A key goal of the COMESA Treaty () was to stimulate sustainable economic growth in the region through increased trade between member states. On the basis of a 1980–2010 annual panel dataset, we examine the contribution of COMESA integration to economic growth in the region using instrumental variables GMM regression in the framework of a cross‐country growth model. Contrary to a priori expectation, we find no significant empirical support for a positive growth impact, as yet, on the region from the integration. Growth in capital stock, population, world GDP and the level of openness to international trade turned out to be the most robust drivers of growth in the COMESA region over the period.

The health sector has attracted significant foreign aid; however, evidence on the effectiveness of this support is mixed. This paper combines household panel data with geographically referenced subnational foreign aid data to investigate the contribution of health aid to health outcomes in Uganda. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that aid had a strong effect on reducing the productivity burden of disease indicated by days of productivity lost due to illness but was less effective in reducing disease prevalence. Consequently, health aid appeared to primarily quicken recovery times rather than prevent disease. In addition, we find that health aid was most beneficial to individuals who lived closest to aid projects. Apart from the impact of aid, we find that aid tended to not be targeted to localities with the worse socioeconomic conditions. Overall, the results highlight the importance of allocating aid close to subnational areas with greater need to enhance aid effectiveness.

The paper estimates the determinants of price differentials across 79 districts in Uganda. In the framework of the law of one price, we examine the hypothesis that the spatial price differentials are at least partly influenced by transportation and other transaction costs, infrastructural constraints, productivity and commodity output shocks and the purchasing power of households. The study notes the wide range of price differences across the country, which to a large extent can be attributed to the interaction between remoteness and the quality of physical infrastructure. The effect of income per capita on price differentials is relatively uniform across commodities. The findings point towards the importance of strengthening the capacities of farmers and their productivity as a means to improve their livelihoods and foster more efficient markets with faster supply responses to changes in prices. The findings further emphasize the significance of spatial dimension and infrastructure conditions in Uganda, suggesting that infrastructural development must be a core area to reduce price differences in the country.

Endemic supply side constraints including fluctuating output levels, deficient trade infrastructure, rampant non-tariff barriers and incapacity to ensure international quality standards continue to thwart the gainful participation of many Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in an increasingly liberal global trade environment. At its 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, the World Trade Organization launched its Aid for Trade (AFT) initiative aimed at coordinating global financial support for strengthening trade capacity in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This paper examined the effect of foreign aid, particularly Official Development Assistance, on Uganda’s external trade and its AFT component in strengthening the country’s trade capacity. Using time series Error Correction Modelling and the World Bank’s World Development Indicators and official national statistics, the paper finds small but positive aid influence on Uganda’s exports and imports and generally close alignment between aid and national priorities. However, given general aid volatility but more especially following the anti-homosexuality legislation and gross corruption allegations in the case of Uganda, the paper advises that external aid be treated as a supplement rather than a substitute for domestic financial resource mobilization in trade capacity development.