Political accountability and peacebuilding in local governments in Uganda : a case of Gulu district

Abstract

This is a dissertation that presents the findings of a study on “Political Accountability and Peacebuilding in local governments in Uganda: A case of Gulu District”. The main objective of the study was to examine how political accountability contributes to peacebuilding in Uganda. The study used a mixed approach where both quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection. A quantitative survey covering 371 respondents, FGDs and Key Informant Interviews geographically covering the Sub-counties of Unyama, Bungatira and Awach in Gulu District were undertaken. This data was triangulated to further validate the findings. The COVID-19 pandemic was a major limitation. The researcher was perceived to come from a hot spot for COVID-19 (Kampala) and many of the respondents declined to be interviewed citing a possible exposure to COVID-19 from the researcher and the interpreter. The researcher used snowball sampling where the respondents that declined to be interviewed recommended other potential respondents. The study focused on the elements of correlation between political accountability and peacebuilding and therefore did not establish causation between the dependent and independent variables. The findings established that political accountability is strongly associated with peacebuilding in Gulu District. These results imply that citizen participation in governance aspects in Gulu District has a positive relationship with the tolerance of diversity within the local communities. Therefore, active citizen participation is important for minimizing conflicts and building sustainable peace in Gulu District. These results further demonstrate that political accountability must be prevalent if local governments are to have efficacious interventions. The findings also show strong and significant associations between the elements of political accountability (such as political monitoring, information sharing, and citizen participation) and those of peacebuilding (that include service delivery, trust and tolerance, resettlement of returnees, addressing conflicts, and livelihood development). The study discovered that there is a missing link between political accountability and peacebuilding in Gulu District. This is due to the fact that while political accountability has been provided for and practised in Gulu District Local Government under the decentralisation framework, it has not resulted in peace in the District. The above findings have practical implications for actors in peacebuilding at the central government, district local governments, religious and cultural institutions and civil society organisations.