In the beginning..

there is me sat in an internet cafe in Garden City shopping centre in Kampala. I arrived here on the back of a motor bike taxi, helmetless, clutching the poor driver around the midriff, while telling him to slow down! Not sure I will ever get used to this mode of transport.

I am in Uganda undertaking the field work research for my PhD. I arrived a week ago and will be here for the next 12 weeks. My PhD focuses on young people's involvement with co-operative enterprises in both Uganda and Lesotho. Here in Uganda I will be working with 3 youth co-operatives, trying to find out the details of how being part of a co-operative benefits them.

In many countries in Africa there are high rates of unemployment among young people and a large numbers of young people, this creates the need to find ways to provide them with a job or an income. This is where co-operatives come in, they are a way for a group of people to set up a business together. Working as a group gives them advantages; they can combine their resources (whether it be land or money or their skills and their ideas) and they can increase their bargaining power with other stakeholders. In short it can enable them to build a stronger and more effective business. Co-operative enterprises also focus on members working together in a values driven manner - working democratically, showing and acting upon concern for the wider community, equity and self-help. In this way they operate as a different kind of business that has benefits beyond the important profit that a business generates.

In Uganda co-operatives have a long history; they have been around for 100 years or so and there is an established set of structures that support the development of co-operatives. Generally co-operatives have been agricultural co-ops where groups of farmers work together to sell their produce, as a group they can command better prices. They also buy necessary supplies together such as fertiliser and they are able to get these for cheaper. Today farmer co-ops are still prevalent but there is also a growth of savings and credit co-ops that aim to provide banking services to people that cannot access the formal banking system - either because they are too far from a bank or they do not have the capital to set a bank account up. There are also co-ops for people involved in transport - such as my friends on the motor bike taxis, who work together saving their profits to mend their bikes or buy new ones, one day perhaps they will even buy helmets for their passengers! There are also co-ops making handicrafts or setting up catering services; a real range of areas. My interest lies in the co-ops that have been established by young people. The main co-operative support organisation here in Uganda is the Uganda Co-operative Alliance (UCA) and they have been busy trying to encourage young people to set up co-ops and have managed to set up 60 across Uganda - they are mainly agricultural or savings and credit co-ops. It is these groups that I will be focussing on.

So with that quick introduction over - what have I been up to? Well I managed to arrive pre-volcanic ash cloud eruption and landed in Uganda on a sunny Sunday morning. After a day in Kampala Nik and I had a nice few days holiday in on the River Nile. We had a stunning view of the river from how tent and enjoyed watching the rafters go down the nearby Bugali Falls, the storms coming in and out and the absolutely beautiful bird life. We are now back in Kampala following a good bus ride that took 2 hours and cost 1.20 GBP each and I have had my first few days meeting with UCA who will be supporting me while I am here. I have been walking into meet UCA from our hotel which is about a 30 minute walk on the way there, all down hill and about 45 minutes on the way home as it is all uphill! It is great to walk around (as it means less motor bikes!) as you can take in the city. People in suits bustling up to work, traffic everywhere grid locked as it would be in London on a Monday morning, people selling anything and everything laid out on sheets on the street.

On arrival at UCA in down town Kampala I was warmly welcomed back despite only having spent a short time here in December 2009. I spent Monday catching up with Leonard the General Secretary at UCA, enjoying tea and samosas and talking through the upcoming elections in the UK and in Uganda. Time is taken to have meetings, discussions and do business, it is important to catch up and get to know who you are working with. We have now made a plan for my field work and will be doing some visits to several youth co-operatives this week around the Jinja area. This is a lovely town 80 kms from Kampala where I will be basing myself to complete the case studies of the youth co-ops. We then went for a lovely lunch of traditional Ugandan food and I have to say I love the food here. Fresh fruit and juice for breakfast and for other meals yummy fish, vegetables including my fav sweet potatoes .

It is nice to have Nik here too, easier to do new things with some else the first time around! He has another 1 and a half weeks left before he gets back to the UK and Mosi. But whilst 12 weeks in Uganda seemed an age before I left I think there is so much for me to do in terms of my research and enjoy in terms of Uganda, that it will fly by.