General
Mak to host Higher Education Resource Services-East Africa
Makerere University is set to host the coveted Higher Education Resource Services, East Africa (HERS-EA); which brings together women in institutions of higher learning in the region to sharpen their leadership skills. HERS-EA was launched on 5th August 2014 during a two day conference at Imperial Royale Hotel, which drew over 150 participants from universities in the East African Countries of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Ethiopia (Central Africa). The Guest of honour, Dr. Raymonda Burgman, Director HERS Institutes USA, challenged HERS-EA to go beyond the equilibrium. “Well behaved women rarely change anything. Go out and change the world,” she emphasized. Mrs. Elizabeth Gabona, Commissioner for Higher Education in Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports welcomed the HERS-EA initiative and urged the brains behind it to make sure they have sustainable impact.
HERS is a non-profit educational organization based in the USA. It provides leadership and management training for women in Higher Education Institutions. HERS has instituted a programme of developing partner organisations in order to share and expand the HERS curriculum and associated programs in leadership and management development of women; thus the need for HERS-EA as a sister organization of HERS-USA and HERS-South Africa. HERS-EA’s volunteer Secretariat is currently hosted at the Africa Institute for Strategic Services and Development (AFRISA) in Makerere University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB). On 3rd Oct. 2013, Makerere University signed a memorandum of understanding to host HERS-EA until it is ready to operate on its own.
According to the Chair HERS-EA Dr. Margaret L. Khaitsa, the HERS-EA model will empower women to scale the height. “Many women are qualified but lack confidence and a support system to take them forward. HERS-EA will provide the network and also create an enabling and safe environment for women to share similar challenges and encourage one another,” she explained.
The Chair of the HERS-EA Conference Organizing Committee, Prof. Florence Wakoko-Studstill, explained that HERS was born out of the realization that women were occupying important positions but there was a substantial lack of women serving as decision makers. HERS-EA targets women in Higher Education Institutions at different career development levels who are thinking of leadership or who are already in leadership to be more efficient and reach the desired levels.
“Our objective is to provide an enabling environment for women in higher education to reach out to the ordinary women in rural communities through mentoring, training, research and transformative activities like best practices in food production and community health. The skills acquired will help them aspire for positions of leadership wherever they will be,” said Prof. Wakoko-Studstill.
Operationalizing HERS-EA
A Board of Directors comprised of representatives from the East African countries, with relevant skills to ensure that they efficiently run the organization and meet the standards for good governance will be formed with its Secretariat in Uganda. The interactive conference agreed that this Board will develop a governance structure for the organization, handle policy issues and will work closely with sub-committees that will specialize in resource mobilization and strategic development.
“We want to train women at least once annually. We will keep a network of all alumni and provide electronic information and also invite them to participate as experts and trainers,” explained Dr. Khaitsa. She hopes that if the Ministries of Education in the member countries and the IUCEA own HERS-EA, which will help address the sustainability question.
A curriculum will be developed, tailor made for the unique needs of women in Higher Education Institutions in East Africa, and a call consequently put out for applications. Dr. Mutasimbwa from IUCEA shared key insights on how gender was mainstreamed in IUCEA, and stressed the need for gender content in academic programmes across the board, and addressing gender imbalance within the academic hierarchy as key points for HERS-EA to consider in structuring a curriculum. IUCEA has already developed broad guidelines for a gender curriculum in East Africa.
Partnering and Funding HERS-EA
To achieve her objective, HERS-EA is looking at partnering with Government, the donor community, and the public and private sectors.
The Principal Education Officer in the Ministry of East African Community Affairs, Amutenda Salvatore Tumwine, pledged the Ministry’s support towards HERS-EA. “We will give you all the necessary support. But as you make your structures, make sure they are big, visible and convincing enough to be categorized under the Education sector as opposed to being under a civil society organization. By doing this, you will be better heard,” he advised. “Please utilize the Ministry of East African Community Affairs and the Inter University Council of East Africa, IUCEA, in propelling HERS- EA,” he added.
Catherine Kanabahita, Director of the Gender Mainstreaming Directorate Makerere University stressed that the Directorate will offer support to HERS-EA. “We want to give technical expertise in writing award winning proposals to raise resources. We also believe in publicity and networks, so we look forward to helping out in this area too,” she said. She presented the participants with a copy of a famous book by the late former President of Tanzania H.E Julius Nyerere titled, ‘Women’s Freedom: Women are Eagles, Not Chickens,’ for personal motivation.
The Principal of CoVAB, Prof. David Kabasa challenged HERS-EA to use the AFRISA model in empowering women. “The discussion on gender should incorporate a discussion on value addition to local products. Inclusiveness in the economic development of Africa must be cognizant of the value chain. The ideological disorientation of getting employed must be addressed. Production should not be looked at as inferior,” he argued.
The President of Africa America Higher Education Partnerships, AAHEP, Dr. Pius Kamau encouraged HERS-EA to be open to diverse partnerships. “We need to create huge partnerships to support one another. Africa has big programmes and different groups think they have the solution but this is not true. All of us should contribute towards making Africa better. I believe women have a much bigger role to play, especially women of science. It is my hope that if we continue doing this, we will create women who are Presidents or key leaders to advance Africa,” he asserted.
Over 5,000 women have been trained by HERS-USA and another 1,000 trained by HERS-SA including the former Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs of Makerere University Prof. Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza, and Dr. Consolata Kabonesa – Dean School of Women and Gender Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS). Funds will dictate how many will be trained by HERS-EA. The bigger vision is to form HERS-Africa.
By Marion Alina, Public Relations Office
For more information about HERS, see:
www.hers-sa.org.za
http://hersnet.org
Makerere University has officially launched its Strategic Plan 2025-2030, marking a major milestone in its commitment to strengthening research, innovation, and human capital development in line with Uganda’s national development priorities.
The launch brought together senior government officials, university leadership, and development planners, including the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Hon. Henry Musasizi, and a representative from the National Planning Authority (NPA), alongside the University Vice Chancellor.
A Vision Anchored in National Transformation
Speaking at the launch, the Vice Chancellor underscored the University’s ambition to significantly expand graduate training and strengthen its contribution to national development. He noted that the institution is targeting a return to pre-COVID enrolment levels and a substantial increase in postgraduate numbers by 2030, with a focus on producing highly skilled graduates, innovators, and researchers.
He emphasized that the Strategic Plan positions the University as a key driver of Uganda’s transformation through knowledge generation, innovation, and entrepreneurship, aligned with national priorities.
“The staffing distribution is shown here. Under the approved establishment, we intended to have 419 Professors, but we currently have only 75. We planned for 473 Associate Professors, but currently have only 144. This clearly demonstrates that we still have considerable room for growth in strengthening our academic staff profile,” the VC said.
The VC appreciated researchers and research centres, that continue to attract substantial research funding. He highlighted the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) and the Makerere University Walter Reed Project which attracted approximately US$70 million in international research funding into Uganda.
“When you combine the grants won by all our researchers through competitive international funding, the total exceeds US$200 million,” he said.
In her remarks, the Chairperson of the University Council, Dr. Lorna Magara, described the Strategic Plan as more than an institutional roadmap, calling it “a public covenant with the people of Uganda.”
She noted that the Plan marks “the launch of Makerere University’s next chapter,” adding that decisions taken over the next five years will shape not only the future of the institution, but also Uganda’s development trajectory through graduates, research, innovations, and leadership.
Dr. Magara emphasized Makerere’s unique national role as Uganda’s premier public university, entrusted with public resources and public confidence.
“Every investment made in Makerere must produce measurable value for the people of Uganda,” she said, underscoring the need for accountability, integrity, and impact.
Ambitious Targets for Transformation
The Council Chairperson and the Vice chancellor outlined bold performance targets under the Strategic Plan, including doubling postgraduate enrolment, increasing STEM enrolment from 30% to 55%, improving PhD completion rates from 10% to 35%, and more than doubling peer-reviewed research output, alongside a significant rise in patents and innovations.
Dr. Magara stressed that these targets are not aspirations alone but binding commitments against which institutional performance will be measured.
“Ambition is precisely what this moment demands. A strategic plan is not measured by the elegance of its language, but by the lives it transforms,” she said.
Call for Stronger Governance and Legal Reform
Dr. Magara also highlighted the need for reform of the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act, Cap. 262, noting that the current legal framework has not kept pace with the evolving realities of university governance and innovation.
She called on Government and Parliament to support a timely review of the Act to enable universities to better optimise knowledge systems, productive assets, and innovation capacity in support of national development.
Government Endorsement and Strategic Alignment
Hon. Henry Musasizi commended the University for developing a forward-looking Strategic Plan aligned with Uganda’s Vision 2040 and the Fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV), which serves as the foundation for the country’s Tenfold Growth Strategy.
He explained that Uganda’s ambition to grow its economy from about USD 50 billion to USD 500 billion requires accelerated growth driven by productivity gains, innovation, and strong human capital development.
“Universities are central actors in national transformation. They are engines of knowledge creation, innovation, and human capital development,” he said.
The Minister stressed that government priorities include strengthening research, promoting industrialization, and ensuring that knowledge generated in universities is translated into practical solutions that support economic growth. He further highlighted the importance of accountability, efficiency, and value for money in public investments in higher education.
Universities as Drivers of the Tenfold Growth Strategy
In his presentation, the Senior Planner at the National Planning Authority, Samuel Kasule, emphasized that the Strategic Plan is firmly anchored in Uganda’s comprehensive development framework under Vision 2040 and NDP IV.
He noted that the Tenfold Growth Strategy seeks to accelerate Uganda’s economic growth into double-digit territory, enabling the country to achieve structural transformation and reach upper middle-income status.
Kasule underscored that universities play a critical role in this transformation through labour productivity, research, and innovation. He pointed out that priority sectors such as agriculture, tourism, minerals, oil and gas, and ICT depend heavily on skilled graduates and strong research ecosystems.
He also highlighted the importance of competency-based education, alignment of academic programmes with national human resource needs, and strengthening postgraduate training and research outputs.
A Shared Commitment to Transformation
Across all speeches, a strong message emerged: universities are central to Uganda’s development agenda and must evolve into research-intensive institutions that directly contribute to economic transformation.
The Strategic Plan 2025-2030 was widely commended for its focus on innovation, industry collaboration, digital transformation, and the commercialization of research outputs.
Government leaders reaffirmed continued support for higher education institutions through research funding, innovation ecosystems, and strengthened university–industry partnerships.
Conclusion
The launch of the Strategic Plan 2030 signals a renewed commitment to positioning the University as a key partner in Uganda’s development journey. With strong alignment to national priorities, the Plan is expected to accelerate research, innovation, and skills development necessary for achieving Uganda’s long-term economic ambitions. The Strategic Plan may be accessed at: https://mak.ac.ug/about/strategic-plan
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