IEE Newsletter No. 34

MADM: Empirical Research in Times of COVID-19

MADM student Ssekandi Ronald Ssegujja speaks about his field research in Uganda during the pandemic.


In 2019, while working in the research department of a new oil consultancy company in Uganda, I attended a public hearing event for a soon to be launched mining project. At the time, I remember being overwhelmed by the large numbers of project affected persons who swarmed into the event venue and the numerous concerns and questions they raised about the Chinese funded project.

A year later, I was offered a DAAD scholarship by the South African-German Centre for Development Research at the University of the Western Cape and the Ruhr-University Bochum, to study a Masters in Development Management (MADM). However, the pandemic broke out. I ended up in Bochum where for the past one year and more, I have been undertaking my studies.

Whereas the pandemic disrupted the pattern and structure of the MADM programme, the IEE program coordination team made effort to ensure that our “special” in-take gets a semblance of normality. In this regard, several programme aspects such as the summer school in Cape Town were cancelled. In our second semester last summer, we hoped that it would be possible for us to go for our field research trips. At the time, the situation with the pandemic had improved, most of us had gotten the chance to be vaccinated and international travel had resumed (of course with several restrictions).

In the end, I was one of the students that managed to travel for data collection in my home country. By sheer luck, Uganda was listed as “low-risk” for spread of COVID19. However, this same luck did not apply to some of the other MADM students. My classmate Chenai Tsorayi from Zimbabwe for example could not travel because her country was classified as “high-risk” due to the presence of the new Delta variant of the corona virus. For Hadi Hashemi from Afghanistan, the eventual capture of power by the Taliban that rendered a tricky political situation back home forced him to reconsider not only his case study project, but also the site for data collection. Several other classmates have similar experiences.

For those that could not make it to the field for data collection, there was still the option of collecting data online using tools such as ZOOM to conduct video interviews.

I earlier said, my last job in 2019 was with an oil consultancy and the experience I had in the community raised my curiosity about participation. It is for this reason that I chose the topic “Community participation in extractive industries: A case study of the CNOOC Kingfisher oil project in Buhuka Parish, Uganda”. With this research project, I seek to understand the interests of stakeholders in participation as well as evaluate the level of participation of communities in extractives.

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A view of Lake Albert, at the site where the CNOOC kingfisher Oil Project is being set up
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A view of settlement for the Buhuka parish community

When I arrived in Uganda at the end of August, I found that the country had just emerged out of a lockdown. Nothing was as I had left it a year ago! One of the most drastic changes in place is the 7pm curfew. It meant that majority of people, businesses and offices closed shop around 5pm to be able to make it back home in time. Most institutions had also cut down on the size of staff that could work in the offices. So, for the first week in the field, despite being at home, I felt like an outsider. I had to re-orient myself with how everything was working so as to figure out how best to start my data collection.

My research tool was a semi-structured interview guide for three stakeholder groups (CNOOC oil company officials, central and local government officials and community members). My plan was to conduct all these interviews in-person. Luckily, the rules in place allowed for meeting of groups up to 100 people as long as public health regulations were followed. The challenge however was in tracking all these very important government officials and leaders. I had to write official letters asking for appointments. In some cases, the response was prompt while in others, not. Some government departments required me to submit a list of extra paper work and to seek for “official” permission from technocrats. I remember the Chinese oil company officials would not speak to me until I obtained official permission from the oil sector regulatory body. I came to learn that apparently the national oil project is considered “highly sensitive.”

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Interviewing a key informant from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral development in Kampala
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Interviewing a local leader in Buhuka parish

Conducting interviews and being able to speak to key informants from government departments and the oil company was a great experience. I was able to make connections, challenge officials based on prior research and literature review I had made in the summer. I was also able to fully appreciate the power play between the various stakeholders in the oil sector of Uganda. Perhaps most rewarding was my return to Buhuka parish, after a long drive of over 500 kilometres. The study project is located on the shores of a lake called Albert, which separates Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The area is largely multi-ethnic, inhabited by people from all over Uganda. I was delighted to find that some of the community members spoke my native tongue. This was very helpful for the community interviews because majority of my interviewees did not speak English fluently.

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Interviewing a project-affected person in Buhuka parish
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Pausing with one of the project-affected persons at the house built for her by the oil company CNOOC

After my fieldwork, I have returned to Bochum for the final semester in which I am writing my Master thesis. Whereas I have not yet analysed my data and written conclusions, my impression after the field work was that the various stakeholders in the oil project had taken steps to pursue their interests. Each of them, be it the government, oil company or community, had a somewhat clear picture of what they hope to gain from the project. I also noticed that government and the oil company have a plan to consult and engage the communities, but the quality of these engagements in some cases does not play out as expected for one reason or the other.

I will spend the winter looking at my data and using qualitative research methods to analyse it. In my thesis, I hope to make practical recommendations to the stakeholders (government, private oil company and local communities) to design, redesign or improve community participation in extractive industry projects.


SsekandiSsekandi Ronald Ssegujja
MADM Student

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