I am a Postdoctoral Fellow (2012-2015) from the Research Fund – Flanders (FWO).

• My main focus is currently on security-dynamics in LRA-affected areas in the border region between DRC, South Sudan and the Central African Republic, with a specific focus on the DRC. I also look at external interventions in these areas. I am currently writing up a number of pieces on this subject.

• I am also focusing on  informal cross-border trade or 'smuggling'; and public services and state institutions in so-called 'failed states'. If you don't have access to any of the publications listed below, don't hesitate to send me an email.

1)     Informal cross-border trade

My main research focus is on informal cross-border trade in the borderlands of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Sudan; with particular attention to the West Nile region in north-Western Uganda. For this, I have been working on a postdoctoral project (2009 - 2012) of the Research Fund – Flanders entitled “The crossborder informal economy in Sub-Saharan Africa: criminalisation or survival option?”.

Selected publications (full list of publications here).

Schomerus, M., Titeca, K. (2012) 'Deals and Dealings: Inconclusive Peace and Treacherous Trade along the South Sudan-Uganda Border' Afrika Spectrum 47(-3): 5-31.

Titeca, K., Kimanuka, C. (2012) ‘ Walking in the dark. Informal cross-border trade in the Great Lakes Region’. London: International Alert.

Titeca, K. (2012) ‘Tycoons and contraband: informal cross-border trade in West Nile, north-western Uganda’Journal of Eastern African Studies (special issue ‘Uganda from the margins’) 6(1): 47-63

Titeca, K., (2011) Access to Resources and Predictability in Armed Rebellion: The FAPC’s Short-lived ‘Monaco’ in Eastern Congo. Afrika Spectrum, 2/2011: 43-70. 

Titeca, K., De Herdt, T. (2010) 'Regulation, cross-border trade and practical norms in West Nile, north-western Uganda 'Africa 80(4): 573-594. 

Titeca, K. (2009) 'The 'Masai' and Miraa: public authority, vigilance and criminality in a Ugandan border town'Journal of Modern African Studies 47(2): 219- 317

Titeca, K. (2009) “The changing Cross-border Trade Dynamics between North-western Uganda, North-eastern Congo and Southern Sudan”, Crisis States Working Paper 63 series 2, London School of Economcis and Political Science,Crisis States Research Centre, London. 

Titeca, K. (2006) ‘Les OPEC boys en Ouganda, trafiquants de pétrole et acteurs politiques’Politique Africaine, n°103 : 143-159.

A recent interest in this research stream is the regulation of informal economic activities in urban contexts:

Goodfellow, T., Titeca, K. (2012) Presidential intervention and the changing 'politics of survival' in Kampala's informal economy.  Cities 29(4): 264 – 270. The paper can also be accessed (free of charge) here.

A blog post and summary of the paper can be found here. 

2) Rebel groups in Central Africa.

I am working on rebel movements in central Africa such as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) or the 'Force Armées du Peuple Congolais' (FAPC). My main interest remains however with the Lord's Resistance Army, on which I am currently conducting a research project, and for which I have been conducting field research in the DRC-CAR-South Sudan border region. 

Key publications:

Titeca, K., (2011) Access to Resources and Predictability in Armed Rebellion: The FAPC’s Short-lived ‘Monaco’ in Eastern Congo . Afrika Spectrum, 2/2011: 43-70.

Titeca, K. (2010) 'The spiritual order of the LRA' in: Allen, T., Vlassenroot, K. The Lord's Resistance Army: Myth and Reality. London, Zed Books: 59-73.

Adam, J., De Cordier, B., Titeca, K. and Vlassenroot, K. (2007) In the Name of the Father?’ Christian Militantism in Northern Uganda, Tripura (India) and Ambon (Indonesia),Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 30:1–21

3)     Public services in so-called ‘failed’ states.

This research takes the ‘real governance’ of particular sectors as a starting point, instead of the ‘failed state’ concept. In doing so, it is shown how services continue to be provided in an evolving negotiation process between state and non-state actors. The negotiated nature of statehood and the power differentials between the various actors, involve constant renegotiation; which makes that regulation depends on power figurations in particular localities and particular times, in which there is a ‘loose coupling’ between state bureaucracies and actual practices.

Concretely, I have been focusing on the Congolese education sector in a  2008-2010 project on post-conflict reconstruction in the D.R. Congo . More generally, I am focussing on local governance in the DRC through a 2010-204 project of institutional cooperation with the Catholic University of Congo on decentralization and public services, of which I am the Flemish project leader.

I am currently focussing on a comparative study of customs institutions in the DRC, South Sudan and Uganda through the FWO postdoctoral project (2012-2015) ' State institutions and hybrid governance beyond the ‘failed’ state: a comparative study of custom institutions along the borders of South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda'.

Key publications:

De Herdt, T., Titeca, K. ‘Privatisation or loose coupling? Understanding Governance with empty pockets in the education sector in the DRC’. Work in progress.

Titeca, K., De Herdt, T. (2011) 'Real governance beyond the "failed state": negotiating the education sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)' African Affairs 110(439):213-231.

De Herdt, T., Titeca, K.  and Wagemakers, I. (2011) “Making Investment in Education part of the Peace Dividend in DRC”,in: UNESCO (ed.)  The hidden Crisis: Armed Conflict and Education, Paris, UNESCO.

De Herdt, T., Titeca, K. & I. Wagemakers (2010) 'Aider l'état à délivrer le dividende de paix: le cas de l'éducation en RDC', in: Marysse, S., Reyntjens, F. et S. Vandeginste (eds.) L'Afrique des Grands Lacs. Annuaire 2009-2010. Paris: L'Harmattan, pp.151-174.

Several chapters were written for the report  De Herdt Tom [edit.], Poncelet M..-Enjeux et acteurs autour de la réduction des frais scolaires en RDC : rapport final Glasgow: DFID, 2010   

     4)     Past projects:

For my Phd, I was interested in the different effects of social capital on community associations and  the influence of outside interventions.

Key publications 

Vervisch, T., Titeca, K., Vlassenroot, K., Braeckman, J. (2013) 'Social Capital and Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Burundi: The Limits of Community-based Reconstruction' Development and Change 44(1): 147-174.
 

Vervisch, T., Titeca, K. (2010) Bridging community associations in post-conflict Burundi: the difficult merging of social capital endowments and new ‘institutional settings’Journal of Modern African Studies 48(3): 485-511.

Titeca, K., Vervisch, T. (2008) ‘The dynamics of social capital and community associations in Uganda: linking capital and its consequences’. World Development 36 (11): 2205-2222.

5)     Editorials

A range of editorials have been written in the Belgian press on the LRA; Uganda and the DRC.

Titeca, K., Vlassenroot, K. (2012) 'Post het YouTubefilmpje over Joseph Kony nog niet, lees eerst dit stuk' De Morgen, 13/03/12.

Vlassenroot, K., Titeca, K., Flaam, H. (2011) 'Team America's jacht op Joseph Kony' De Morgen, 30/10/11

Titeca K., Vlassenroot K., Van Puijenbroek J. (2011) ‘Het meest vergeten conflict ter wereld’ De Morgen, 6 September 2011.  

Titeca, K. 'The winner takes it all: verkiezingen, geld en budgetsteun in Uganda' Mo Opinie, 07 April 2011  

De Herdt, T., Wagemakers, I., Titeca, K. (2010) 'Heeft Congo kans van slagen?' Mo Paper N°50, December 2010. 

Titeca, K., Vlassenroot, K. (2010) 'Stop het LRA' De Standaard, 03 April 2010.

Titeca, K., Van Puijenbroek, J., Vlassenroot, K. (2009) ‘Vergeet het vergeten conflict niet’ De Standaard, 30 Juli 2009.

Titeca, K. (2007) ‘De dubbelzinnige houding van het Westen naar Uganda’, De Standaard, 23 November 2007

Titeca, K. (2006) ‘De Nachtwandelaars van Noord Uganda’ De Morgen, 1 April 2006.

Titeca, K. ‘Oeganda, religieus geweld met strategische functies’, in: Vrede. Tijdschrijft voor Internationale Politiek, 49/381, september-oktober 2006, pp.34-37