General
Stakeholders meet to establish Mak Forensic Institute
Stakeholders and experts convened at Imperial Golf View Hotel, Entebbe on the 9th to 10th March for a workshop held to finalise curriculum and set-up of the Institute of Forensic Sciences and Medicine at Makerere University. Participants at the meeting were drawn from Makerere University (College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS), College of Health Sciences (CHS), Academic Registrar’ Department), Uganda People Defence Forces (UPDF), Uganda Police, Government Analytical Laboratory (GAL), Uganda Law Society and Internal Security Organisation (ISO) and Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).
The Government of Uganda is working in partnership with the Government of Turkey to establish the Institute. It is envisaged that the Institute will serve as a Centre of Excellence for forensic science and medicine in academics and service in Uganda, East & Central Africa region and beyond. Makerere University is collaborating with Cukurova University, Adana Turkey in this endeavour. Forensic Science is defined as ‘the application of scientific principles and techniques to matters of criminal justice especially as relating to the collection, examination, and analysis of physical evidence’.
The coordinator of the Institute, Assoc. Professor Tumps Ireeta thanked members for honouring the invitation to the workshop. He explained that ‘the idea of setting up the Institute was mooted in 2019 with a directive from H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni arising from the need for an Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine as a joint initiative by the CoNAS and CHS of Makerere University in view of the specialities required’. In 2019, a delegation from Makerere University visited Cukurova University in Turkey to benchmark work accomplished there. He further said ‘government has allocated funds to facilitate the process of developing the curriculum and plans are underway to build a state of the art facility to house the institute with the necessary equipment’.
In his remarks, the Principal – College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS) welcomed the participants to the meeting. He said, ‘it is a pleasure to work with all the institutions represented as we recognise the importance of working with all stakeholders for crime prevention and justice’. We recognise the specialities of all members involved and we hope to develop a rich curriculum at the institute from your contributions, he further noted.
Some of the resolutions from the meeting included: fast-tracking development of curriculum and set-up of the Institute of Forensic Sciences at Makerere University which require approval through the University structures; design a framework to guide work at the institute in lieu of the multiple players involved; partnership with other government departments and agencies already handling forensics; the importance of practical skills in the training; finalisation of the curriculum of the programmes and cross-cutting training courses; embedding the laws that support forensics use for justice to provide contextual background for the trainees; short courses and fellowships as tracks for training at the institute among others.
A core team from CoNAS and CHS is now working to finalise the curriculum for the programmes proposed at the workshop. Three training programmes are proposed to start with: Master of Science in Forensic Chemistry & Toxicology; Master of Science in Forensic Biology & Genomics and Master of Science in Forensic Medicine.
In his remarks, Dr John Wasswa – Head of Chemistry Department and Chairperson of Committee working on the development of the Institute thanked members for the deliberations, contributions and guidance provided at the meeting which will guide the work ahead.
In his closing remarks, Assoc. Prof. Ireeta thanked all the participants for the time and contributions given at the workshop. He reiterated that ‘this is work we are doing for the nation thus laying a foundation for forensic sciences in Uganda’. He thanked Prof. William Bazeyo, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Finance & Administration for the commitment and negotiating to ensure that Makerere University will host the Institute of Forensic Sciences and Medicine in Uganda.
By Agnes Namaganda
On July 22nd 2022, Makerere University–Child Health and Development Centre (Mak–CHDC) launched a draft manual for the National Parenting Standards. The Centre has been working together with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD) with funding from UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund), to develop standards that are agreeable to all organisations in the country that are involved in parenting work. The draft manual was being presented to members of a consortium that brings together all these organisations together, called the Parenting Agenda Consortium.
“We produce many documents and they are shelved,” Irene Ayot Chono, who was speaking on behalf of UNICEF said. “We hope that this document will not be one of them,” she emphasized.
Dr. Godfrey Siu, the Principal Investigator from Mak-CHDC who presented the draft manual to participants, emphasized that if any organization is doing parenting work, there should be a minimum package that they should offer.
Draft Manual Content
The manual which will have several modules. These modules will be delivered face-to-face in 1.5 hour sessions. Some of these include; Module 6 which will focus on “understanding responsible masculinity and fatherhood” and on “understanding the concept of head of family.”The draft manual also proposed that Module 11 focuses on Parenting in the 21st Century. Some of the sessions in this module will include Children and Technology, Contemporary Influence on Children and Modernity, Culture and Morality.Module 9 will focus on Parenting for Adolescents and some of the suggested sessions within this module are Needs for Adolescents and The Art of Communicating with Adolescents. Module 5 will focus on Preventing Violent Parenting and Promoting Alternative Discipline Strategies while Module 10 will be about Parenting to Address the Mental Health for Children and Adults.
Participants’ suggestions
After the presentation, participants raised several suggestions for discussion and consideration. These included whether there should be a module on spirituality since Uganda is a strongly religious nation. There was also the concern of how children in remand homes should be parented. Another concern raised by a participant was as to whether teachers who make an undeniable contribution to parenting, should be taken through the parenting manual.
In her closing remarks, Ms. Juliana Naumo Akoryo, the Director of Cultural Affairs at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD) said that the manual is for the parenting organisations to utilize and not for MGLSD.
Ms. Chono also adjured the team behind the manual to use picture illustrations in the manual that can be relatable by the Ugandan parents.
Contact: Agnes Namaganda – agnesvioletnamaganda@gmail.com
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