Team

Dr. Paul Isolo Mukwaya

Paul holds a PhD in Geography from Makerere University Kampala Uganda. He received his B.A. in Geography from Makerere University and a Masters of Philosophy degree in Social Change [Specialising in Geography] from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim Norway.

He has broader research interests in: Geography and Society, Development of Geographical Thought; Institutional aspects of environmental change, Human-Environment Interactions Environmental Planning and Design, Traffic and Transport/Infrastructure Planning, Emissions Pathways, Urban Systems Analysis, and climate Change Adaptation/Mitigation.

Assoc-Prof Shuaib Lwasa

Shuaib is an urban geographer with over 20 years University teaching and research in Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa. He received his Bachelors in Geography from Makerere University,a Masters in Geographic Information Management in Urban Management at International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation ITC, Netherlands, a Masters degree in Land Use Planning from Makerere University and a PhD in Geography from Makerere University in. He established and directed an Urban Action Research Lab in 2010 which has championed graduate research and training in the department of Geography and incubating novel ideas of urban transformation and sustainability in partnership with low-income communities and vulnerable groups working in three research sites in Uganda. Shuaib was an active member of the UN Habitat Partner University Initiative, UNI aimed at among others capacity building in urban planning for sustainability

He was also a coordinator of the Climate Change Hub based at Makerere University. Between 2008 – 2014. Shuaib’s research interests include cities and climate change from the global south perspective, working on adaptation and mitigation possibilities for transformative urban development. Working mainly with inter-disciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, the research works have covered, urban heterogeneous infrastructure, urban inequality, land rights and transformative spatial and urban planning for sustainable development.His publications are in the areas of urban mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, urban ecological management, urban inequality, spatial planning, and disaster risk reduction and urban sustainability.

Dr. Buyana Kareem

Buyana Kareem is an interdisciplinary researcher at UAL, committed to advancing Pan-African urban scholarship for global sustainability, through teaching university courses, engaging in collaborative research on societal challenges and public policy support to governments and multi-national agencies. He is co-affiliated affiliated to Makerere University in Uganda (Department of Geography, Geo-informatics and Climatic Sciences) and the University of Florida in USA (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) as a researcher and adjunct assistant professor of urban ethnography respectively.

Kareem has researched and written about topics that matter to the debate and practice of sustainable urban transformations within Africa and the globe, including: gender equality, energy transitions, climate resilience pathways and the co-production of knowledge. His research work seeks to bring on board the broadest range of actors from academia, policy and local communities for science-based public engagements that can trigger the seeding and scaling-up of pathways to sustainable cities, including at the July-2019 United Nations High-level Political Forum on implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, held in New York. Kareem earned his PhD in sociology for urban and regional development from Stanford University, California USA. He has several publications attached to his name which can be followed via: ‪Buyana Kareem – ‪Google Scholar
Contacts
Buyana Kareem, PhD
Makerere University Uganda
P.O Box 7062 Kampala | CHUSS Building | University Road
Tel: +2567788842
Twitter: @kareem_buyana
Follow my research work via: ‪Buyana Kareem – ‪Google Scholar

Batilda Bonn Ryan

Batilda is a Policy Researcher, Academic and Engagement Advisor. Currently she is co-affiliated at the Urban Action Lab (Makerere University) and Director at BAWE (a grassroot NGO dealing with women and sustainable development in Tanzania). She previously held faculty positions at Sokoine University of Agriculture and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. She also provides consulting expertise and advisory work in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of national and international development policies and programs. She has consulted for government agencies, international organisations and civil organsiations supporting them to anchor and integrate M&E tools and processes in programming activities.

Her research interests lie at the intersection of the following thematic areas:

1. Urban social and economic policy
2. Participatory methodologies and vulnerability studies in informal communities.
3. Informality, inequality and process that construct the lives of girls and women in cities of the Global South.
4. Political economy and urban management challenges in the Global South
5. International Actors and their engagement with Civil Society. 

Ms. Viola Nuwahereza

Ms. Viola Nuwahereza is a graduate civil engineer at Makerere University and a researcher at the Urban Action Lab (UAL). Viola is also an assistant planning engineer at SINOPEC Petroleum Services Uganda Limited where she supports the technical capacities of Oil and Gas infrastructure set up in the Greater Albertine Region of Uganda. She has interests are in sustainable infrastructure, hydraulic and hydrologic modelling. She has experience in mobilising transformative solutions for societal transformation and resilience through community engagement, capacity building, research, civil works and water infrastructural designs and projects. Her recent works have been on modelling land use patterns and flood events in Kinawataka Catchment in Kampala city and support to Covid Collective and Urban Heat Risk research projects at the Urban Action Lab. Viola is also a first place grantee of the 2022 Global Development Awards competition for Outstanding Research for Development (ORD) aimed at fostering just post-pandemic land tenure and property rights governance in low-income communities.

Namuli Hafisa

Namuli Hafisa, is a professional urban and regional physical planner. She has special interest in using community driven data collection processes for spatial planning and urban development ventures especially in youth programming, urban mobility and transportation, tenure security and other incremental slum upgrading related interventions geared at inclusive and sustainable cities. Hafisa has experience in physical development planning, building partnerships towards advocacy and citizen participation for slum upgrading, urban design and analytical research. She is currently working as a physical planner within Wakiso District and Kampala Metropolitan Area. She is also  a member of the Interim Executive Council of the Society of Professional Physical Planners.

Judith Mbabazi

Judith Mbabazi is a Graduate Fellow and facilitator at the Urban Action Lab, where she collaborates on research projects between the research lab and its partners, including community organizations, civil society organizations, and government agencies. She is passionate about informality and inequality, and researches issues that affect the quality of life in terms of livability, economic growth and development, inclusion and equity, with a keen interest on policy and planning and how the two shape urban environments. Judith holds a Bachelor's degree in urban planning and a Masters of land use and regional development planning from Makerere University

Teddy Kisembo

Teddy is a researcher at the Urban Action Lab (UAL) Geography Department Makerere University Kampala Uganda. She has an Urban Planning background with a masters in Land Use and Regional Development. Her main interests are in Cities, Environment, Climate Change, Urban Governance and Sustainable Development. She has engaged in projects that have focused on flood risk relocation, land markets and their impacts on urban development, urban resilient and community capacity building and energy transitions (turning waste into energy). She is currently working on the Urban Resilience and Urban Know projects with UAL.

Daniel Kisitu

Ritah Pavin Nakanjako

Ritah is a Researcher/Graduate Fellow in the Urban Action Lab. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Meteorology and a Masters in Geo-Information Science and Technology. Her main interests are in urban complex issues related to climate change, urban transformations, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, climate and human health risks, urban heat risks, GIS and remote sensing technologies. She is very passionate about understanding the different dynamics of change and systems linkages that exist within urban environments. Her most recent works looks at the impact of urban heat islands on human thermal comfort in Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area

Peter Kasaija

Peter is currently working as a research associate for ESID’s research on urban pro-poor programming in Uganda, with Diana Mitlin and Sophie King. The research project is a partnership between ESID and the National Slum Dwellers Federation and its support NGO, ACTogether.

His main research interests include informality, governance and climate change adaptation in Uganda. He is also currently engaged with the Urban Action Lab (UAL), which is undertaking research work on green/renewable energy, heterogeneous infrastructure and disaster risk reduction (DRR).

Benon Nabaasa Baguma

Benon B Nabaasa is a pastoralist and a graduate student at Makerere University’s Department of Geography Geoinformatics and Climatic Sciences. He holds a first class honors from the Department of Forestry Biodiversity and Tourism and is now a researcher at the Urban Action Lab (UAL) housed under the Department of Geography, Makerere University. His fields of competency at the UAL include natural resources and ecosystem services mapping and survey, GIS, Geospatial analysis and Earth observation, Permaculture, Participatory GIS and Community Based Participatory Planning. Benon has been an active researcher and has several publications to his name. He is passionate about natural self-sustaining systems and livelihoods, systems like pastoralism, subsistence farming and all systems that imitate nature. nabaasabenon@gmail.com

Ambrose Buyinza Wabwire

Buyinza Ambrose Wabwire is an assistant lecturer in the department of architecture and physical planning at Makerere University. Previously, Ambrose worked as a physical planner for Buyende Town Council in the eastern part of Uganda. He graduated with a master's of Land use and Regional Development Planning from Makerere University as well as a bachelor’s degree in urban and Region planning from the same institution; he is currently undertaking his PHD studies though at an initial stage. He has a strong background and superior foundation in physical and spatial land use planning, Geographical information systems, computer-aided design, and GPS skills. Ambrose has worked with many organizations, National and local governments on a variety of projects specifically as a GIS specialist. Ambrose’s other fields of interest include urban design, disaster and risk management, and remote sensing. Ambrose is part of the research team building the information base at the Urban Action Lab, Makerere University department of geography.

Disan Byaruhanga

Byarugaba Disan is a Graduate student in MA.Geography, Makerere University Kampala Uganda. He is currently working as a research assistant under Urban Action Lab which include green energy innovation in Kampala under the AWELIS project and HICCUP.

He has also participated in other research work on flood mitigation processes, location risks on climate change induced flooding in Kampala city’s informal settlements. Disan has been involved in a number of field studies in mountain regions of Uganda including Rwenzori Mountains, Kigezi highlands and Mt. Elgon region where he participated in collecting and analysing data on activities, challenges and climate change adaptation processes by communities in such areas. His other research interests include mountain and wetlands resources management, sustainable tourism development, morphology and geology and climate change.

Gloria Nakyagaba N

Gloria Nsangi Nakyagaba is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma. Her interest is in urban studies with research focus on urban sanitation, energy, climate change and sustainability.

Hakimu Sseviiri

Mr. Hakimu Sseviiri is a PhD candidate in Geographical Sciences at Makerere University, working on Climate Change, Health Inequalities and Neighbourhood Wellnbeing. He is also researcher at the Urban Action Lab and Makerere University Centre for Climate Change Research and Innovations (MUCCRI), and supports the operations of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network  (SDSN) in Uganda. He works on interdisciplinary research on climate change, urban resilience, urban infrastructure, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), health, humanitarian crises, urban mobility, energy, food systems, disasters, spatial planning, knowledge management and communication, land tenure and property rights governance, and informality among others. Hakimu has worked with United Nation Agenceies, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), pravate sector, the academy and different Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to generate evidence and solutions pathways for transformative and resilient societies across various scales. His recent roles have been facilitating the Covid Collective and Urban Heat Risk research projects at the Urban Action Lab and activation or sustaining of partnerships for collective resource mobilisation, capacity building, research, uptake activities, knowledge management and communication. Hakimu is also a first-place grantee of the 2022 Global Development Awards competition for Outstanding Research for Development (ORD) aiming at fostering just post-pandemic land tenure and property rights governance for low-income communities. He has also published a number scholarly works in reputable journals that can be accessed via: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7Z6bR-YAAAAJ&hl=en

Emilinah Namaganda

Emilinah is working on her thesis under the Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change (IHACC) program. In her research, she engages a mixed method approach including remote sensing and social analysis (interviews and focus group discussions) to examine the impact of land quality on the agricultural productivity of the Batwa in Kanungu District, South Western Uganda.

Triphine Ainembabazi

Triphine (Phiny) is an MSc student of Disaster Risk Management at Makerere University and a research assistant at the Urban Action Lab. Her research interests include climate risk, disaster risk reduction, Food security and geographical information systems. Her research thesis aims to address the question of how climate risk may affect the food systems of the indigenous Batwa communities in south western Uganda.

Daniel Ochieng Ologe

Daniel is a researcher at the Urban Action Lab, Department of Geography, Geo-Informatics and Climatic Sciences Makerere University. With a master's degree in Geographical Sciences, his research interests span various domains, including spatial planning, urban sustainability, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), climate change vulnerability and adaptation, and migration patterns. His earlier work looked at spatial access to safe water in the Kampala Metropolitan Region. He is also currently engaged with the Urban Action Lab (UAL), which is undertaking research work on a localized analysis of urban refugees and displaced people in Cities and Urban settings of Northern Uganda.Daniel is a researcher at the Urban Action Lab, Department of Geography, Geo-Informatics and Climatic Sciences Makerere University. With a master's degree in Geographical Sciences, his research interests span various domains, including spatial planning, urban sustainability, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), climate change vulnerability and adaptation, and migration patterns. His earlier work looked at spatial access to safe water in the Kampala Metropolitan Region. He is also currently engaged with the Urban Action Lab (UAL), which is undertaking research work on a localized analysis of urban refugees and displaced people in Cities and Urban settings of Northern Uganda.

Ian Plekker

My name is Ian Plekker, from the Netherlands. I am 24 years old and a masters student in International Development Studies at Utrecht University. For my masters thesis research I am conducting fieldwork research here in Kampala with Urban Action Lab to study the impacts of the Kampala-Jinja Expressway. My undergraduate degree was in human geography and spatial planning, so I have particular experience with and interest in studying spatial phenomena.

When I heard about this research project and the Urban Action Lab, I was immediately intrigued. The Kampala-Jinja Expressway is part of a larger development corridor, and is framed as important for Uganda’s further development and increased interconnectedness with the rest of the world. When looking at Kampala’s jammed-up main roads, the importance of a new highway to connect the suburbs and other cities with Kampala seems self-evident. However, local effects such as development-induced displacement can disproportionately negatively impact vulnerable people living in urban informal settlements, such as Kinawataka and many others. These impacts are as of yet not fully addressed or researched. Therefore, me and my colleague Emily Strong are collaborating with Teddy Kisembo at Urban Action Lab to find out who will be impacted by the construction of this highway and how.

My research will focus on two particularities within this project: people’s mobility and the intra- and inter-slum dynamics. Mobility is increasingly thought of as key to people’s livelihoods. Indeed, in our currently globalized world it would be almost impossible to conceive of a completely immobile life. However, mobility is also rooted in power and inequalities and therefore, some people are more vulnerable than others. In my research I will look at what people’s current mobility patterns are, using techniques such as cognitive mapping and walking interviews in these informal settlement communities.

Another issue that I want to look at is the diversity within and between informal settlements. These intra- and inter-slum disparities and dynamics are not taken into account in policy, which instead usually refers to “the slum” as a homogenous local community. For my bachelor thesis, I did a literature review on interventions targeting basic service improvement in informal settlements, and I found that these informal settlements are characterized by diversity rather than uniformity. Taking into account these diverse livelihoods and looking at people’s complex mobilities in the pre-displacement phase of the Kampala-Jinja Expressway, my research seeks to inform later research conducted after the displacement as a kind of pre-assessment, as well as inform policy on displacement and resettlement caused by the construction of such development corridors.

Rich Mallett

Rich is a PhD student at the London School of Economics with an interest in cities, decent work, and the political economy of livelihoods. His doctoral research looks at how – and to what extent – contemporary changes in the nature of work are reconfiguring (or ‘disrupting’) the everyday lives of informal workers, the livelihood systems they are embedded within, and the wider politics that surrounds their labour.

In affiliation with the Urban Action Lab and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Uganda, Rich will be exploring these issues through an in-depth case study of economic and political life within Kampala’s boda boda (motorcycle taxi) sector – a huge site of popular economic activity currently undergoing transformation on multiple fronts. Data for this project will be generated using a mixed-methods approach, involving a combination of semi-structured interviews, surveys, and targeted key informant discussions.

Prior to starting his PhD, Rich was a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute in London where he worked on state-building, post-conflict livelihood recovery, and displacement / migration. He still remains affiliated as a Research Associate. Rich also holds degrees in geography and development studies from University College London and the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Clémence de Wouters

Hi, my name is Clémence de Wouters, I am 24 years old and I come from Belgium. I am a second year student in the ICP Master of Science in Sustainable Development at KULeuven. I first completed a bachelor’s degree in management and business engineering but then I realized I needed to move toward something more concrete, something that was more connected to nature and people. After taking a gap year and traveling abroad, I thus changed direction. This master program now offers me the chance to follow complementary courses in the fields of environment, geopolitics, economics and social sciences. It has enabled me to acquire an overall view of the global trends governing our societies and to better understand the challenges that await us in the face of climate change.

My stay in Kampala takes place as part of my internship and my final dissertation. The latter aims to understand to what extent urban agriculture in Kampala can contribute to food security and dietary diversity. I will also analyze alternative agriculture practices embraced by Kampala’s urban farmers. To achieve my goals, I will conduct interviews with local households and food vendors in order to understand the food consumption pattern in Kampala. This research is placed in the context of the larger program called Food4Cities that explores food system transformations in rapidly changing African cities. My internship will consist in gathering additional data intended for this program.

Agriculture is in my opinion a crucial sector in the fight against poverty and climate change. It lies at the center of our daily lives and impacts us all, either in negative or positive ways. Food is at the intersection between biodiversity, global warming, poverty, health, urban planning, etc. This is the reason why I think this topic is so interesting and why I want to dive deeper into it. I hope to be able to better understand the stakes behind food production in Kampala and consequently propose sustainable solutions that can ensure food security in the city region. In the meantime, I am very grateful to be given the opportunity to discover Uganda and its capital.

I am now living in Utrecht, The Netherlands and completing my Geography Master’s in International Development at Utrecht University. My field study research in Uganda is in collaboration with the Urban Action Lab and will look at the differentiated impact of development corridors on local communities. Inherent to most large-scale infrastructure is the displacement of local populations. This fact, coupled with an increased interest in development corridors from the international development community and investors mean that the implications for the livelihoods of local communities is of paramount importance. Development corridors are thought to be a means of sustainable development and economic growth, with benefits expected to trickle-down. However, these benefits are not shared equally. While local communities are often considered as homogenous groups, individuals within a community are positioned very differently to benefit from development corridors and in their capacity to cope with displacement and pursue sustainable livelihoods.

As such, the objective of my research is to explore how the experiences of local communities affected by the construction of the Kampala Jinja Expressway are differentiated by power-dynamics during the pre-displacement phase. I aim to give voice to the diversity of interests and aspirations within a local community, understand how people have been included in project planning and contribute to an understanding of livelihood restoration that considers the complexity of local needs. This research will be qualitative and allow for the social impacts of displacement to be analyzed from the bottom-up perspective of intra-community local stakeholders.

Sofie Versmissen

Hello, my name is Sofie Versmissen. I am 23 years old and I am a master’s student in Sustainable Development at the geography department of the University of Leuven, Belgium. My undergraduate degree is in sociology, so I have a particular interest in dynamics and relations between individuals, social groups and institutions.

For my master thesis research, I am studying the importance of informal food vendors in rapidly growing cities. As money is a necessary means to survive in a city, the lack of formal jobs in rapidly growing cities often pushes urban dwellers into the informal economy. Informal subsistence trade of food products is dominant in the informal trade sector and it contributes significantly to the diet of urban dwellers. This urban food security nexus involving gaining a daily wage and access to low-cost food is what I will be assessing, with Kampala as my case study. My research is quantitative and as for the data collection, I will be conducting structured interviews with households and food vendors in several parishes of Kampala. My master thesis is part of the Food4Cities project, in which both KU Leuven and Makarere University are involved. This project explores food system transformations and scenarios in rapidly changing African cities with the goal of reducing risks of urban malnutrition and food insecurity. The interviews that I will carry out in Kampala will primarily contribute to data collection for this entire research project.

When this research project was introduced to me, I was very much motivated to put my shoulder into it. During my master’s degree, I really enjoy courses related to urban studies because it involves an analysis of complex situations with various stakeholders and their connections. Different perspectives are considered and contextually appropriate solutions must be found within this puzzle. In addition, urban studies often deal with concrete situations in which current and relevant problems are addressed and studied. I am very pleased that with my master’s thesis I can also investigate a current situation that increasingly requires additional consideration, under the good supervision of a multi-university research group.

Emily Strong

I am a student researcher from Canada. After completing my bachelor’s degree in International Development Studies in Canada in 2014, I have had a wide variety of work experience, including a three-year role with an innovative software company that facilitates corporate charitable giving in Calgary, Canada, and an 8-month internship with a youth development hub in Surabaya, Indonesia.

I am now living in Utrecht, The Netherlands and completing my Geography Master’s in International Development at Utrecht University. My field study research in Uganda is in collaboration with the Urban Action Lab and will look at the differentiated impact of development corridors on local communities. Inherent to most large-scale infrastructure is the displacement of local populations. This fact, coupled with an increased interest in development corridors from the international development community and investors mean that the implications for the livelihoods of local communities is of paramount importance. Development corridors are thought to be a means of sustainable development and economic growth, with benefits expected to trickle-down. However, these benefits are not shared equally. While local communities are often considered as homogenous groups, individuals within a community are positioned very differently to benefit from development corridors and in their capacity to cope with displacement and pursue sustainable livelihoods.

As such, the objective of my research is to explore how the experiences of local communities affected by the construction of the Kampala Jinja Expressway are differentiated by power-dynamics during the pre-displacement phase. I aim to give voice to the diversity of interests and aspirations within a local community, understand how people have been included in project planning and contribute to an understanding of livelihood restoration that considers the complexity of local needs. This research will be qualitative and allow for the social impacts of displacement to be analyzed from the bottom-up perspective of intra-community local stakeholders.