COMMENT | DANI RODRIK | America’s critics have always depicted it as a selfish country that throws its weight around with little regard for others’ well-being. But President Donald Trump’s trade policies have been so misguided, erratic, and self-defeating as to make even the most cartoonish of such descriptions seem …
Read More »First oil will matter, but value retention matters more
Value retention is not just about contracts, it is about skills, jobs, and enterprise growth. More than 17,000 direct jobs have been created, alongside 39,567 indirect jobs. COMMENT | YUSUF MASABA | Uganda’s oil and gas story is often told through the lens of barrels, pipelines, and global energy …
Read More »A new economic logic for sustainability
Sustainability initiatives will never achieve transformative change, because the current economic framework is structurally misaligned with planetary and societal boundaries COMMENT | IOANNIS IOANNOU | Companies have long justified sustainability initiatives as a way to boost their reputation, comply with external and internal standards, or generate incremental profits. But the …
Read More »How many more children must die until we become Japan?
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | In 2013, a groundbreaking case made news in Japan when a court ordered a school to pay $1.8 million to the parents of four children who died in the 2011 tsunami triggered by a megaquake. Minutes after the powerful quake, the hilltop school sent the …
Read More »Inside the DRC and Ukraine
How international involvement in the affairs of these two countries has complicated internal conflict resolution THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The DRC and Ukraine may be geographically and culturally apart but they share many similarities. DRC is the second largest country in Africa, after Algeria. Ukraine is the second largest …
Read More »Climate change is making Africa’s debt burden worse but new debt contracts could help
COMMENT | MAGALIE MASAMBA | Many African countries are already struggling with heavy debt burdens. Climate change is making this worse. Africa contributes the least to global emissions but suffers the most from extreme weather, rising temperatures and drought. These disasters affect not just people’s livelihoods but also national revenues, making …
Read More »Training is not enough if young people cannot transition to work
COMMENT | ADRIAN BUKENYA | Each year, Uganda produces over 700,000 graduates, yet only about 238,000 are absorbed into formal employment. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the graduate unemployment rate stands at 15.2 percent, the overall unemployment rate at 12.3 percent, and 50.9 percent of young people aged …
Read More »COMMENT: Airtel Money has in place mechanisms for addressing people’s complaints
Why Dr Spire Ssentongo is both right and wrong on Airtel Money. COMMENT | DAVID BIRUNGI | We have all seen the campaign on his Twitter (X) handle. Dr Spire, an accountability crusader, uses his now huge following on social media to hold government, capitalism, and corporations to account for …
Read More »Not every chat is safe — The lure and trauma of online grooming
COMMENT | CONSTANCE KICONCO | One day, early in the morning, I got a call. She was crying. Her voice was low and shaky. “Connie, I need to meet you.” I asked gently, “What’s wrong? Can we talk now?” Her answer hit me: “No, we can’t talk on phone.” I told …
Read More »Sophia’s disappearance comes to Court
SPECIAL FEATURE | MARIJE SLIJKERMAN | On a Wednesday evening in 2015 our daughter and sister Sophia disappeared in Murchison Falls National Park. A medical student, she had come to Uganda to work as an intern in Lubaga Hospital in Kampala. After completing that eight-week internship, she went …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price