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From crisis to development: the policy and practice of agricultural service provision in northern Uganda

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Abstract

This paper critically evaluates the transition from crisis to development in northern Uganda from the perspective of agricultural service provision. It contributes to debates on how efforts to link relief to rehabilitation and development may bypass the underlying challenges in linking humanitarian aid to prevailing national development policies and structures. This paper is based on research into agricultural services undertaken in Pader district, northern Uganda, between 2010 and 2012. It studied the interplay between humanitarian interventions and the parallel development of the government’s agricultural departments and services in northern Uganda. The article brings out how Ugandan agricultural policies do not suit the post-conflict realities of northern Uganda. The evolving policies affect power relations and processes of inclusion and exclusion in northern Uganda. As a result, at the time that the government is ready to integrate northern Uganda into the mainstream development of agricultural policy, the gap between addressing humanitarian needs and development has become larger.

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Notes

  1. A group of villages make a parish. Several parishes are a sub-county.

  2. Following the split of Kitgum district in 2001 to create Pader district, some staff were retained in Kitgum. Pader was then split in 2010, creating Agago district, and a number of the staff moved to Agago district.

  3. This is the main government office largely responsible for special programs and northern Uganda.

  4. Interview, 9 August 2011, Pader.

  5. Authors survey, April 2011, Pader.

  6. Interview, 8 December 2010, Pader.

  7. Also known as satellite camps.

  8. Interview, 26 October 2010, Pader.

  9. Observation on 14 September 2009 and on 8 November 2010.

  10. Interview, 18 November 2010, Pader.

  11. Interview, 17 June 2011, Pader.

  12. Interview, 4 January 2011, UN agency field officer.

  13. Note that the seed fair modality as an LRRD modality has not been without challenges and is often contested by locals (see Wairimu 2014).

  14. Interview, 26 August 2011, Pader.

  15. Footnote 19 in Hickey (2013) also shows this growing impatience with the small holder and the shift to modernization.

  16. Interview, 17 June 2011, Pader.

  17. Hickey (2013) provides a detailed exploration of the process through which transformation became a new development agenda in Uganda.

  18. Interviews, 4 and 29 July 2011, Pader; Interviews, 16 and 17 May 2012, Kampala; Skype interview, 26 November 2012.

  19. Exchange rate during the study: 1 US Dollar = 2000 Ugandan shillings (UGX).

Abbreviations

ASB:

Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund

AVSI:

Associazione Volontari per il Servizio Internazionale

CAP:

Consolidated Appeal Process

COOPI:

Cooperazione Internazionale

DSIP:

Agricultural Sector Development Strategy and Investment Plan

EVIs:

Extremely Vulnerable Individuals

IDPs:

Internally Displaced Persons

LRRD:

Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development

LWF:

Lutheran World Federation

MAAIF:

Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries

NAADS:

National Agricultural Advisory Services

NGO:

Non-Governmental Organizations

NRC:

Norwegian Refugee Council

OCHA:

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

PMA:

Plan for Modernization of Agriculture

UGX:

Ugandan Shillings

UN:

United Nations

VEDCO:

Volunteer Efforts for Development Concerns

VSLA:

Village Savings and Loans Association

WFP:

World Food Programme

WORUDET:

Women and Rural Development Network

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Acknowledgments

The research for this article was part of the IS academy on Human Security in Fragile States of Wageningen University. This particular research was funded by the Dutch aid agency-ZOA International under an interactive research arrangement. We are most grateful for this contribution. Wairimu would also like to thank Martin Ochan for his assistance during fieldwork. All usual disclaimers apply.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197, Nairobi, 00100, Kenya

    Winnie Wangari Wairimu

  2. Natural Resources and Poverty, Danish Institute for International Studies, Østbanegade 117-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Ian Christoplos

  3. Special Chair Humanitarian Aid and Reconstruction, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA, Wageningen, Netherlands

    Dorothea Hilhorst

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  1. Winnie Wangari Wairimu
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Correspondence to Winnie Wangari Wairimu.

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Wairimu, W.W., Christoplos, I. & Hilhorst, D. From crisis to development: the policy and practice of agricultural service provision in northern Uganda. Agric Hum Values 33, 799–812 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9665-0

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