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DVCFA Appeals For Collaboration and Advocacy When Addressing Health Challenges

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Makerere University School of Public Health and College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB) on 12th April, 2018, at Protea Hotel, validated a report on the weaknesses and gaps identified in the inter-sectoral teams from the Government that respond to emerging pandemic zoonoses, such as the recent Marburg Viral Fever outbreak in Kween and Kapchorwa Districts in November 2017. This study was supported by supported by funds from One Health Central and Eastern Africa (OHCEA) and the USAID One Health Workforce (OHW) Project.

Responding to zoonotic disease solely within a single discipline or sector, limits the understanding of the disease situation, results in poor decision making, inefficient coordination and unsatisfactory response to the outbreak. Inter-sectoral collaboration, (also known as the one health approach), is most desirable, and is now operational under the framework of the National One Health Platform in government sectors that primarily respond to infectious diseases. These are the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) and Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).  This collaborative approach will enable Uganda meet the goals as required by the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).

The workshop was opened by the Director of Environmental Affairs from the Ministry of Water and Environment who is the current chair of the National One Health Platform and he advocated for the institutionalization of the One Health Approach, which will result in join envisioning and planning at the ministerial level. Prof. William Bazeyo who is the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Finance and Administration (DVCFA), Makerere University, as well as the Principal Investigator (PI) and CEO OHCEA, urged professionals from various government sectors as well as academia present collaborate with each other and take the message and concept of One Health to the grassroots where the health challenges stem from. Examples of innovative and easily available forum to be used included social media. The Principal, CoVAB who is also the Co-PI OHCEA, Prof. John David Kabasa, in his keynote address stressed that solutions to health issues are dynamic and need to cut across disciplines and educational levels.“People should be molded in One Health right from childhood to higher levels of education,”

The workshop participants included a representative of the Director of Animal Resources, MAAIF, Commissioners from Ministry of MoH, MAAIF and MWE, Senior Health, Veterinary and Environment Government Officers, Consultants in Wildlife, representatives from National Curriculum Development Center, Deans and Departmental Chairs in Makerere Academia, representatives from CDC-Uganda, FAO-ECTAD-Uganda, USAID Preparedness and Response Project, PREDICT-2 and the USAID Uganda Mission. There was an informative plenary discussionconfirming the gaps, weaknesses on the One Health workforce with action points suggested to improve the functioning of the inter-sectoral one health workforce in mitigating infectious health challenges. These findings will be used by the university and other partners (government inclusive) in planning and designing interventions for joint workforce development or enriching one health action plans.

The Assistant Commissioner Information and Communication, (MAAIF), Ms. Connie Acayo, concluded the workshop by reiterating the need for the application of the four “C’s” within the one health (inter-sectoral) approach-Co-operation, Co-ordination, Capacity and Containment of the emerging pandemic threats.
The validated report entitled the “Analysis of the One Health Workforce” was synthesised in close collaboration with government by reviewing several country assessments including Joint External Evaluation (JEE, June 2017) and National Action Plans. A multi-sectoral consultative meeting (22nd to 24th August 2017) utilized the OH-SMARTTM toolkit to strengthen the synthesis report from document review.

Some of the significant capacity and competency gaps revealed by our assessment of the one health workforce as they detect, prevent and respond prioritized zoonoses included: the need for workforce capacity building in management, leadership, communication strategies, risk communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, systems thinking, information technology and informatics. Other gaps pointed towards the need for capacity in disease surveillance, laboratory systems, increasing awareness for the need of one health in academic institutions and a policy framework for the operationalization of the one health approach.

Article by Dr. Peninah Nsamba, CoVAB Focal Person OHCEA

Mark Wamai

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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.

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Directorate of Graduate Training Completes Training of First Cohort Training of Supervisors

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By Moses Lutaaya

The Directorate of Graduate Training (DGT) has in collaboration with Centre for Teaching and Learning completed the training of the first cohort of Graduate Supervisors.

Participants were academic staff from two colleges namely, College of Engineering, Art and Design (CEDAT) and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES).

The three-day training that took place at the Telepresence Centre, Senate Building ended on Friday 20thJune 2025.

In his closing remarks to the participants, the Director of Graduate Training Prof. Julius Kikooma said, “This is the first cohort we are working together with the Center for Teaching and Learning to put together continuous professional development Program so that we are able to enforce the new teaching and learning policy.”

He said that before lecturers are allocated students for supervision, they must first go through this form of formal teaching and learning training to equip them thoroughly with certification required of supervision of graduate students.

“We are coming up with process to ensure that the certificates earned by participants allow you to supervise graduate students. This is the direction of the university and we must ensure that such trainings are concluded and completed successfully by all participants”, Prof. Kikooma.

Prof. Julius Kikooma – Director of Graduate Training

“We can only have you certified upon completing all the exercises in the training process. This is when you will be eligible to receive the work load for supervision”, He added.

“This training of Supervisors is going to be continuous so that all academic staff in colleges and schools are equipped. This first cohort is going to be our building block to the future trainings in the colleges.”

With such capacity building trainings, Prof. Kikooma said that the university is on the right path to achieving its targets in the new strategic plan of increasing the number of graduate students while progressively reducing the under graduate students.

He further hinted that, “We are in the process of writing a curriculum on this, which will be presented for approval before it is rolled out.”

He echoed all participants to share the knowledge they have acquired adding, “Share all you have learnt, do not keep it. Be open minded, have proper communication channels and the sky will be the limit for you.” 

Dr. Robinah N. Kulabako, The Head of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at CEDAT welcomed the training adding, “This training is very pertinent. I have had the opportunity to supervise Masters and PhD students for over 15 years and I must say that the need to be subjected to this training cannot be over emphasized because there is need to learn, unlearn and relearn many aspects involved in the supervision process.”

She added, “We are moving towards knowledge-based supervision rather than experience-based supervision. This means we must be informed and equipped to be able to advise, guide and mentor to be able to lead a successful supervision journey for both supervisor and supervisee.”

Dr. Andrew Gilbert Were – a lecturer at CEDAT and a participant said, “It is important that all supervisors of graduate students receive this certification from Makerere University through a systematic training process that enables them to attain diverse skills to facilitate learning of graduate students from diverse cultures and with unique set of circumstances.”

“This training is long overdue. In fact, it was an oversight that we could be allowed to supervise students without undergoing supervisors’ training.”

Dr. Dorothy Ssebowa, The Director Centre for Teaching and Learning support- CEES said, “The training this time round has had a mix of early career professionals including Lecturers, Supervisors and Professors share experiences. We have learnt a lot more from experienced supervisors who have shared practices on how they have done supervision over the years.”

“The knowledge and experience-based approaches have made this collaboration very active, interactive and learner centered which has resulted into a collaborative learning from the interdisciplinarity of staff from CEDAT and CAES. The issue now is to continue with professional development across all levels.” She added.

The Makerere University Directorate of Graduate Training (DGT) in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning completed the training of the first cohort of Graduate Supervisors. This activity was supported by the iCARTA – Institutionalization of Advanced Research Training in Africa, a NORHED II Project at Makerere University.

Mak Editor

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