Browsing by Author "Otim, Dickens"

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    Do self-help initiatives matter? A review on the efficacy of community-led poverty reduction through self-help groups in Uganda
    (IJISET - International Journal of Innovative Science, Engineering & Technology, 2022) Otim, Dickens; Mwesigwa, David
    The motivation of this study was to review some hitherto less attended to information on the self-help initiatives in Uganda. This study aimed to assess the significance of self-help groups in the country. Self-help initiatives have existed for some good time but academics have not paid adequate attention to their mode of operation and significance especially in terms of contributing to community poverty reduction. Self-help initiatives are attempts by concerned individuals and groups to bridge the gaps between the efforts of governments at overall national development and the near-total invisibility of many of these communities. Provided they are demand-driven and environmentally friendly, there are no limits to the range of projects that qualify to be executed in the rural communities through self-help initiatives. The only requirements are institutional capacity and/or the willingness to build one, support, and manage such projects sustainably. Consequently, this study analyses a set of four aspects, viz. the different self-help initiatives, the effectiveness of self-help initiatives in poverty alleviation, challenges faced by different self-help groups, and the coping strategies. The outcomes suggest the critical role of governments in providing the enabling environment and in moderating the forces of culture and ethnicity, as residents of a rural community strive for self-emancipation in order to be able to exert sufficient control over an environment that appears to them as given and inflexible to the elements favouring self-help groups. This article contributes to the growing body of information on the significance of self-help initiatives by emphasizing considerable efforts that can be adopted to make self-help more meaningful.
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    The role of agricultural practices in improving nutrition among school going children in Adekokwok sub county, Lira district, mid-north of Uganda
    (International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research, 2020) Otim, Dickens; Mwesigwa, David
    This study explored the role of selected practices in improving nutrition among school going children in Adekokwok sub-county. It adopted a case study design and applied both quantitative and qualitative approaches in handling the study objectives which was premised to identify the agricultural practices being carried out; determine the level of nutrition among school going children; and examine the contribution of selected agricultural practices in improving nutrition among school going children in the study area. Simple random; and purposive sampling techniques were preferred to identify a sample size of 72 respondents who were later analyzed and found to be a female dominated (72.5%), youthful (25-34 year) and married participants that comprised of households with less than three members, and comprised of mainly farmers who have reached at least a primary level of education. The study concludes that cereal crops were the most produced crops, with the main tool used for cultivation by households being hand hoes; and they did not use any irrigation methods in case of drought. Despite planting traditional seeds, farmers used manufactured fertilizers and store their food in bags. The study recommends that extensive and vigorous awareness on agricultural practices should be made in order to ensure basic orientation of the local community, and Lira district Local Government form the “Nutrition Ordinance for Children” that will guide agricultural practices in the district if nutrition among school-going children can be enhanced.