General
Mak Awards First Gender-responsive Plant Breeding Course Tailored for ICRISAT Participants
Eighteen (18) researchers from seven (7) Sub-Saharan countries were on Saturday 1st December 2018, awarded Certificates of Participation by Makerere University following the successful completion of the first Gender-responsive Plant breeding course tailored on demand for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) – a member of the CGIAR consortium.
The tailored course was organized under a five (5) year (2015-2020) Makerere University (Uganda) and Cornell University (USA) joint certificate program in applied gender training for agricultural researchers titled, “Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The course was tailored for scientists working on the Tropical Legumes III project implemented by ICRISAT, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and jointly organized by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences(CAES) and the School of Women and Gender Studies(SWGS) at Forest Cottages Bukoto, Kampala, from 26th November to 1st December 2018.
The course attracted social scientists and plant breeders working in National Agricultural Research Systems (NARs) and Universities on various breeding programs under the Tropical Legumes III project from Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana and Nigeria.
The purpose of the training was to offer skills in gender responsive research, tailored to assist agricultural researchers to address gender issues along the design, implementation, evaluation, and communication pathways of their research projects.
The Tropical Legumes III project (TL-III) is a major international initiative that seeks to develop and deliver seed of improved cultivars of common bean, cowpea, chickpea and groundnut at scale to small-holders, while also fundamentally strengthening plant breeding programs to generate increased rates of genetic gains.
Participants were taken through a range of topics including: the importance of gender in agriculture, anchoring gender research questions in research projects, gender responsive plant breeding and setting breeding priorities, principles of quantitative and qualitative gender research, engendering data collection methods, women empowerment, and how to develop gender responsive product profiling tools.
After an exhaustive and insightful training, participant teams drew and presented work plans for the next steps towards improving the breeding programs in their respective countries
Speaking during the closing ceremony on behalf of the Principal CAES and Makerere University Vice Chancellor, the College Registrar (CAES) Mr. Edward Obura congratulated fellows upon successful completion of the course.
Mr. Obura also commended the role played by CAES and the SWGS in conducting the GREAT Spin-off course.
“I take the pleasure to congratulate the GREAT team and the researchers upon completing the Tropical Legumes III course. Having successfully participated in this course, all of you are now change agents. Go out and transform the world,” he said.
Beyond the award, the course participants – breeders and social scientists alike said they had acquired skills that will transform their work in their respective countries.
“…When conducting the Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS), I considered the number of male and female participating without taking into account the voice of both gender groups which could increase the adoption rate. In addition, gender issues didn't come up in planning activities but only appeared in the middle of activities and in the report when we were supposed to show how many men and women participated, which I thought sufficiently demonstrated that I was gender responsive. From this GREAT-TL III gender training, I acquired good knowledge and skills, and going forward, the Tanzania groundnut breeding program will consider real gender and not the number of female and male participants during the PVS.” Happy Daudi, a female breeder from Tanzania said.
Chris Sebatta, a male Agricultural Economist working with the Uganda groundnut breeding Program also had this to say,
“…After attending this training course, I have come to realise that as a social economist I have to put on a gender lens whenever doing research whose outcomes will benefit all stakeholders including women and men. Quantitative research alone cannot bring out the complete story without the qualitative part. Many times, as a social economist, I have always believed in the numbers to explain many agricultural issues without realizing that the qualitative part is as important as the quantitative and that the two are complementary.”
The Principal Investigator (PI) Makerere University Assoc. Prof. Margaret Mangheni Najjingo appreciated the participants for undertaking and completing the course.
Dr. Mangheni said, this was the first spin-off following demand by different players to have GREAT short courses.
She appreciated the facilitators for building the trainees’ capacities and in a special way acknowledged the project partners for choosing Makerere University as their trainer towards agricultural gender responsiveness.
“The vision we have as GREAT is to transform the breeding in Sub-Saharan Africa and to close the gender yield gap by considering men and women’s gendered issues in the breeding processes. To do this, we heavily rely on our partners”, she said.
The PI also implored participants to continue engaging and strategizing on transforming the agricultural and poverty security in Africa.
In her remarks, ICRISAT’s Gender Scientist for East and Southern Africa Dr. Esther Njuguna described the workshop as a success.
“In these 6 days, we have succeeded in having conversations, interrogating ourselves, critiquing our own work, critiquing our colleagues and our peers and getting to the point where we feel we have gotten better.
Let us see to it that this knowledge does not remain theoretic. Let us step out and test it and let us continue sharing the progress amongst ourselves for appropriate performance tracking,” said Dr. Njuguna.
Report compiled by;
Esther Namitala,
Public Relations and Communications,
School of Women and Gender Studies,
Makerere University.
The Board of the Zambia Research and Education Network (ZAMREN) led by the Chairperson, Prof. Mundia Muya on 14th October 2025 paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor, Makerere University. The Board which is on a two-day exposure visit to the Research and Education Network of Uganda (RENU) was received by the Acting (Ag.) Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs), Prof. Sarah Ssali in the Vice Chancellor’s Boardroom.
The Chairperson was accompanied by Mr. Ronald Hatoongo and Mr. Stein Mkandawire, the Board Secretary and CEO of ZAMREN respectively, as well as RENU’s CEO-Mr. Nicholas Mbonimpa and RENUMESH Technologies CEO-Mr. Brian Masiga. In attendance were Mr. Samuel Mugabi-Director DICTS, Prof. Robert Wamala-Director Research, Innovations and Partnerships (DRIP), and Prof. Tonny Oyana-Principal College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS).
Also present were; Prof. Paul Birevu Muyinda-Director Institute of Open, Distance and eLearning (IODeL), Dr. Godfrey Mayende-Deputy Director IODeL, Dr. Michael Walimbwa- College of Education and External Studies (CEES), Dr. Cathy Mbidde- Ag. Manager. Makerere University Innovation Pod, Ms. Eunice Rukundo-Deputy Chief-Public Relations and staff from the Office of the Vice Chancellor.
In her welcome remarks, Prof. Ssali thanked the ZAMREN Board for including the courtesy call on their Kampala itinerary and extended warm greetings from the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe. She noted that Makerere as a founding member of RENU has enjoyed a mutually beneficial collaboration, that has benefited both staff and students in the form of supporting growing connectivity needs, as well as training, mentorship, and development of technical skills for both continuing students and graduates.
Turning to the gist of the courtesy call, the Acting Vice Chancellor noted that the Makerere University through the Centre for Artificial Intelligence (MAK-AI) seeks to harness the transformative power of AI to address society’s most pressing challenges. “Projects undertaken by our Centre tackle real-world challenges in health, agriculture, languages, and beyond.”
Prof. Ssali nevertheless underscored the importance of upholding ethics in all AI undertakings “Mindful of global trends elsewhere, the work of the Makerere AI Centre is guided by the principles of Responsible AI, ensuring that systems are transparent, accountable, fair, and designed to benefit society.”
She therefore called upon the delegation to thoughtfully engage with the ideas presented during their visit with the aim of collectively exploring both institution can better equip staff and students to meaningfully make the most of this fast-evolving trend.
On behalf of the Board, Prof. Muya who is substantively the Vice Chancellor of the University of Zambia thanked Prof. Ssali and Members of Management present for according his delegation a warm reception to Makerere University, “one of Africa’s most distinguished centres of higher learning.
“Makerere University is not only a symbol of academic excellence but also a beacon of leadership in higher education on the African continent”, remarked Prof. Muya.
The Chairperson equally expressed the delegation’s keenness to understand how AI is being adopted, and how the academia is embracing the technology as an enabler of teaching and research. “At ZAMREN, we view digital transformation and AI integration as critical enablers of academic excellence, efficiency, and competitiveness across higher education institutions,” he remarked, adding that “We therefore look to Makerere University’s experience to draw practical lessons that can inform and inspire our efforts back home.”
Turning to the lessons from Makerere in line with digital transformation and ICT, the Director DICTS shared that owing to the partnership with RENU, internet bandwidth, a vital enabler of AI transformation currently stands at 5 Gbps of monthly consumption, with plans to scale-up to 8 Gbps. He added that RENU has also facilitated Makerere’s access to Open Libraries, and Eduroam – a secure, encrypted Wi-Fi network across to staff and students freely access the internet across partner institutions in Uganda using their University emails.
Furthermore on the enablers of AI integration, Mr. Mugabi noted that in line with digitalization of institutional business process, the University Council took a bold step to develop all information systems in-house, a move that has reduced costs spent on offshore solutions, and hemorrhage of skills. He pointed to the introduction of open source solutions, and AI policy and global collaborations with corporations such as Google as additional enablers.
Addressing AI readiness, Prof. Tonny Oyana pointed out the need for the University of Zambia to start early, citing Makerere efforts which began as far back as 2007, when Dr. John Quinn joined the institution after his PhD. He added that Dr. Quinn together with other former staff from Makerere formed Sunbird AI, a thriving initiative creating practical systems for the benefit of community.
Prof. Oyana also pointed to AI initiatives that have attracted up to USD 5million from Google Awards, staff with specialized skills in the creation and development of sensor technologies, top notch students that win continental and global awards from companies such as Huawei, and active engagements with partners to produce solutions to enhance diagnosis of malaria, tuberculosis and cancer as some of areas that demonstrate Makerere’s AI readiness.
Addressing academic and research innovation, Prof. Robert Wamala pointed out that Makerere, in recognition that the institution cannot achieve its vision alone is intentional about seeking and nurturing mutually beneficial partnerships. Furthermore, he shared that Vice Chancellor’s Annual Research Excellence Awards reward and recognize the efforts of staff who have excelled in publication, teaching and winning grants.
The Director DRIP equally underscored the need for dissemination of research produced by staff and students, pointing out the annual research and innovation week as a flagship event for not only showcasing research but also forging meaningful partnerships with stakeholders. In line with technology transfer, Prof. Wamala said that the University through the Intellectual Property Management Office ensures that innovations developed by staff and students packaged for adoption by other individuals or organisations.
Addressing the use of technologies in academic work, Prof. Birevu noted that IODeL conducts capacity building in instructional design, online facilitation, use of AI in teaching and digital assessments. “We have also advised the University on ODeL and Distance Education strategies, for instance, we have developed a ten-year masterplan for distance education with support from the Korean Government to outline how Makerere University is going to integrate distance education within its offering” he added.
At the close of the deliberations the ZAMREN expressed sincere appreciation to the Ag. Vice Chancellor and Members of Management for the free sharing that pointed out a number of priorities.
Business & Management
PIM Centre Holds 9th Steering Committee Meeting, Set to Benefit from World Bank Support
The Public Investment Management (PIM) Centre of Excellence at Makerere University today, October 10th, 2025, held its 9th Steering Committee Meeting to review progress made in the first quarter of the financial year and plan for the months ahead.
The meeting was chaired by Ms. Getrude Basiima, who represented Mr. Hannington Ashaba, Director Budget at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED). Ms. Basiima commended the Centre for its continued commitment to strengthening public investment management capacity across government institutions.
In her remarks, Ms. Basiima applauded the Centre for successfully hosting the Public Investment Management Conference held in August at Makerere University. The conference attracted key policymakers, development partners, and academics who deliberated on how to enhance the efficiency, sustainability, and impact of public investments in Uganda.
She further shared exciting news that the Government of Uganda has secured funding from the World Bank to support the public investment management function. The PIM Centre, she announced, will be among the key beneficiaries of these funds — receiving support for the construction and acquisition of a permanent home to enhance its institutional sustainability and training capacity.
Reviewing the Centre’s quarterly performance, Ms. Basiima congratulated the team for successfully conducting three specialized trainings in the first quarter, reaching officials from various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies. These trainings continue to strengthen the technical competencies required for effective project preparation, appraisal, and implementation in line with Uganda’s National Development Plan.
She encouraged the Centre to integrate climate change considerations into its future training programmes, noting that sustainable public investment must now account for environmental resilience and climate adaptation.
The centre team presented the proposed structure/ organogram, the financial performance of 2024/2025, research areas for 2025/2026 and the strategic plan for 2025 – 2030.
The Steering Committee reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the PIM Centre’s vision of becoming a regional leader in building capacity for efficient, transparent, and sustainable public investment management.
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