Connect with us

Health

Dr. Rhoda Wanyenze explains how researchers can work more effectively with policymakers

Published

on

In advance of the World Health Summit Regional Meeting, we spoke with the Dean of Makerere University School of Public Health about how researchers and academics build trust and gain influence with decision makers

Ahead of this year’s World Health Summit Regional Meeting, we spoke with Dr. Rhoda Wanyenze, the Dean of Makerere University School of Public Health, about the theme of this year’s event – bridging the science-to-policy gap for global health.

Dr. Rhoda Wanyenze, who has collaborated with government health officials to develop evidence-based policies from HIV to COVID-19 and maternal and child health, said that researchers and policymakers can, among other things, “interpret the data together, make sure the interpretation is appropriate, and tease out the actions they’re going to take.”

Dr. Wanyenze, who is also a principal investigator for Exemplars in Global Health’s COVID-19 research, added: “Let the primary focus not just be the publication [of the research], but also, responding to [policymakers] needs and giving them information that they can use.”

Across sub-Saharan Africa, research institutions have been partnering with policymakers to help inform policy decisions for decades. For example, the Infectious Diseases Research Institute in Uganda and the Uganda Virus Research Institute supported the Ministry of Health through the COVID-19 pandemic and recent Ebola outbreak. In fact, during the 2022 Ebola epidemic, the Uganda Virus Research Institute repurposed some of its research laboratories to support the government’s disease response and diagnostics efforts.

Many of the continent’s universities, including the School of Public Health at the University of Kinshasa, the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania, the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, and the University of Zimbabwe, also have strong collaborative relationship with health officials. The University of Zimbabwe, for example, embeds some of its students within the country’s Ministry of Health.

The Makerere University School of Public Health has a similar track record of partnering with and helping inform policymakers in Uganda. To explore how researchers and academics can establish mutually beneficial relationships with policymakers ahead of the World Health Summit Regional Meeting on April 13 in Washington, D.C., Dr. Wanyenze offered her thoughts in an interview

Researchers often struggle to identify the best moment to reach out to policymakers. What does your experience tell you?

Dr. Wanyenze: You don’t wait until you’ve conceptualized the questions, then go to them when you are at the tail-end or when you are presenting the findings. After you present, they’ll ask, Did you also do this?’ And you’ll say, “No, I didn’t.’ And then they’ll ask, ‘Did you also do that?’ And you’ll say, ‘No, I didn’t do that either.’
Sometimes I find that we make a lot of assumptions about what they need to know. Before we even begin to craft our research questions, we need to understand what they’re struggling with and ensure that we are aligned to their needs as we gather evidence.

I’ll give you an example: several years ago, we were beginning to work out how we can move from traditional HIV testing methods to self-testing. We were working on designing a randomized controlled trial to test the effect of this. We had to speak with the Ministry of Health to understand: what is it that they worry about? What is it that would make them not want to adopt this policy?

We also didn’t have just the [Ugandan] Ministry of Health, we had other stakeholders, including people living with HIV, women living with HIV, and we could hear their voices loudly. ‘People will fight. We shall have divorces. We shall have violence.’ We had to think through carefully, if we are going to do this trial, we have to have sufficient mechanisms to deal with potential risks.

At the same time, we must collect this information in a bit more detail so that at the end of the day, we are not just saying, ‘This trial works,’ but we are saying, ‘It won’t cause harm, or if it causes harm, this is how you can mitigate it.’ We had to carefully do this trial with sufficient safety nets to respond to these issues. We had to think about the referral resources, for example, should we have any violence.

Then they told us, ‘We want to know the cost.’ Initially, we had not planned to include costing, but we had to integrate something that can support them to be able to make that decision.

Another example is research my team did on the impact of COVID on maintaining essential health services in Uganda. We presented to the Ministry of Health and its partners our proposed objectives and selected disease indicators to track in the maintenance of essential health services. They informed us that other partners were already working on some of the indicators such as HIV, TB, and maternal health. Rather than duplicate these indicators, they advised us to focus on other indicators which had not been addressed. We agreed to reorient the focus with the resources we had, to harmonize our work with other partners and ensure responsiveness to the needs of the Ministry of Health. Later, when the EHS continuity committee published updated guidelines on maintaining essential health services, it included recommendations based on our research.

How do you manage policymakers’ shifting needs and incorporate their feedback throughout the lifetime of your research?

Dr. Wanyenze: Interim feedback loops are critical to being sensitive to their needs. The challenge is you might not be funded to do everything they ask you to do, but sometimes you find things that are easy to integrate without necessarily spending much. It might involve a few more questions that you can address, with the resources that you have, and produce additional evidence that is needed by the ministry. The benefits are tremendous. By engaging them, they develop a sense of ownership. So that they feel, ‘This is our research.’ And they actually begin to say, ‘When are you giving us the results?’

How should researchers think about reporting out their results to policymakers?


Dr. Wanyenze: Working with policymakers through interpreting the implications of your work is really important. It can help when planning how to disseminate the work so that it is more meaningful.

For one project funded by the Global Fund – a partnership to enhance analytical capacity and data use in Eastern and Southern Africa called PERSuADE – we prioritized the areas for analysis with the Ministry of Health and then we worked with their teams and generated the evidence they needed. Then we were able to track what actions they’ve taken based on the findings.

If you work with the Ministry of Health and any other partners and you use their data or involve them in the data collection, analysis and interpretation, make sure that you include them as co-authors. A common challenge we have experienced is researchers who work with the ministries and other stakeholders publishing the findings without including them as authors or even informing them and sharing the findings.

How do things change if you are working with routine data the government collects?

Dr. Wanyenze: If you are working with data that the government routinely collects, you need to be engaged with policymakers in terms of how you’re going to use that data and that you are actually going to add value and do a good quality analysis that will help them answer their questions. Also, you need to be clear that you will not use their data for anything else without their permission. Sometimes researchers will get this data and they’re flying off and doing other things than what was originally agreed upon. And before you know it, they’ve published it without the government knowing. You need to ensure trust and a partnership that’s respectful.

What advice do you have for research organizations that currently do not have a relationship with the government but want to develop one. How can they establish a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship?

Dr. Wanyenze: Whether you want to work with a ministry of health or an NGO, the process is the same. You need to engage with them to clarify the partnership and expectations. There has to be benefit to the ministry or the NGO to want to work with you. The benefit often will be that you’re generating evidence that will add value to their decisions in a timely manner. You need to be responsive to their needs, to the extent possible.

How can researchers balance the need for quality research, which takes time, and the needs of policymakers, who often have pressing and time-sensitive needs.

Dr. Wanyenze: Timeliness is very important, but it should not compromise quality of the research. Sometimes the research takes long, and researchers will share their findings with policymakers when the findings have been overtaken by events and are no longer relevant. We sometimes prioritize some of their most critical questions and share preliminary findings as we finalize analyses for the rest of the study objectives and papers. Holding back the dissemination until the papers are written is a missed opportunity—we lose the opportunity for feedback from stakeholders to enhance the interpretation of the findings and to use the findings.

by Exemplars News — Originally published by exemplars.health

See original article here

Mak Editor

Health

TWAS recognises Dr. Angelina Mwesige Kakooza for her research

Published

on

Dr. Angelina Mwesige Kakooza, Associate Professor of Paediatrics in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health receives her award.

Dr. Angelina Mwesige Kakooza, Associate Professor of Paediatrics in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, School of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) received the 2025 TWAS-Fayzah M. Al-Kharafi Award in Medical Sciences. She was recognised for her research on neurodevelopmental disorders – particularly epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and nodding syndrome – and for advancing policy and research, mentorship, as well as local community interventions to enhance children’s health.

The award was given at the recent 17th General Conference of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil under the theme ‘Building a Sustainable Future: The Role of Science, Technology, and Innovation for Global Development.’ Organized in partnership with the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and TWAS, the conference brought together leading scientists, policymakers, and institutional leaders from across the global South and beyond.

In her remarks after receiving the award, Dr. Kakooza said, “This award highlights the importance of neurodevelopmental disorders which are a great health problem worldwide, often diagnosed late and treated poorly,” said Kakooza. “It affirms my contribution to science in Africa, strengthens advocacy for gender equity in science and education and makes me a role model for others, increasing my influence in the scientific community.”

Associate Professor Angelina Mwesige Kakooza.
Associate Professor Angelina Mwesige Kakooza.

Dr. Angelina Kakooza Mwesige is a Ugandan scholar with over 25years teaching experience whose research focuses on neurodevelopmental disorders in children centred on their epidemiology, early screening, identification and community based interventions in Uganda. Her current areas of research cover studies on early detection and interventions for young infants at high risk of neurodevelopmental delay and disability in Nepal and Uganda; development of community engagement projects to empower adolescents living with epilepsy in Uganda reduce stigma in their communities; as well as development and testing of an interactive epilepsy smart phone application to improve resilience among them.

TWAS is a global merit-based science academy based in Trieste, Italy, and administered as a UNESCO Programme Unit. Read more here: https://twas.org/

View on CHS

Zaam Ssali

Continue Reading

Health

Refugee Health Journalism as Empowerment: Why Accuracy, Dignity & Context Matter

Published

on

Participants in the Media Training Workshop on Refugee Health and Migration Reporting that brought together twenty journalists from Kampala, Kyaka II, Adjumani, and other refugee-hosting districts at MakSPH on 3rd October 2025. Media Training Workshop on Refugee Health and Migration Reporting that brought together twenty journalists from Kampala, Kyaka II, Adjumani, and other refugee-hosting districts, Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), Kampala Uganda, East Africa on 3rd October 2025.

In July this year, I joined a study tour to Imvepi Refugee Settlement in Uganda’s West Nile region under the RISK-WASH Project, led by Dr. Richard Mugambe. Established in 2017 in what is now Terego District, Imvepi is one of several settlements created to host people fleeing conflict in neighbouring South Sudan. Now home to more than 60,000 refugees, it reflects Uganda’s progressive refugee policy, anchored in the 2006 Refugee Act, which promotes the integration of displaced families within host communities, allocates land for livelihoods, and ensures access to national services. It remains a model both commendable and instructive for the region.

With nearly two million refugees and asylum seekers, most of whom are women and children, Uganda stands among the world’s leading examples of inclusive, community-based refugee protection. The RISK-WASH Project, implemented by the Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) in collaboration with IHE-Delft, BRAC, and icddr,b, with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, organised the three-day visit. The project builds evidence for better Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) decision-making in humanitarian settings, developing practical tools to assess how exposure to unsafe water, poor sanitation, and environmental hazards affects the health of both displaced and host populations.

The RISK-WASH Project team, together with officials from the Uganda Red Cross Society, meet the Imvepi Refugee Settlement Commandant during a field visit in July 2025. Media Training Workshop on Refugee Health and Migration Reporting that brought together twenty journalists from Kampala, Kyaka II, Adjumani, and other refugee-hosting districts, Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), Kampala Uganda, East Africa on 3rd October 2025.
The RISK-WASH Project team, together with officials from the Uganda Red Cross Society, meet the Imvepi Refugee Settlement Commandant during a field visit in July 2025.

In Imvepi, that evidence takes human form. Water points run dry under intense demand or drought; latrines overflow during rains; fragile health systems strain to contain preventable diseases that flourish in such conditions. One nurse may attend to hundreds of patients in a single day, treating malaria, respiratory infections, and diarrhoeal diseases directly linked to inadequate WASH infrastructure. The images linger long after one leaves, especially when reflecting on the media’s role in shaping refugee narratives. What struck me most was how such realities are often reduced to statistics or fleeting headlines that reveal little about the lives behind them. I left Imvepi convinced that we, in the media, must not only report but listen differently.

When we cover refugees, we often begin with numbers. Yet behind every statistic is a heartbeat and a history the news cycle rarely pauses to hear. Refugee health, perhaps the most human measure of displacement, is still too often framed as a crisis rather than a continuum of resilience, policy, and rights. The World Health Organisation’s World Reports on the Health of Refugees and Migrants reminds us that refugees frequently experience poorer health outcomes than host populations, not because they are inherently vulnerable, but because access to care is often obstructed by law, language, and logistics. Health, like truth, then, becomes interestingly dependent on who is allowed to speak and who is heard.

Floods in Adjumani refugee settlement left shelters destroyed and water sources contaminated, heightening the risk of disease outbreaks and exposing the fragile health conditions faced by displaced families. Photo taken in 2024 during a MakSPH study on refugee health and climate change. Media Training Workshop on Refugee Health and Migration Reporting that brought together twenty journalists from Kampala, Kyaka II, Adjumani, and other refugee-hosting districts, Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), Kampala Uganda, East Africa on 3rd October 2025.
Floods in Adjumani refugee settlement left shelters destroyed and water sources contaminated, heightening the risk of disease outbreaks and exposing the fragile health conditions faced by displaced families. Photo taken in 2024 during a MakSPH study on refugee health and climate change.

It was in this spirit that, on October 3, 2025, we convened the Media Training Workshop on Refugee Health and Migration Reporting at MakSPH. The one-day seminar brought together twenty journalists from Kampala, Kyaka II, Adjumani, and other refugee-hosting districts. Our goal was not to add another humanitarian angle to the news but to rethink how the media can report with depth, ethics, and empathy. Working with partners such as Africa Humanitarian Action, Emesco Development Foundation, and Farmamundi, we explored the subtle power the media wields to either dignify or diminish, to clarify or distort, the lived realities of refugees, particularly in the realm of health.

During my session, Refugee Health Reporting as Empowerment: Negotiating Accuracy, Dignity, and Context,” I invited participants to view journalism through the lens of Paulo Freire, the celebrated Brazilian transformative educator who wrote the Pedagogy of the Oppressed while in exile in 1970. Through his influential work, Freire argued that oppression persists when those in power control language and narrative, when others are spoken for rather than heard. Liberation begins, he said, when people “name their world.” That principle remains profoundly relevant to our craft as journalism and communications practitioners. Refugees must not remain objects of our storytelling; they are its subjects. Journalism, in its truest public function, becomes liberating only when it is dialogic, when we report with people, not merely about them.

I led a session titled “Refugee Health Reporting as Empowerment: Negotiating Accuracy, Dignity, and Context” on October 3, 2025, framing it around Paulo Freire’s pedagogical philosophy of liberation through dialogue and critical reflection. Media Training Workshop on Refugee Health and Migration Reporting that brought together twenty journalists from Kampala, Kyaka II, Adjumani, and other refugee-hosting districts, Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), Kampala Uganda, East Africa on 3rd October 2025.
I led a session titled “Refugee Health Reporting as Empowerment: Negotiating Accuracy, Dignity, and Context” on October 3, 2025, framing it around Paulo Freire’s pedagogical philosophy of liberation through dialogue and critical reflection.

This transformation begins with accuracy. In Uganda, refugees share the same health system as host communities, one already strained by staff shortages, drug stock-outs, and donor fatigue. Yet many stories stop at official statements or NGO press releases. Limited access, shrinking newsroom budgets, and bureaucratic gatekeeping tempt journalists to rely on polished humanitarian narratives. But when we do, we risk becoming megaphones for the powerful. Accuracy demands courage, the willingness to verify, to cross-check, and to step beyond curated camp tours. In refugee reporting, truth is not just a professional standard; it is an act of respect.

Still, truth without dignity can harm. Too often, images of refugees serve as shorthand for despair—dust, hunger, tents. Such imagery may evoke sympathy, but it often strips away humanity. From practice, I have seen journalists lower their lenses before asking names. I have also seen how a small shift in approach, say seeking consent, giving space, and listening before photographing, can restore dignity to both subject and story. Words matter too. Calling someone an “illegal immigrant” or describing an “influx” of refugees turns people into problems. Language should humanise, not flatten. To describe refugees as mothers, health workers, or students is to reassert their agency and affirm our shared humanity, something Freire would have deeply valued today.

Media trainer Mr. Wilson Akiiki Kaija facilitates a session on “Centring Humanity” during the Refugee Health and Migration Reporting Workshop at MakSPH, underscoring the media’s role in advancing accuracy, dignity, and context in refugee reporting. October 3, 2025. Media Training Workshop on Refugee Health and Migration Reporting that brought together twenty journalists from Kampala, Kyaka II, Adjumani, and other refugee-hosting districts, Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), Kampala Uganda, East Africa on 3rd October 2025.
Media trainer Mr. Wilson Akiiki Kaija facilitates a session on “Centring Humanity” during the Refugee Health and Migration Reporting Workshop at MakSPH, underscoring the media’s role in advancing accuracy, dignity, and context in refugee reporting. October 3, 2025.

And no story exists in isolation. Every health headline in a settlement echoes across systems of policy, climate, economics, and gender. A cholera outbreak in Kyangwali is not merely a medical event or isolated incident; it may be showing broken sanitation infrastructure and the politics of aid, which may result in a national disease outbreak. Context is the soul of credibility. Without it, even accurate stories can mislead. In Imvepi, I saw first-hand that refugees’ health challenges are inseparable from Uganda’s own development journey, from how budgets are made to how global partners value African hospitality. The more connections we draw, the closer we come to the truth.

By the close of the workshop, it was evident that empowerment in journalism is not a slogan but a discipline. It demands patience, humility, and persistence. It calls for the co-production of stories, revisiting them, verifying them, and allowing refugees to narrate their realities. It also calls on institutions to invest and fund field reporting, train correspondents in trauma-sensitive and peace journalism, and protect journalists pursuing uncomfortable truths. Without such support, even good intentions dissolve into soundbites.

I often return to Freire’s words of wisdom: To speak a true word is to transform the world. This means that words are not just passive descriptions but powerful tools for action and social change, especially when they are paired with critical reflection and a commitment to praxis (work and action). Refugee health journalism, at its best, is precisely that kind of speech: accurate, dignified, and deeply contextual. It is not merely charity reporting; it is solidarity reporting. For anyone, given the wrong circumstances, can become a refugee. And solidarity, unlike sympathy, does not look down; it stands beside. When we write from that conviction, our stories do more than inform. They humanise, connect, and remind us that telling the truth well is, in itself, an act of justice.

From right: Africa Humanitarian Action’s Mr. Yakobo Kaheesi and Emesco Development Foundation’s Mr. Patrick Ssentalo join facilitators and organisers Mr. Wilson Akiiki Kaija and Mr. Davidson Ndyabahika in awarding certificates to media participants after the successful training on Refugee Health and Migration Reporting on October 3, 2025. Media Training Workshop on Refugee Health and Migration Reporting that brought together twenty journalists from Kampala, Kyaka II, Adjumani, and other refugee-hosting districts, Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), Kampala Uganda, East Africa on 3rd October 2025.
From right: Africa Humanitarian Action’s Mr. Yakobo Kaheesi and Emesco Development Foundation’s Mr. Patrick Ssentalo join facilitators and organisers Mr. Wilson Akiiki Kaija and Mr. Davidson Ndyabahika in awarding certificates to media participants after the successful training on Refugee Health and Migration Reporting on October 3, 2025.

View on MakSPH

John Okeya

Continue Reading

Health

Professor Nakimuli awarded at FIGO Congress for outstanding contribution to Women and Child Health

Published

on

Dr. Annettee Nakimuli, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Dean, School of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences. Kampala Uganda, East Africa.

Dr. Annettee Nakimuli, an Associate Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Dean – School of Medicine at Makerere University College of Health Sciences was awarded by the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) for her outstanding contribution to improving the health of Women and children as a researcher and practitioner.

She received the award on the 6th Oct 2025 at the FIGO General Assembly/FIGO Congress that is ongoing in Cape Town, South Africa.

Professor Nakimuli is a leading maternal health researcher focused primarily on investigating the aetiology, treatment, prevention and long term outcomes of pregnancy complications among women in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is committed to building maternal and new-born research capacity in Africa and her aim is, with East African and International colleagues, to establish a multidisciplinary centre for African maternal and neonatal health research located at Makerere University in Uganda.

View on CHS

Zaam Ssali

Continue Reading

Trending