Michael Buteera Mugisha is a Ph.D. candidate with the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in the United Kingdom. Michael’s research focuses on varieties of liberalisation and the politics of commodity sector upgrading. His central research question examines how and why the Kenyan government liberalised its coffee sector differently from Uganda's government, despite coffee making a more salient contribution to Uganda’s economy than to Kenya's.

Michael's research intends to provide an in-depth exploration of how different liberalisation strategies account for variation in the upgrading capacity and value capture observable across the two countries' sectors. Prior to returning to LSE for doctoral studies, Michael consulted for Ibero Uganda, a company of Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG), where he designed and implemented a robust commercial and operational strategy that significantly boosted the company's coffee exports within a year.

At the same time, Michael taught undergraduate classes at Makerere University in the field of economic demography, where he remains a full-time Lecturer, but now on study leave. Michael holds MSc degrees in Economics and Development Management, respectively from LSE and the London Metropolitan University, and a BSc. in Population Studies from Makerere University.

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