bbukenya
Staff
I am a Uganda based academic, policy analyst and development practitioner. I currently work as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, Makerere University Kampala. I am also a Research Associate at the Global Development Institute (GDI) of the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. My research focuses on the politics of development more broadly and specifically on state-civil society engagement, politics of service delivery, public sector performance, and social protection. In all my research endeavours, I proficiently employ mixed methods research approaches and I have expertise in qualitative software and data management packages such as Nvivo and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).
EDUCATION BACKGROUND:
2009-2012
PhD Development Policy and Management, The University of Manchester, UK.
Thesis title: Can NGOs Build States and Citizenship through Service Delivery? Evidence from HIV/AIDS Programmes in Rural Uganda
2007-2008
MA. International Development, Development Management, The University of Manchester, UK
2000–2003
Bachelor (Hons) 1st Class Social Work and Social Administration, Makerere, University Kampala, Uganda
DESIGNATION:
Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Work and Social Administration, Makerere University Kampala (September 2013 to present (9 years)
OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES:
I am the course convener for Social Security and Social Protection Systems, and Civil Society and Social Development programmes for undergraduate students of B.A Social Sciences and B. Social Work and Social Administration in third year.
Between 2014/2015 I led the Research Methods course for the Masters programme of Social Sector Planning and Management (SSPM)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Effective States and Inclusive Research Centre (ESID), University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
Period: June 2019 to August 2020.
Researching and publishing a working paper on the Politics of social protection in Uganda. Researching and publishing a working paper on the Politics of Public Sector Reforms in Uganda. Researching and publishing a working paper on the Politics of health service delivery in two Uganda rural districts.
Research Associate, School of Environment and Development (SED), The University of Manchester.
Period: January 2013 to September 2013.
Produced working papers, research reports and annotated bibliographies based on sound methodologies and rigorous peer review systems, for the Effective States and Inclusive Development centre (ESID). Together with Professors Kunal and Hickey, I edited a book entitled The Politics of Inclusive Development (see publications).
PROJECTS/CONSULTANCY ENGAGEMENTS:
Anti-corruption Expert: Mapping the corruption and anti-corruption landscape in Uganda.
Period: April 2021 to November 2021
This USAID-funded Uganda Learning Activity involved undertaking Evidence and Opportunity Mapping of Anti-Corruption Strategies and Interventions in Uganda to understand their effects and the factors that shape their performance. The analysis was based on a comprehensive review of over 300 published and grey literature on corruption and anti-corruption interventions in Uganda and managed using NVivo 12.
Team leader: A Political Economy Analysis to inform USAID RHITES-SW Transition Award to TASO’s current and future programming in Ankole Sub-Region
Period: August to November 2021
This PEA, commissioned by The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) Uganda Limited, entailed consultations and interviews with relevant stakeholders involved in the planning and delivery of HIV/AIDS services in the 12 districts that comprise the Ankole sub-Region.
Investigator: Political Economy Analysis of the Civil Society Strengthening Activity (CSSA)
Period: October 2020 to February 2021
This was a theory-driven piece that employed a political settlement framework to inform its analysis of the structural, institutional, and ideological factors that drive the behavior of individuals and organizations operating in the four thematic areas of CSSA’s focus namely Health, Youth, Agriculture and Governance. It involved national-level interviews and fieldwork in in Gulu and Masindi districts. I handled the Youth thematic area.
Co-Principal Investigator: Displaced communities, environmental degradation & sustainable livelihoods in Uganda
Period: March 2019 to December 2020
This research explores how population displacement impacts on environmental degradation and the subsequent development of sustainable livelihoods. Researchers from Makerere University and the University of Dundee in the UK jointly implement it.
Principal investigator: Sexual violence experiences among high-risk adolescent girls and young women in the safe spaces of Gomba, Lyantonde, Luwero, Mityana, Mukono and Sembabule districts.
Period: September 2018 to May 2019
The study sought to document the breadth and depth of sexual violence among high-risk adolescent girls and young women in the DREAMS safe spaces. Uganda Child Rights NGO Network, Rakai Health Sciences Programme and Mildmay Uganda jointly funded the research.
Key projects and publications
Banks, N., & Bukenya, B. (2022). Northern and Southern non-governmental organizations. In The Routledge Handbook of Global Development (pp. 106-118). Routledge.
Bukenya, B. (2021). "NGOs and the democratic space within Ugandas emerging oil sector". In Research Handbook on Democracy and Development. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. PP 462-481doi: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788112659.00038.
Bukenya, B., Kasirye, R., Lunkuse, J., Kinobi, M., Vargas, S. M., Legha, R., Tang, L., & Miranda, J. (2021). Depression, Anxiety, and Suicide Risk among Ugandan Youth in Vocational Training. The Psychiatric quarterly, 10.1007/s11126-021-09959-y. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-021-09959-y
van Blerk, L., Shand, W., Prazeres, L., Bukenya, B., Essaid, A.A., Hunter, J., Ibrahim, R.W. and Kasirye, R. (2021), Youth transitions in protracted crises: conceptualising the ‘rupture’ of refugees’ pathways to adulthood in Uganda and Jordan. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. Accepted Author Manuscript. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12500
Bukenya, B and Golooba-Mutebi, F. 2020.“What explains sub-national variation in maternal mortality rates within developing countries? A political economy explanation”, Social Sciences and Medicine 256(2020):113066.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113066
Hickey, S. & Bukenya, B. 2021. The politics of promoting social cash transfers in Uganda: The potential and pitfalls of ‘thinking and working politically'. Development Policy Review 39(Suppl1):01–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12474
Bukenya, B., & Nakaiza, J. 2020. Closed but Ordered: How the Political Settlement Shapes Uganda’s Deals with International Oil Companies. In Langer A., Ukiwo U., & Mbabazi P. (Eds.), Oil Wealth and Development in Uganda and Beyond: Prospects, Opportunities, and Challenges (pp. 103-124). Leuven (Belgium): Leuven University Press.
Bukenya, B. & Hickey, S. 2020. The Politics of Promoting Social Protection in Uganda. In: Hickey, S., Lavers, T., Niño-Zarazúa, M. & Seekings, J. (eds.) The Politics of Social Protection in Eastern and Southern Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198850342.001.0001
Shand, W., van Blerk, L., Prazeres, L., Bukenya, B., Ibrahim, R., Hunter, J., Essaid, AA & Kasirye, R. 2020. The effects of limited work opportunities on transitions to adulthood among young refugees in Uganda and Jordan. Journal of Refugee Studies 34(2):2000-2017. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feaa042
Sebatta, D.E., Siu, G., Nabeta, H.W., Godwin Anguzu, G., Walimbwa, S., Lamorde, M., Bukenya, B. and Kambugu, A. 2020. “You would not be in a hurry to go back home”: patients’ willingness to participate in HIV/AIDS clinical trials at a clinical and research facility in Kampala, Uganda. BMC Med Ethics 21(77):1-14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00516-z
Natukunda, H. P., Mubiri, P., Cluver, L. D., Ddumba-Nyanzi, I., Bukenya, B. & Walakira, E. J. 2019. Which factors are associated with adolescent reports of experiencing various forms of abuse at the family level in post-conflict Northern Uganda? Journal of interpersonal violence. 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519888526
BUKENYA, B. 2018. Are service-delivery NGOs building state capacity in the Global South? Experiences from HIV/AIDS programmes in rural Uganda. Development Policy Review, 36, O378-O399. DOI: 10.1111/dpr.12240.
BUKENYA B., & HICKEY S. (2014) NGOs, Civil Society, and Development. In: Obadare E. (eds) The Handbook of Civil Society in Africa. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies (An International Multidisciplinary Series), vol 20. pp 311–335, Springer, New York. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8262-8_19.
