As the Department for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis at the Karamoja Anti-Corruption Coalition (KACC), we are back with our Karamoja articles. This time, we analyse why development projects should begin by understanding the experiences, needs, priorities, and ideas of the people of Karamoja. We begin with historical and scholarly evidence from Professor Mahmood Mamdani.
Karamoja has a deep-seated crisis, Mamdani argues. What does deep-seated mean? It means that the challenges affecting communities in Karamoja are numerous, ranging from drought, poverty, food insecurity, livestock losses, limited services, and access to natural resources to the wider economic and political conditions shaping people’s livelihoods (Mahmood Mamdani, 1986).
From the Department for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis at KACC, analytical evidence shows that the Karamoja crisis has underlying causes that are complex and often interconnected. These cannot be solved through quick fixes or by looking at only one cause.
As a team committed to Alternative Analysis, this is why we argue that there is a need to understand people’s actual circumstances, listen to their aspirations, acknowledge both the strengths and limitations of existing livelihoods, and develop solutions together with them.
Our readers might ask: Do you mean some interventions are simply superimposed on the people of Karamoja? This question will be answered in one of our articles. However, our argument here is that there is a need for a people-centred approach in Karamoja, one that asks people what is working, what is failing, what changes they want, and what combination of livelihoods and services could improve their lives.
As Mahmood Mamdani (1986) responded to his critic, Beverly Gartrel, in “The Colonial Roots of the Famine in Karamoja: A Rejoinder,” we, as Critical Thinkers, also agree that development in Karamoja should not be driven exclusively by government officials, researchers, NGOs, or international organisations. The people of Karamoja must also be active participants in determining what development means and how it should happen.
When we speak of the people of Karamoja, we mean the men and women who live in the manyatta homesteads. Their experiences, knowledge, priorities, and aspirations must be central to decisions about their future.
If this approach is not followed, the “Karamoja question,” defined by Dr. Tabitha Naisiko in 2024 as the paradox of multiple funded projects existing alongside the pathetic living conditions of the people, will remain unresolved in Karamoja. Development must begin with the people it intends to serve.
Ayub Mukisa, PhD, writes from the Department for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis at the Karamoja Anti-Corruption Coalition (KACC).
The post Dr. Ayub Mukisa: Karamoja: Why Development Interventions Must Start by Listening to the People appeared first on Watchdog Uganda.