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Skills Audit for the Northern Corridor Integration Projects kicks off

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A consortium of universities drawn from the Northern Corridor States of Eastern Africa has been awarded a consultancy to conduct a skills audit for the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIPs). The universities in the consortium are Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) from Kenya, Makerere University from Uganda, University of Rwanda from Rwanda and University of Juba from South Sudan.

The skills audit stems from a directive by the Heads of State of the Northern Corridor States that, ‘the region identifies the skills gaps, challenges and opportunities in the region’. The sub-sectors targeted for the skills audit are:  Information and Communication Technology; Power Generation, Transmission and Interconnectivity; Petroleum (oil and gas): upstream, midstream and downstream; Geothermal Development; Commodities Exchange; Human Resource Capacity Building; Land and Hydrographic survey and mapping; Land, property valuation and physical planning; Maritime Transport and Shipping Logistics; Air Space Management

The overall objective of the assignment is to conduct a skills audit that will enable the development of a Human Resource Capacity Building Strategy (HRCB) for the NCIPs within the aforementioned sub-sectors. The four specific objectives of the skills audit have been defined thus: establishing the required skills for NCIP projects in the 8 clusters/sub-sectors defined for the NCIP; determining the existing skills in the member states for implementation of the projects; identifying skill gaps through conducting a training needs assessment of the current workforce; and developing a comprehensive HRCB strategy for the NCIPs.

The skills audit that began on the 26th September 2016 will cost 130,900,310 Kenya Shillings (US Dollars1,296,000). Professor Joseph Y.T. Mugisha, the Principal College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS), Makerere University is the Team Leader of the Uganda team; other team members from Uganda are: Assoc. Professor Juma Kasozi from CoNAS, Dr. Bruno Yawe and Dr. Abraham Owino from the College of Business and Management Studies. The teams will work with specialists for each of the targeted sectors.

The expected outputs of the skills audit include: a well-documented analysis of the required skills in the identified priority skill areas; an inventory of the existing skills in the identified priority areas of the partner states; an inventory of the skills gap (if any) in the identified priority areas that will be measured and demonstrated with specific details of the NCIPs (showing numbers of skilled people needed to fill the gap, by area of specialisation); HRCB strategy and its implementation Action Plan including costed plans, detailed logical framework and evaluation framework.

The concept of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIPs) was adopted in the Dar-es-Salaam Declaration on 20th November, 2004 by the first summit of the Heads of State and Government during the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (IC/GLR). The Northern Corridor refers to the transport corridor linking Great Lakes countries of Burundi, DRC, Rwanda and Uganda to the Kenyan sea port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. The Heads of State of the Republics of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Southern Sudan, agreed to fast-track the implementation of the commitments made in the Dar-es-Salam Declaration focusing on the respective countries.

The NCIPs are organised around the following clusters/sub-sectors: Standard Gauge Railway; Information and Communication Technology; Power Generation, Transmission and Interconnectivity; Petroleum (oil and gas): upstream, midstream and downstream; Geothermal Development; Commodities Exchange; Human Resource Capacity Building; Land and Hydrographic survey and mapping; Land, property valuation and physical planning; Maritime Transport and Shipping Logistics; Air Space Management. Other areas of interest for the Northern Corridor nations include: Immigration, Trade, Tourism, Labour and Services; Single Customs Territory; Mutual Defence Pact; Mutual Peace and Security Cooperation.

Elias Tuhereze

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Special Exam Results -Diploma in Performing Arts 2025/26

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The results for the 2025/2026 special entry examination for the Diploma in Performing Arts held on Saturday 17th May, 2025. Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the Examination and have been recommended to the university’s Admissions Committee for consideration.

Mak Editor

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Mature Age Scheme Exam Results for 2025/2026

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The Office of Academic Registrar, Makerere University has released full results for the Mature Age Entry Scheme Examinations for the Academic Year 2025/2026 held on Saturday 14th December, 2024.

The Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the examination and have been recommended by the Pre-Entry & Mature Age Committee to the University’s Admissions Board for Consideration.

The Aptitude Exam  Results for 2025/2026 Academic Year released in February 2025 can be found here.

Mak Editor

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Call for Application: 2025 SNRM session 4 Summer School

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Participants in focused group discussions. Leiden-Delft-Erasmus East Africa Research Network (LEARN) in collaboration with the Urban Action Lab at Makerere University a workshop to deliberate strategies for mitigating the impacts of climate change in urban centres in the East African Region, Theme: “Resilient Urban Futures: Adapting Livelihoods to Climate Change”, 4th-5th September 2024, School of Public Health Auditorium, Kampala Uganda.

Context:
Natural resources in Africa are being depleted at an alarming rate due to several factors, including unsustainable human activities, climate change, and population growth. A primary condition of sustainable development is to ensure that the pressures do not exceed the environmental limits, and that demand for the resources does not exceed levels that can be sustainably provided by nature. Therefore, there is a pressing need for transformative, systems-thinking approaches and tools that can tackle the diverse challenges facing these systems. In Africa, this need is compounded by a lack of data and monitoring, which significantly hinders sustainable decision-making.

Investing in young scientists who are committed to take lead in sustainable management of Africa’s natural resources is very important. Capacity building of young scientists will enhance their knowledge and skill on sustainable natural resources and their involvement for implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDG’s) in Africa. To this effect, SNRM summer schools have been implemented in three sessions in 2019, 2020, and 2022 with support from Volkswagen Foundation; to build a critical mass of skilled and competent young natural resource scientists in Africa through training, capacity building and mentorship. Session 4 (2025) will target competent young scientists (MSc and PhD students) in Africa and Germany to further develop their knowledge and skills in systems thinking, advanced data collection and analysis, and application of emerging digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), internet of things (IoT), and embracing transdisciplinary approaches. In addition, we include an ideation workshop where students can work on real problems to come up with solutions for sustainable transformations in natural resource use.

Organizers: Leibniz Universität – Hannover (Germany), University of Antananarivo, University of Abomey Calavi (Benin), Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana (Ghana), University of Parakou (Benin), The Technical University of Kenya, with financial support from the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany).

Venue and dates: Nairobi, Kenya, 16-28 November 2025

Target: MSc and PhD students, early in the program of less than 35 years of age from any university/research institution in either sub-Saharan Africa or Germany with an interest in natural resources management.

Participants and Scholarships: The course is fully funded and open to 20 MSc and PhD students from Africa, and 5 from Germany. Funding will cover the costs of air ticket, accommodation, meals, visa, and transportation. However, participants will cover the cost of their travel health insurance.

Topics

SNRM Summer School Session 4: Transformative pathways in biodiversity management and conservation.
This summer school is designed to deliver four modules over a two-week period. The modules are designed to enable the students to acquire new ways of designing data collection protocols and analysis for transformative sustainable natural resources management.

Module 4.1: Data collection I
Skills in data collection for a transformative and sustainable management of natural resources (water, wildlife, forest, land, livestock, crops) monitoring and data collection techniques; remote monitoring tools, earth observation system data, e.g. satellite data sources, LIDAR, and UAV aerial images. Collect and analyse In-situ data on biotic and abiotic parameters, map and analyse data using R or Google Earth Engine, field data collection and retrieving data from online databases.

Module 4.2 Data management and processing
Introduction to tools and methods of managing large and diverse data sets of natural resources such as time series, spatial, directional, and multivariate data. Practicals will include data storage, organization and conversion into various formats using databases such as PostgreSQL and statistical programming software such as R and Python; scripts.

Module 4.3 Ecological monitoring, modelling and management
This module aims to teach participants how to anticipate and validate trends that can be observed in various ecosystems. Lectures include ecological monitoring and its design; population monitoring studies; metrics in population monitoring; methods for monitoring and assessing marine ecosystems; human ecology to socio-ecological systems; climate change impact of ecosystems; suitability assessments; overview of the principles underlying wildlife monitoring and prediction systems for climate change adaptation. Practicals will include field data collection (individual and group); ecological data analysis using R or PAST; modelling and experiencing the behaviour of complex systems using Vensim.

Module 4.4 Natural habitat restoration ideation lab
This module is designed to spur students’ innovation and creativity, and to help students comprehensively identify interdependencies across the 17 SDG goals. Participants will be trained on ideation processes for solutions and intervention for transformative natural resource management. They will work collaboratively in small groups on case studies and develop pathways of transformative sustainable natural resource management. Examples of projects include forest (mangrove) ecosystem and habitat restoration, improved technologies for agricultural production, nature-based solutions for improving water quality, and reversing land degradation.

Language: The course will be delivered in English. Participants are expected to be fluent in writing and speaking the English language.

How to apply

Applicants are kindly requested to fill in the application form available from https://snrmafrica.com/ and submit the following documents in English through the system.

  • a curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages)
  • a letter of motivation (maximum 1 page)
  • a confirmation of university enrolment
  • a reference letter from the academic supervisor
  • project summary of MSc/ PhD project (1 page including objectives, methodology
    and key findings or expected outcomes).

Important dates
Application deadline: 30th June 2025.
Announcement of accepted applicants: 15th August 2025.
Confirmation of attendance by selected participants: 12th Sept 2025.
Summer school held: 16 – 28 Nov 2025.

Further information is available from

The secretariat info@snrmafrica.com
Dr Lydia Olaka lydiaolaka@tukenya.ac.ke
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Stuetzel stuetzel@gem.uni-hannover.de

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