Beyond Compliance: Environmental and Social Audits and Sustainability Outcomes in Electricity Transmission Infrastructure in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area, Uganda

Abstract

Environmental and Social Audits (ESAs) are institutionalised post‑implementation accountability mechanisms intended to ensure that infrastructure projects meet environmental sustainability and social equity standards. This document‑based study evaluates ESA effectiveness for electricity transmission infrastructure in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA), Uganda, using a qualitative‑dominant mixed documentary approach. A purposive sample of 24 ESA and related follow‑up documents (2015–2025) was systematically coded and analysed using deductive and inductive thematic techniques; compliance indicators were extracted for descriptive quantitative comparison. Findings reveal a persistent compliance–outcome paradox: audit records routinely document procedural adherence but provide limited, verifiable evidence of ecological recovery or social redress. Structural constraints identified include epistemic erasure, institutional fragility and weak stakeholder participation. Audit frameworks show ecological blind spots notably under‑monitoring of habitat fragmentation and avian mortality and recurring social grievances over land acquisition, compensation delays and perceived electromagnetic field (EMF) risks. Descriptive indicator comparisons and a diagnostic OLS model indicate a weak association between reported compliance and documented sustainability outcomes (compliance coefficient = 0.12, Std. Error = 0.09, t = 1.33, p = 0.18, R^2 = 0.08). The study concludes that ESAs in GKMA currently function more as symbolic governance instruments than as transformative sustainability tools. It recommends reorienting audit systems towards participatory, adaptive and knowledge‑inclusive frameworks that institutionalise long‑term ecological monitoring, embed community‑based auditing and establish binding enforcement mechanisms to ensure audit findings translate into measurable outcomes.