Uganda is among the very few countries in Africa that have fully embraced reforms in the electricity sector. These reforms that included unbundling, privatization, and the creation of an independent regulator were intended to improve sector performance and efficiency. The key feature of Uganda's model is that it sought privatization in the form of concessions and encouraged competition in the form of independent power producers on long term contracts. By focusing on developments in the generation and distribution segments, this paper gives a recount of the reforms and evaluates the progress made. Despite the post reform crises that rocked the electricity sector in 2005-2006 and again in 2011-2012 occurrences of load shedding have reduced greatly; the crisis periods have been replaced by promising developments. This has been on account of additional generation capacity and the Umeme license review that set new operational targets in distribution. We argue that the renewed Government commitment in the sector is set to lead to improved sector performance. In addition we propose some policy and regulatory measures that could lead to further improvements in the sector.

Uganda has been a public sector reform leader in Africa, producing many best practice laws and structures. Many reforms are limited to such gains, however, producing new forms that function poorly (laws are often not implemented and processes poorly executed). This article suggests adjustments to the reform agenda that address these limitations and close gaps between what Uganda's system looks like and how it functions. Adjustments involve adopting problem driven iterative adaptation (PDIA), which requires Ugandans to work together actively on their reforms, coming to terms with limits and engaging iteratively to find and fit ways to overcome these limits.

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