Health
Next step for the fruitful collaboration between Makerere University and KI
One of KI’s largest international collaborations is with Makerere University in Uganda. In time for Makerere’s 100th anniversary, the partnership is to manifest itself in a Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health. A delegation from KI travelled in May to Uganda to cement the relationship.
“The foundation of a virtual centre for sustainable health gives us a totally new way to build international collaborations,” says KI president, Ole Petter Ottersen. “Mutuality and far-sightedness will pervade all our projects with the aim of improving health for all. The centre will enable more international collaborations, not just in Uganda but also with more countries in Africa, such as Somalia, and other parts of the world. In today’s turbulent world, it is especially important to work on a global stage and stand up for responsible internationalisation.”
From research to extensive collaboration
The partnership between Makerere University and Karolinska Institutet was established back in 2000. At first it was mainly focused on research, but it was soon extended to everything from student and teacher exchanges to joint doctoral studies. There is now a related alumni network containing hundreds of researchers and healthcare workers in Sweden and Uganda.
One of the students who was quick to snap up the chance to change their study environment from Makerere University to Karolinska Institutet was Noeline Nakasujja. Today, she is a practising psychiatrist and departmental head at the Department of Psychiatry at the College of Health Sciences, Makerere University.
“I spent a month in Stockholm in 2005, which was a real eye-opening experience,” she says. “It opened a window onto our cultural differences and onto the differences in resources between universities. It made me realise how much we can achieve even with limited resources.”
Since the exchange programme began, some 300 students and teachers have participated.
“During my time in Sweden, I almost immediately saw a clear difference in student-teacher relations,” she continues. “We have a much more marked hierarchy. At Karolinska Institutet, I saw how it was even possible to have a more relaxed relationship without compromising the seriousness of the teaching.”
After her exchange, Noeline Nakasujja also took the opportunity to take a joint PhD at KI and Makerere.
“My time as a doctoral student led to me receiving a doctoral student from KI,” she says. “That personal contact was the key to creating a platform that has enabled others to successfully navigate a foreign university.”
Since then, Noeline Nakasujja and her department have accepted numerous students from KI, and she finds her first-hand experience of the Swedish study environment comes in very useful here. She now believes that the new Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health can deepen the relationship between the two universities even more.
“We need to strengthen the preventative work we’re doing in Ugandan healthcare,” she says. “Patients with Alzheimer’s can particularly benefit from early intervention, such as physical exercise and social activities that help to slow the onset of disease.”
She goes on: “The only way to create truly sustainable health and social care services is by breaking the circle and offering prophylactic intervention.”
There are several partners attached to the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health, including universities in Congo, Somalia, Kenya, Malawi and Ethiopia.
“The collaboration enables us to create an environment for the exchange of knowledge and experience that will have a knock-on effect on other international partnerships,” she explains.
Innovation developed in Uganda now implemented in Sweden
Susanne Guidetti, professor of occupational therapy at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society has been involved in developing student and teacher exchanges between Makerere and KI since 2004. Back then, she had just come home from having lived with her family in Nairobi for a few years and was put straight in touch with Julius Kamwesiga, an affiliate of Makerere University.
The studies were conducted with Mulago National Specialised Hospital and gave the participants access to daily exercise with the help of their mobile phones. Stroke awareness is low in Uganda, where most people live in remote areas far from the nearest clinic.
“When we can work together to offer more people stroke rehabilitation, we give them a real possibility to live a better life,” Guidetti says. “After the project, one of the participants came up to me and said: ‘The surgeon helped me survive, but my contacts with the occupational therapist made life worth living again’.”
The study will now undergo a larger-scale follow-up in Uganda, and its findings have prompted further studies in Sweden.
“What made our study unique was that we brought knowledge and experience from Uganda to Sweden. Here, our innovation will make it possible to help stroke patients in remote parts of Sweden, too,” she says. “There are now several mobile phone-based rehab options, but in Uganda we helped to pioneer the technique.”
Today, Guidetti has an important part to play in the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health.
“Our project is a good example of how we can create an equivalent platform for sharing knowledge. Hopefully, we’ll be able to develop it further at the Centre and take new steps together towards sustainable health.”
The Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health enables not only the sharing of knowledge and experiences, but also the development and spread of innovations that can bring the goal of sustainable global health closer to being achieved. The knowledge and the network that the centre possesses make it easier for us to take on today’s pressing societal challenges together, not only in Sweden and Uganda but globally, too.
“We have an incredible amount to learn from each other,” says Professor Ottersen. “Let us be inspired by each other’s solutions, big and small, and together find more ways to tackle global health challenges. With the founding of the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health, our partnership takes the step from aid funding to being a true partner-driven collaboration.”
The Iteso Cultural Leader, His Highness Emorimor Papa Paul Sande Emolot, has called on Makerere University to elevate the Science of Designing, Adaptation, and Implementation of Evidence-Based Parenting Interventions course into a fully-fledged programme. This, he argued, would strengthen the capacity of practitioners implementing parenting interventions across Uganda.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony held on 11th June 2025 at Makerere University where 35 practitioners completed the 12-week course, Emorimor Papa Emolot emphasized the transformative power of effective parenting. He urged aspiring parents and advocates of the Parenting for Respectability model to enroll in the course.
Citing the impact in his own sub-county and village, the cultural leader revealed that over 800 families had already benefited from the programme.
“We now see peace and love in homes where there was once conflict. Without good parenting, you risk raising animals instead of children,” he passionately stated.
He praised the course for equipping practitioners, policymakers, and researchers with the skills needed to design culturally sensitive, evidence-based parenting interventions tailored to Uganda’s context. Among the notable graduates was Her Royal Majesty Juliet Among Emolot Atomeileng Akaliat Toto, who reaffirmed her commitment to advancing family-strengthening initiatives using the skills and knowledge acquired.
Dr. Godfrey Siu, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader at Makerere University, described the course as a timely intervention. During this remarks, Dr. Siu described the event as a significant milestone in advancing the field of evidence based parenting intervention and family strengthening in Uganda.
“This course is meant to empower you as practitioners, policy makers and all those involved in development and implementation of parenting work. It provides both theoretical knowledge and practical tools essential for developing high quality interventions”, Dr. Siu noted. He urged the pioneer group to carry forward the expertise as champions of designing, adaptation and implementation of evidence parenting interventions.
Representing the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Dr. Aggrey David Kibenge, Juliana Naumo, Commissioner for Culture and Family Affairs, said the course supports the government’s agenda to address negative social outcomes affecting families.
“By grounding parenting in research, harmonizing policy with practice, and advocating for equity, we will ensure no family is left behind,” she said. “Cross-sectoral collaboration is key to unlocking transformative change.”
Ms. Naumo highlighted the government’s commitment—both technical and financial—to support outstanding student projects from the course. She stressed the importance of equipping professionals with the skills to bridge gaps between research and practice for consistent, high-quality parenting support across Uganda. While delivering the Vice chancellors speech by Dr. Helen Nambalirwa, Principal of the CHUSS, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe commended the graduates as a beacon of hope.
“At a time when parenting faces challenges like digital distractions, changing societal norms, and a rising mental health crisis, Makerere reaffirms its support for interventions that drive the societal transformation we desire,” Nawangwe stated.
Prof. Richard Idro, Deputy Principal of the College of Health Sciences, acknowledged the growing parenting challenges in Uganda and the region, adding that the course was a major step towards standardizing parenting interventions nationwide.
He applauded the Child Health and Development Centre (CHDC) for leading this paramount and critical initiative.
Mr. Hosea Katende, Course Administrator at CHDC, emphasized the importance of integrating systematic methods, ethical principles, robust evidence, and collaboration to create lasting impact in parenting.
Dr. Aggrey Dhabangi, Lecturer at CHDC, representing Dr. Herbert Muyinda, Director of CHDC, acknowledged the contributions of partners such as the ELMA Foundation and Echidna Giving for their financial and capacity-building support. He also appreciated the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, among other stakeholders, for their technical guidance in the programme’s successful implementation.
Dr. Dhabangi extended gratitude to cultural institutions, especially the Kingdom of Teso, and acknowledged growing collaborations with other cultural institutions such as the Kingdom of Acholi, in the shared mission of building strong families as the foundation of Uganda’s future.
He extended his heartfelt gratitude to cultural institutions, especially the Kingdom of Teso, and others kingdoms such as the Kingdom of Acholi, in building Uganda’s future through creating strong families. Nuruh Mbalyowere, a Rehabilitation and Reintegration Officer with the Uganda Prisons Service, was honored for developing the best parenting intervention titled “Parenting Behind Prison Bars.” She expressed her intention to apply the knowledge gained both at home and in her workplace.
By Okeya John and Primrose Nabankema
The intensive one-month course, running for the first time from June 5 to July 24, 2025, is jointly offered by Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH)’s Department of Community Health and Behavioural Sciences (CHBS) and the Department of Journalism and Communication (DJC) at the School of Languages, Literature, and Communication (SLLC), co-designed in 2024 with support from the Rockefeller Foundation through Amref Health Africa.
It seeks to equip healthcare providers at the community level, public health and environmental health practitioners, communication specialists, health educators, community development officers, social scientists, and policy makers, among others, with strategic communication skills to improve public health messaging, strengthen community engagement, and support evidence-based interventions, ultimately empowering participants to effectively engage communities and improve population health outcomes across Uganda and the region.
Launching the course, the heads of the Department of Journalism and Communication and the Department of Community Health and Behavioural Sciences noted that participants who complete the short course will gain practical tools to influence behaviour change, build trust, and deliver timely, accurate, and relevant health information to the communities they serve. The first cohort attracted more than 60 applicants, with 36 reporting for the opening in-person session on June 5, 2025, at MakSPH in Mulago. Between now and July, participants will undergo a hands-on, multidisciplinary learning experience within the Certificate in Health Communication and Community Engagement program, which combines theory and practice.
Among the participants in the first cohort of the certificate course, designed as a pilot for the anticipated Master of Health Promotion and Communication to be jointly offered by the two departments at Makerere University, is Ms. Maureen Kisaakye, a medical laboratory technologist specialising in microbiology and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and currently pursuing a Master’s in Immunology and Clinical Microbiology at Makerere. She is driven by a passion to help reverse the rising tide of AMR, a growing global health threat where drugs that once worked are no longer effective. Kisaakye is particularly concerned about common infections, like urinary tract infections, becoming increasingly resistant and harder to treat.
“I enrolled in this course because I’m an advocate against antimicrobial resistance, and it came at a time when I needed to deepen my knowledge on how to implement our projects more effectively and engage with communities. The experience has broadened my understanding of AMR and its impact on society, and strengthened my passion for community-driven health initiatives and advocacy,” Kisaakye said, explaining why she enrolled for the short course.
Kisaakye’s work in antimicrobial resistance extends beyond the lab. Having earned her degree in medical laboratory science from Mbarara University of Science and Technology, she founded Impala Tech Research in 2024 to drive impact and save lives. She has led grassroots AMR campaigns that integrate antimicrobial stewardship with water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) education in underserved urban communities, including the informal settlements in Kampala. She also has since designed peer-led initiatives that empower university students as AMR Champions, building a network of informed youth advocates. Kisaakye believes the health communication course will sharpen her ability to design and deliver impactful, community-centred interventions in response to the growing threat of drug resistance.
“The department collaborates with many partners within and beyond the University, including the School of Public Health, where we are working to develop the subfield of health communication and promotion. Our goal is to train specialists in this area and build a community of practice, something we have each been doing in our own spaces. There’s a lot of work ahead, and COVID-19 showed us just how urgently we need a generation trained to do this kind of work, and to do it very well,” said Dr. Aisha Nakiwala, Head of the Department of Journalism and Communication, during the opening of the short course on June 5.
She assured participants they were in good hands and underscored the importance of the partnership between the Department of Journalism and Communication and the School of Public Health, describing it as a vital collaboration that brings together strategic communication and public health expertise. This dynamic, multidisciplinary approach, she noted, is essential to developing practical solutions that empower communities, strengthen health systems, and ultimately improve livelihoods.
The course offers a hands-on, multidisciplinary learning experience, with participants intended to explore key modules including Health Communication and Promotion, Risk Communication, Smart Advocacy, Community Mapping, Community Mobilisation and Empowerment, and Strategies for Community Engagement. The course combines theory with real-world application, and its assessment includes a field-based project and a final exam.
“You are our first cohort. We are seeing the fruits of our efforts in bringing this short course to life. It was born out of a joint initiative to develop a Master’s programme in Health Promotion and Communication,” said Dr. Christine Nalwadda, Head of the Department of Community Health and Behavioural Sciences. “We carried out extensive consultations with our different key stakeholders during the process and discovered a real need for such a course. It was the stakeholders who even named it; this course name didn’t come from us.”
For Kisaakye, by the end of the course in July, she hopes to have sharpened her skills in health promotion and strategic communication, particularly in crafting targeted messages that help individuals and communities effectively respond to threats such as antimicrobial resistance. She also aims to gain practical experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating community health initiatives that can strengthen her advocacy and drive lasting impact.
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