Bildung während COVID-19: Unterbrechung und Reaktion

Das E-Learning in Uganda neu denken

Public health emergencies affect the education and safety of children in several ways. Due to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, for instance, the education of 5 million children was interrupted.- School closures across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2015 made it difficult for the governments of these countries to find alternative ways to provide continued education, resulting in many children dropping out of school. The current pandemic has forced most govern- ments around the world to temporarily close educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, impacting over 91% of the world’s student popu- lation according to UNESCO. Uganda, amidst its economic challenges, the unforeseen situation of the COVID-19 pandemic is another turn of the screw in the education situation of its school-going age population. This research looks systematically at the opportunities and challenges of diffus- ing e-learning in the context of Uganda, where the vast majority lack basic needs for livelihood and access to the internet is a problem.

Ein Überblick über COVID-19 und das Dilemma Ugandas von Gleichstellung im Gesundheitswesen

Ugandas entwicklungspolitische Reaktion im Laufe der letzten Jahre, die beeindruckend hohe Wirtschaftswachstumsraten verzeichneten, hat sich nicht in einem besseren Leben für die Ärmsten und Schwächsten, darunter auch Frauen, niedergeschlagen, und spiegelt sich nun auch in der Reaktion auf COVID-19 wider. Dieser Artikel hinterfragt inwieweit jene Entwicklungsansätze im Gesundheitssektor, welche die Ärmsten und Schwächsten unberücksichtigt lassen, mit dem langjährigen Patriarchat und der derzeitigen globale Pandemie zusammenwirken und damit Frauen schlechter gestellt lassen. Er zieht Lehren aus Ugandas derzeitiger COVID-19-Reaktionsarbeit und gibt Empfehlungen für kurzfristige Maßnahmen, um sich der bestehenden Ungleichheiten bewusst zu werden, die Bekämpfung jener integrativer zu gestalten und somit auf eine Lösung hinzuarbeiten, anstatt die Ungleichheitssituation zu verschlimmern. Der Artikel schlägt außerdem langfristige Maßnahmen vor, die nach einer Pandemie eingesetzt werden können, um Ungleichheiten im Gesundheitsbereich anzugehen.

COVID-19 in Uganda

Auf dem Weg zu einer nationalen Strategie für multiple Public-Health-Notfälle

This paper analyses the relationship between Coronavirus (Covid-19) in Uganda, on one hand, and the development and operationalization of a National Strategy on Complex Public Health Emergencies. Attention centres on:(i) State preparedness following outbreak and global transmission of Covid-19;(ii) State Responses tosubsequent importation to, and transmission of the disease within, Uganda; (iii) State-Society Relations occasioned by intra-country morbidity and transmissions; and (iv) the implications of (i)-(iii) for Uganda’s national strategy for CPHEs.The paper underscores the State’s central role in developing and operationalising a CPHE Strategy. The Strategy, though a multi-stakeholder effort, ought to prioritise preparedness, response, and post-CPHE socioeconomic recovery in order to cushion society against immediate and long-term impacts of CPHEs. Severally,Covid-19 has revealed the need to alter Uganda’s approach to public health governance. The conclusion sums up main lessons and makes recommendations for developing a National CPHE Strategy.

BürgerInnen sprechen!

Anforderungen an den öffentlichen Dienst während der Lockdown-Phase in Uganda

As a global pandemic of COVID19 is threatening our lives and economies, our relationship towards government is starting to change. With over 2.5 million confirmed infections worldwide, Uganda has so far been spared with only 61 confirmed cases and no deaths. On 31st March, a 14-day lockdown was imposed on the country, which was extended for another 21 days on the 14th of April. The effects of this lockdown on the virus, as well as economic and social life, are yet to be seen. What is certain is that many Ugandans, sitting at home in self-isolation, are talking about their needs during the pandemic and openly sharing their anxieties about the future through WhatsApp groups and social media platforms.

Assessing the Relationship between Gender-based Violence and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Uganda

Whereas there is an abundance of literature linking gender based violence (GBV) in the aftermaths of natural related disasters, the linkage with health related emergency pandemic is scanty. However, some studies have analyzed GBV and Ebola and Zika virus epidemic in Liberia in 2014-16 1 and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2018, GBV and HIV 2,3 and gender/GBV and Covid-19. With the prevailing coronavirus (covid-19) global pandemic, which has driven countries to declare lockdowns, cases of GBVhave also spiraled. The increasing cases of GBV amidst the coronavirus pandemic highlight the importance of the relationship between GBV and health related emergingepidemics or pandemic situations. Particular questions GBV and Covid-19 such as: Have cases of GBV or threats of violenceincreased since Covid-19 Lockdown in Uganda? Why and how do GBV occur in health related emergency situations? What are the implications for policy and research? These and other questions are worthy reflecting on and responding to.

Was kann die COVID-19-Pandemie für die Wahlen 2021 in Uganda bedeuten?

COVID-19 has caused global trauma and hindered many operations to achieve economic, social and political plans by the government and many of its partners. According to the Electoral Commission (EC) 2020/21 strategic plan, Uganda’s General Election has been scheduled for February 2021. However, due to the outbreak of the novel COVID-19, it is now a topic for debate. Stakeholders and the general populace are having mixed reactions. Many are asking the following questions: What is the implication of COVID-19 on the already ongoing electoral processes? Will the 2021 general elections still be a national priority in the crippled post COVID-19 economy? Has the COVID-19 pandemic increased the popularity of H.E the President of Uganda in line with his government’s response and management of the pandemic? How can the opposition political establishment remain relevant during the and after COVID-19? To what extent has the COVID-19 global pandemic affected the electoral financing of opposition parties in the country? This manuscript attempts to offer some insights into these question.

Auswirkungen von COVID-19 auf das Recht auf Nahrung in Uganda

“We are going to die of hunger before this virus even kills us”. This was the grim prediction of a one Eunice Nabifo, a mother of three in Kampala.1 Her fear is not unfounded. You will notice that many Ugandans, often called the urban poor, live a hand to mouth existence. Their ability to feed themselves as well as their dependents is hinged on being able to work for a day’s wage. Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in Uganda, the government’s stringent lockdown measures to limit the spread of the infection have exacerbated the precarious circumstances of such vulnerable people. This article therefore seeks to examine access to food for people such as Nabifo from a human rights perspective, tracing the historical developments that predisposed them to vulnerability and how COVID-19 has added salt to the wound to give the entire problem several new dimensions.

COVID-19 in Uganda

The Fates and Futures of Maternal Health

The importation and transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), in Uganda, has led to challenges related to maternal health services (MHSs). First, restrictions occasioned by COVID-19 were hurried. Some were initially inattentive to the special needs of women whose access to MHSs is critical to their health and that of their babies. Second, the strain put on the country’s weak health services infrastructure and systems implies limited resources left to attend to pregnant women and others in need of reproductive health services like contraception and family planning. Third, COVID-19 has forced government to enforce social measures to slow down or stop its spread, by declaring curfews and lock-downs upon people and transport systems, rendering it impossible to access MHSs in formal institutions. This has been done without availing awareness and advice on alternatives to formal services. While at the time of writing Uganda has not registered large numbers of infections – only 54 confirmed COVID-19 cases - and zero deaths - these after-effects have serious implications for thinking about the possible balance between COVID-19 response efforts and the need for maternal health services in Uganda.

Potentielle fiskalische Maßnahmen der Ugandischen Zentralbank

Während und nach der COVID-19 Pandemie

Today, the novel Coronavirus otherwise scientifically known as COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on economies on a global scale, but nowhere is this more evident than in the already challenged African economies such as Uganda. In a press release dated April 9th 2020, The World Bank predicts and the first economic recession in over 25 years to hit sub-Saharan economies on account of this global pandemic. Uganda’s central bank, Bank of Uganda, the establishment mandated to maintain economic stability through its control over the monetary policy, commercial banks and other banking and non-banking institutions in the financial sector is uniquely positioned to rapidly and creatively respond in such a way that the lowest income earner is not left to starve.

What have we been up to?

Newsletter 01/2020

Find out about the KAS activities and news. January - March 2020