Agricultural Land Tenure Policies as Catalyst for Enhanced Women Economic Empowerment in Arua District, Uganda (Published)
Land as a factor of production in agricultural based economy plays a pivotal role in enhancing women equal rights in participation in development. Therefore, land tenure systems should be gender inclusive in order to facilitate rapid economic empowerment of women who contribute the largest share of labour rural parts of Uganda. Nonetheless, it is important to note that literature on the relationship between agricultural land tenure policies and women economic empowerment in Uganda is scanty. The purpose of the study therefore was to investigate the effects of agricultural land tenure policies on women economic empowerment in Arua District. The study adopted human development perspective theory and correlation research designs because the designs permitted hypothesis testing. The study targeted district agricultural officers, community development officers, district environmental officers, farmers, opinion leaders from the community, members of the civil society organizations and extension officers with a total sample size of 120 participants. Reliability analysis was achieved by use of tests retest technique and the results were subjected to factor analysis with all the items registering above 0.80. Expert assessment was used to realise content validity with the minimum principle component analysis factor loading value of all the items in the research tools were above 0.80 indicating that the tools were valid. Data collected were cleaned by weeding out inconsistent and irrelevant responses. The study found land tenure policies positive (β=.904) and significant (p=0.000) to women economic empowerment. The study recommends that the government of Uganda, specifically the ministries of agriculture and lands, to spearhead an awareness campaign on the women land rights; initiate policy review targeting agricultural land tenure system and women economic empowerment. The study also recommends further research on this subject matter using other research paradigms such as case study.
Keywords: Land Tenure, Women Economic Empowerment., policies
Developing a Sustainable Agricultural, Industrial, Infrastructural Thriving Nigeria: A Logic Model Approach for Development (Published)
Nigeria is currently the largest economy in Africa with a per capita GDP that ranks 121st in the world. The impact of this sudden change on the different sectors of the Nigerian economy needs to be well understood for the benefit of sectorial sustainability. Drawing on a review of developmental policies and programmes since post-independence era, the programme logic model is accepted as a framework for addressing the research aim, which is to develop a framework for the developmental future of Nigeria. A 6-way heuristic evaluation is carried out based on problems/issues, stakeholders’ needs/assets, desired results, influential factors, strategies, and assumptions. This approach provides a schematic play-out of the feasibility of the evaluated programmes. Analysis shows that, while there has been policy mismatch and poor implementation of programmes by governments, the various proposed programmes were well intended towards developing a thriving Nigeria. The suggested short-term strategy is to incentivise cash crops farming. In the medium-term, the strategy should be aimed at hastening the implementation of the infrastructure master plan and public-private partnerships with successful short-term stakeholders. For the long-term, the prescribed strategies for achieving the technology development are core implementation of science and technology policies and adequate innovation and management of technologies. The implication, therefore, is that there is urgent need to encourage ‘productive’ infrastructural development, which will jump start a knowledge based economy in the medium-term, and a serviced based economy in the long-term.
Keywords: Developmental, Infrastructural, Logic Model Approach, Long Term Economy, Medium, Programmes, Short, policies