The Tension Between Autonomy and Capacity or Authority Without Means: Local Government and Food Security Governance in Uganda

Uganda’s decentralization framework grants local governments extensive legal autonomy over most features related to food security. However, whether local governments are, in fact, equipped to trans-late that autonomy into measures which could increase food security for vulnerable communities Is questionable. This paper examines the extent to which legal autonomy translates into practical capacity in Uganda’s local food security and climate governance, and through which fiscal, institutional, and service-delivery mechanisms this translation occur. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with agricultural officers and planners in Isingiro District, Rakai District, Masaka District, Masaka City, and Kyotera District, analysis of local government budgets, and unique survey data collected in the region which asks about experiences with local government, we find that local government officers especially the production officers hold broad mandates for exam-ple regulating inputs, promoting commercialization, safeguarding food security, and advancing climate adaptation. Yet they operate with conditional, inflexible finance; severe staffing and facilitation gaps and centralized enforcement . Co-authored with Mesharch Katusiimeh