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Towards Decentralized Landslide Disaster Risk Governance in Uganda

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Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides (WLF 2017)

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Abstract

Decentralized governance is critical to reducing disaster risks. This paper evaluates the decentralized landslide disaster risk governance in Uganda. Primary data were collected through household surveys and key informant interviews conducted in the landslide disaster prone Mount Elgon district of Bududa, Eastern Uganda. Secondary data were collected through document review. Primary and secondary data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The study findings reveal that in Uganda, landslide disaster risk reduction is perceived as a shared responsibility between different actors and involves wider stakeholder participation that has enhanced resource mobilization. Coordination of landslide disaster risk reduction has also been streamlined. Decentralized landslide disaster risk governance however, faces several challenges, including; financial and human resource constraints, political interference, corruption, uncooperative constituents and lack of an enabling sectoral law. Decentralized governance should therefore be upscaled to achieve landslide disaster risk reduction. Future research should focus on mapping key actors and institutions using Social Network Analysis to enable better resource allocation for landslide disaster risk reduction in the Country.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Prossy Kanzila, Julius Kutosi, Simon Mugalu and John Sekajugo for the support during field data collection, analysis and maps. Funding for the study was provided by Busitema University through the ADB-HEST Project. We also acknowledge the cooperation of all household heads and local leaders in Bududa district during the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi, P.O BOX 30197 00100, Nairobi, 254, Kenya

    Sowedi Masaba & N. David Mungai

  2. Natural Resource Economics, Busitema University, P.O BOX 236, Tororo, Uganda

    Moses Isabirye

  3. Institute of Continuing Education, Zanzibar University, P.O BOX 2440, Zanzibar, Tanzania

    Haroonah Nsubuga

Authors
  1. Sowedi Masaba
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  2. N. David Mungai
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  3. Moses Isabirye
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  4. Haroonah Nsubuga
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sowedi Masaba .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Matjaž Mikoš

  2. Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Vít Vilímek

  3. China Institute of Geo-Environment Monitoring, China Geological Survey, Beijing, China

    Yueping Yin

  4. International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), Kyoto, Japan

    Kyoji Sassa

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Masaba, S., David Mungai, N., Isabirye, M., Nsubuga, H. (2017). Towards Decentralized Landslide Disaster Risk Governance in Uganda . In: Mikoš, M., Vilímek, V., Yin, Y., Sassa, K. (eds) Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides. WLF 2017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53483-1_49

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