General
Innovative Volunteerism Key to Africa’s Transformational Change
The Conference Hall at the School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bioengineering, Makerere University was abuzz with expectation on the hot Thursday afternoon of 8th February 2018 as students from Universities within Kampala and as far as Busitema University gathered to listen to Dr. Richard Munang demystify Innovative Volunteerism.
Dr. Richard Munang who is the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Africa Regional Climate Change Programme Coordinator has been at the forefront of championing Innovative Voluteerism through UNEP’s Ecosystem Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly (EBAFOSA) where he is the Focal Person.
“Innovative Volunteerism is not blind optimism” declared Dr. Munang, before going on to explain “Innovative Volunteerism is pinned on the spirit of selfless commitment towards Africa's socio-economic development.”
Dr. Munang asked his audience not to confuse Volunteerism with Innovative Volunteerism. “With volunteerism, you are offering your skills and labour free of charge while with Innovative Volunteerism, you not only do something with your skills that connects the dots or fills the gaps in agro-productivity but also benefits you as economic gain is eventually realised” he clarified.
He future expounded that Innovative Volunteerism is delivered through EBAFOSA where everyone is brought together for climate action and socioeconomic transformation through sustainable agriculture-led clean energy powered industrialization. “I challenge you to likewise embark on this transformational approach to doing business in Africa called Innovative Volunteerism” rallied Dr. Munang.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe who was represented by Prof. Bernard Bashaasha, Principal-College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) thanked UNEP and EBAFOSA for choosing Makerere University as a collaborative associate in organising the public lecture.
“I am therefore delighted to have all of you here at Makerere University to discuss how we can make Africa work through the power of Innovative Volunteerism. Makerere University hosts the biggest number of youth in Uganda’s Higher Education. This is our biggest resource that can be tapped into in the quest to popularise innovative volunteerism,” read Prof. Nawangwe’s speech.
The public lecture was organised by the Makerere University Centre for Climate Research and Innovations (MUCCRI) under the theme “Engendering an Inclusive Africa under Climate Change: the Power of Innovative Volunteerism”. MUCCRI was launched in 2013 under CAES to enhance climate change knowledge generation and dissemination.
“Through MUCCRI, the University brings together researchers and scientists from within and outside Makerere University, government officials, civil society, and private sector actors to collaboratively and locally address climate change, share information, and solve problems on adaptation technologies and research” added the Vice Chancellor.
Earlier, the audience had listened to the EBAFOSA Uganda Chapter President, Mr. Patrick Luganda, who explained that EBAFOSA is a pan-African platform based in 40 African countries that seeks to combat food insecurity and climate change using an inclusive approach that produces results at the grassroots level. He noted that each and every student present in the audience could easily join the EBAFOSA network, noting that the platform’s impact in Africa thrives on a vibrant network of volunteers.
The public lecture was also addressed by Mr. Isaac Ndamuhaki from FIKA Africa Advocacy Foundation; a youth led non-profit organization focusing on empowering communities with sustainable solutions and empowerment programs in education, environment and agriculture, healthcare, financial literacy and life skills. He urged participants to join the foundations upcoming community awareness drive on autism.
Dr. Munang in his keynote address further noted that gatherings that brought together youth at higher education institutions such as the public lecture will “tap into our togetherness to tie down the lion of food insecurity.”
“In the Democratic Republic of Congo, through the EBAFOSA Framework a group of graduate youthful agripreneurs have channeled their skills, networks and capital to optimise the cassava value chain. These young people process cassava into flour, package it, standardise it and sell to bakers. With this integration, the youth generate up to $4,000 as weekly income, translating to $16,000 monthly and $196,000 annually,” shared Dr. Munang much to the amazement of his audience.
Touching on the EBAFOSA standards currently being domesticated in Uganda for the cassava value chain, Dr. Munang said that producers in Busiro stood a chance of tapping into the US$200million African market, which is way beyond their current market under the Uganda Breweries initiative. He shared that although Cassava is the second most important staple crop in Uganda, it has the most significant losses of up to 90% of its initial value – translating to over $30 million annually, as a result of poor postharvest handling techniques and lack of viable value addition initiatives.
As he concluded his keynote address, Dr. Munang pointed out that with Innovative Volunteerism, it is neither a top-down approach nor a bottom-up approach, but rather a blend of ideas from a host of individuals possessing different skill sets that works. He urged his listeners to shun attitudes that have previously kept Africa lagging behind and instead embrace authenticity and persistence, which hold the key to the success stories so far recorded under Innovative Volunteerism. “Attitude is not a way of life, it can be changed. Always aspire not to make a living but to make a difference” he concluded.
Moving a vote of thanks and giving the closing remarks at the end of the public lecture, the Coordinator MUCCRI and day’s moderator Dr. Revocatus Twinomuhangi thanked Dr. Richard Munang for not only coming to Uganda but also agreeing to deliver the keynote address at Makerere University. He urged the audience to carefully consider the nuggets of wisdom given by Dr. Munang in his address and use them to make a difference in their community.
“I also urge you to take advantage of all the opportunities presented to you by EBAFOSA and MUCCRI to come up with a different way of doing business. In all we do, we need to make a difference” concluded Dr. Twinomuhangi.
Article by Public Relations Office
The Senior Program Director, Higher Education and Research in Africa, International Program, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Prof. Omotade Akin Aina on 23rd May 2025 visited Makerere University during his short trip to Kampala. Prof. Aina was received on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe by Prof. Tony Oyana, Principal of the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS).
During his visit, Prof. Aina met with the Project Implementation Committee, representatives from the Consolidating Early Career Academics Programme (CECAP) phase I Fellowship Cohort, and current Fellows of phase II. The meeting discussed the progress of CECAP II, which focuses on fostering academic development and research among early-career academics.
CECAP II is being implemented by Makerere University in collaboration with four other Ugandan public universities, including; Busitema University, Gulu University, Kyambogo University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza, the Project Principal Investigator was represented at the meeting by the Director of Graduate Training, Prof. Julius Kikooma.
By Moses Lutaaya
The Directorate of Graduate Training at Makerere University has equipped several Senior ranking lecturers with expert knowledge in a Training of Trainers’ workshop on “Philosophy of Methods”.
In his remarks at the opening of a 3-day training workshop at Level4 Conference Hall – Senate Building, the Director of Graduate Training Prof. Julius Kikooma said, “The teaching of Philosophy of Methods gives all participants the fundamentals to extend knowledge to other learners, hence its importance in upholding the Makerere University values.”
Kikooma urged and challenged the participants to also attend and actively participate in the follow up of learners’ training of students, stating that the PhD students need support as the directorate continues to coordinate the curriculum of PhD by-research that was approved by the senate recently.
“To holistically implement the senate approved PhD curriculum, we are coordinating capacity building trainings of all stake holders in a structured approach with the different units of the University. Many more trainings including Training of Trainers in advanced research methods course are on the way.”
He further urged the participants to be intentional in their teaching profession and in whatever they were doing, adding “Apart from focusing on practices as teachers and researchers, we can engage in wider philosophical debates in our research areas so that we are relevant in the society and in the empowerment of PhD research students.”
The participants for the Philosophy of Methods training were from College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University Business School among others.
During the same training, Dr. Dickson Kanakulya stressed the need to train senior lecturers in the Philosophy of Methods, saying, “The biggest connection is that societal problems require concrete research to find solutions. Our challenge in Africa is that we employ a short barrow approach to find solutions to problems. This cannot work. We need consistent researchers to solve problems. Lasting solutions to societal issues can only be got through training such as Philosophy of Methods, where researchers come up with new models for societal solutions.”
Dr. Kanakulya said that Makerere University remains the biggest research University in Africa and philosophy of Methods helps to come up with good research tools that produce good research outputs. “Research has shown that the higher the number of PhD researchers in any given country, the higher the levels of development of that country e.g. the USA, China etc., adding that research is not limited to only medicinal or agricultural related issues.”
He said philosophy of methods, encourages philosophical creativity in research, “It is meant to bring out philosophical generation of concepts, theories and ideas. It is meant to encourage students to question the existing philosophical assumptions and status quo in a given field of knowledge such that new philosophical concepts are created.”
For successful rollout of government programs like the National Development Plan 4, Dr. Kanakulya said that Philosophy of Methods training needs to be integrated into such systems. “Philosophy of Methods focuses on ethical thinking aspects. For example, for a better rollout of the Parish Development Model, we need implementers to be ethical.” He added.
Prof. Sulait Tumwiine, the associate Dean of Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at MUBS said, “This is a discussion where new ideas are shared to guide and gauge applicability in the current knowledge diversity coupled with lots of technological development including Artificial Intelligence and Chat GPT.”
He added, “As professors of Universities, we need to understand how we leverage on what comes up so that it does not take our space, but also appreciate how we can support growth of knowledge. The Philosophy of Methods training is the answer.”
Dr. Jim Spire Ssentongo highlighted that Philosophy uses more of the critical mind than Science. He added that philosophy is more of speculation of the mind.
“Sustainability of philosophy Education encourages us to continue training. Philosophy being the oldest discipline retained special status in the academia as a pinnacle of pursuit of knowledge. All disciplines have major elements of philosophy citing examples in the philosophy of Mathematics and Physics.
Dr. Spire added, “If you do not understand philosophy, you cannot deeply investigate anything because philosophy is the reality of understanding everything. Philosophy is the basis of understanding what knowledge is and how it is arrived at.”
Also participating in the workshop was Prof. Joseph Ntaayi from MUBS, in his remarks he said PhD students need the philosophy of methods training to understand how to best to create knowledge. He added that ontological and epistemological questions that lead to good research design methods can only be answered by this training.
Dr. Robert Kakuru, a Lecturer in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences said that the Philosophy of Methods training is needed by every graduate student as well as supervisors to critically determine the choice of methods to use in academic research. For example, “If one wants to use a questionnaire as an interview approach, one should understand, why that approach and yet without this training, the why cannot be answered.” He added.
The Philosophy of Methods training was organized by Directorate of Graduate Training with funding support from the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA).
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