Six areas of practice and expertise

This work is concerned with how public policy is made and what it does once it is in force. It covers reading a proposed law, regulation, budget or strategy closely enough to say how it will operate in practice; preparing the evidence and written submissions that support a position; and advising organisations that need to engage government departments, Parliament or local government on a policy question.

Rama has worked on national policy in Uganda for more than a decade. At Oxfam in Uganda he served as National Policy and Advocacy Coordinator and later as Governance and Accountability Thematic Manager, leading the development of the land governance subprogramme and creating the organisation's extractives programme segment. At the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group he coordinated civil society engagement in Uganda's Article IV consultations with the International Monetary Fund, represented the organisation at IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington, and led capacity-building for government officials in gender and equity budgeting.

He has contributed research on whistle-blower protection and on the state of access to information in East and Central Africa for the African Freedom of Information Centre, and to Oxfam Uganda's report on land and agrarian inequality, Who is Growing.

Estate planning is the work of recording, in advance and in proper legal form, what is to happen to a person's property, business interests and obligations. It covers the drafting of wills and trusts; family settlements and succession arrangements; the structuring and holding of family assets and businesses; and the administration of an estate after death, including applications for probate or letters of administration and the distribution of property among beneficiaries.

In Uganda a great deal of family wealth is held in land, in family-run businesses and in customary arrangements that have never been written down. Where nothing is recorded, families are commonly left to resolve competing claims in court, years after the person who could have settled the question is gone. This work is directed at putting arrangements on a clear legal footing while the person concerned is able to give instructions — and, where an estate is already contested, at advising and representing families, executors and administrators through the dispute.

This covers land and property from both directions: advice before a transaction, and representation once a dispute has arisen. Advisory work includes due diligence on titles and tenure, sale and lease agreements, landlord and tenant arrangements, mortgages and charges, and the property elements of development and investment projects. Litigation includes claims concerning ownership, boundaries, trespass, fraudulent transfer, eviction and compensation.

Uganda's land system runs on four forms of tenure — mailo, freehold, leasehold and customary — and the same piece of ground can carry more than one interest that the law recognises. Rama has approached land questions from several positions: as an advocate litigating property matters at the High Court; as the lead on Oxfam in Uganda's land governance subprogramme; as a project manager on women's land rights with ActionAid across the Lira, Oyam and Apac districts, analysing land conflicts and directing them to the appropriate forum; and as adviser to communities displaced from land in western Uganda, including during negotiations with a multinational company facilitated by the World Bank.

Alternative dispute resolution covers the ways a disagreement can be settled without running a full trial: negotiation, mediation, conciliation and arbitration. It is usually quicker and more private than litigation, and it leaves more room for a commercial relationship to survive the disagreement that provoked it.

Rama's particular focus is investment disputes — disagreements between investors and their partners, contractors, host communities or public authorities. At ABNO Advocates he heads the international trade and investment group, advising on responsible investment, legal and political risk, and international redress mechanisms. He has prepared briefs on the International Finance Corporation's Performance Standards, and has advised communities during World Bank-facilitated negotiations with a multinational corporation. Having worked from both sides of an investment dispute, he can read how each party is likely to approach a settlement.