low stream order. This is the reason why they could not be mapped using Sentinel-2 imagery. ...
Aquaculture has the potential to sustainably meet the growing demand for animal protein. The availability of water is essential for aquaculture development, but there is no knowledge about the potential inland water resources of the Rwenzori region of Uganda. Though remote sensing is popularly utilized during studies involving various aspects of surface water, it has never been employed in mapping inland water bodies of Uganda. In this study, we assessed the efficiency of seven remote-sensing derived water index methods to map the available surface water resources in the Rwenzori region using moderate resolution Sentinel 2A/B imagery. From the four targeted sites, the Automated Water Extraction Index for urban areas (AWEInsh) and shadow removal (AWEIsh) were the best at identifying inland water bodies in the region. Both AWEIsh and AWEInsh consistently had the highest overall accuracy (OA) and kappa (OA > 90%, kappa > 0.8 in sites 1 and 2; OA > 84.9%, kappa > 0.61 in sites 3 and 4), as well as the lowest omission errors in all sites. AWEI was able to suppress classification noise from shadows and other non-water dark surfaces. However, none of the seven water indices used during this study was able to efficiently extract narrow water bodies such as streams. This was due to a combination of factors like the presence of terrain shadows, a dense vegetation cover, and the image resolution. Nonetheless, AWEI can efficiently identify other surface water resources such as crater lakes and rivers/streams that are potentially suitable for aquaculture from moderate resolution Sentinel 2A/B imagery.
... They aimed primarily at establishing a baseline of the situation before the beginning of the process and to discuss the M&E objectives and variables with key participants. Two baseline studies were made to describe the baseline situation in the Rwenzori region and nationally including issues such as population, health, literacy, climate, vegetation, agricultural systems, social networks and NRM policies and institutions (Migongo-Bake and Catactutan, 2012; Montserrat et al., 2013). These studies were supplemented by a document review specifically focusing on the M&E aspects of interest, namely NRM institutions and organizations. ...
Participatory approaches are now increasingly recognized and used as an essential element of policies and programs, especially in regards to natural resource management (NRM). Most practitioners, decision-makers and researchers having adopted participatory approaches also acknowledge the need to monitor and evaluate such approaches in order to audit their effectiveness, support decision-making or improve learning. Many manuals and frameworks exist on how to carry out monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for participatory processes. However, few provide guidelines on the selection and implementation of M&E methods, an aspect which is also often obscure in published studies, at the expense of the transparency, reliability and validity of the study. In this paper, we argue that the selection and implementation of M&E methods are particularly strategic when monitoring and evaluating a participatory process. We demonstrate that evaluators of participatory processes have to tackle a quadruple challenge when selecting and implementing methods: using mixed-methods, both qualitative and quantitative; assessing the participatory process, its outcomes, and its context; taking into account both the theory and participants’ views; and being both rigorous and adaptive. The M&E of a participatory planning process in the Rwenzori Region, Uganda, is used as an example to show how these challenges unfold on the ground and how they can be tackled. Based on this example, we conclude by providing tools and strategies that can be used by evaluators to ensure that they make utile, feasible, coherent, transparent and adaptive methodological choices when monitoring and evaluating participatory processes for NRM.
... Montserrat, Cruz, and Anderson 2013) and stakeholder analysis. A logbook or online journal (based on Etienne 2011), was used to record all procedural and contextual events taking place in the area be they environmental, relational, socio-economic, or political. ...
One solution considered by researchers and policymakers to address environmental degradation is to explore change within environmental institutions. Three main approaches exist looking at how institutions change in response to social–environmental issues: institutional design, institutional fit, and institutional bricolage. While all three approaches are relevant, they face challenges when it comes to actually supporting the institutional change process. This article advances the idea that rather than trying to craft blueprint institutions through interventions, such interventions could act as “institutional corridors” to create favorable conditions for “institutional bricolage” to occur. A participatory planning process in the Rwenzori region in Uganda is used as an example. There, five strategies were used for the process to act as an institutional corridor. They were facilitated by four procedural elements and constrained by two external factors. The article concludes by providing concrete ideas about how practitioners can experiment with intervention designs to facilitate institutional bricolage.
... Two focus groups and thirteen preliminary open qualitative interviews were carried out with farmers, government and civil society representatives. Results were summarized in two baseline studies and a stakeholder analysis (Migongo-Bake & Catactutan, 2012;Montserrat, Cruz, & Anderson, 2013). These added to the literature review and ten interviews carried out for the scoping of the M&E mentioned in the previous section. ...
Evaluating participatory processes, participatory planning processes especially, can be challenging. Due to their complexity, these processes require a specific approach to evaluation. This paper proposes a framework for evaluating projects that have adopted a participatory planning approach: the monitoring and evaluation of participatory planning processes (MEPPP) framework. The MEPPP framework is applied to one case study, a participatory planning process in the Rwenzori region in Uganda. We suggest that this example can serve as a guideline for researchers and practitioners to set up the monitoring and evaluation of their participatory planning process of interest by following six main phases: (1) description of the case, (2) clarification of the M&E viewpoint(s) and definition of the M&E objective(s), (3) identification of the context, process and outputs/outcomes analytical variables, (4) development of the M&E methods and data collection, (5) data analysis, and (6) sharing of the M&E results. Results of the application of the MEPPP framework in Uganda demonstrate the ability of the framework to tackle the complexity of participatory planning processes. Strengths and limitations of the MEPPP framework are also discussed.
Background: The Rwenzori region is endowed with a rich diversity of medicinal plants, which are utilized by communities to treat various diseases because they are easy to access, prepare and is part of a wealth of indigenous knowledge. Despite the utilization of these plants, there is a need to systematically document plants used in the Rwenzori region, which will help in preserving indigenous knowledge and aid the process of discovering new drugs that act as agents for health promotion and disease prevention. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the western districts of Kabarole, Kasese, Bundibugyo, and Bunyangabu with the help of semi-structured questionnaires for data collection and 24 key informants’ interviews with native herbal medicine men/women in the region. Results: Overall, seventy-seven medicinal plant species distributed in 40 families were found to be used by communities for treating over 67 diseases. The most commonly used medicinal plants included Prunus africana (Hook. f.). Kalkman (12), Hoslundia opposita Vahl (11), Bidens pilosa Linn. (11), Conyza sumatrensis (Retz.) E. Walker (9) and Ageratum conyzoides Linn. (9). The family of Asteraceae and Fabaceae made up most of the medicinal plant species used by the natives. The most used plant parts are the leaves, and boiling water is the main solvent used in the preparation of these herbal remedies, which are taken mainly orally. Conclusion: The communities of the Rwenzori region depend a lot on herbal medicine to treat various diseases irrespective of the availability of modern health care.
As the number of inhabitants in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) increases, demand for animal-source proteins outstrips the current supply. Aquaculture is promoted to sustain livelihood and for improved food security. However, the production in SSA is still low at less than 1% of the total global production. Poor water quality is cited to be one of the factors limiting the growth of the aquaculture sector and is attributed to limited familiarity with standard aquaculture practices. Thus, a knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) survey was carried out among fish farmers in five districts of the Rwenzori region. Our results showed that 81% and 80% of them had poor knowledge and practices concerning water quality in aquaculture, respectively. Seventy percent did not know that fish farming caused pollution, while 68% believed that there was no need to treat fish farm effluents. Only 45% showed good attitudes towards water quality management. Fish farmers that fed fish with only complete pellets and those that combined them with locally available products (LAP) were 8 and 5 times more likely to possess more knowledge (p < 0.01) on water quality as compared to others that used only LAP. Slight improvements in attitudes and practices for every unit increment in knowledge were observed (p < 0.05). This limited familiarity with water quality management could severely impede the growth of aquaculture, as well as the sustainable utilization of available water resources. Therefore, there is a need for more training and improvement of extension services among fish farming communities.
How can we make religious equality a reality for those on the margins of society and politics? This book is about the individual and collective struggles of the religiously marginalised to be recognised and their inequalities, religious or otherwise, redressed. It is also about the efforts of civil society, governments, multilateral actors, and scholars to promote freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) whatever shape they take. The actors and contexts that feature in this book are as diverse as health workers in Israel, local education authorities in Nigeria, indigenous movements in India, Uganda, or South Africa, and multilateral actors such as the Islamic Development Bank in Sudan and the World Bank in Pakistan. Some of the case studies engage with development discourses and narratives or are undertaken by development actors, while other cases operate completely outside the international development paradigm. These case studies present some important insights, which while highly relevant for their contexts also draw out important insights for academics, practitioners, activists, and others who have an interest in redressing religious inequalities for socioeconomically marginalised populations.
