Uganda’s pioneer cohort of the Inclusive Green Economy (IGE 2022) has graduated with Certificates of Achievement and new IGE five year program (2023-2027) officially launched at Makerere University.

The ceremony organised by the Environment for Development Initiative (EfD-Mak Centre) was held on 5^th April 2023 and presided over by the University Vice Chancellor. It was graced by the EfDs Global hub IGE program Lead and Co-leader Prof. Anders Ekbom and Emily Caesar, the EfD Advisory Board Chair, Prof. Umar Kakumba, the Principal College of Business and Management  Sciences represented by Dr. Yawe Bruno.

The Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Finance and Administration Eng. Prof. Henry Alinaitwe launched the new IGE Phase and awarded certificates of Achievement to the IGE 2022 fellows on behalf of the Vice Chancellor.

Prof. Alinaitwe appreciated the Swedish IGE program coordinators, the Swedish government and the tax payer for the commitment and support towards the program as well as the human capacity building, research and infrastructure development on the continent.

He observed that environmental degradation and climate change are common and eminent resulting from unsustainable human and economic activities and the ever the ever increasing population.

“The Inclusive Green Economy program is definitely for all of us. As a university, it gives us the opportunity to interact with various stakeholders, policy makers   key ministries and it means, we already have some key contacts as extra resources. As a university, we want to be seen to be impacting society “

Alinaitwe implored the EfD-Mak Centre and IGE fellows to collaborate with the Economic Policy Research Centre to conduct research in environmental, economic and agricultural matters among others.

The Leader of the IGE program at the EfD Global hub at the University of Gothenburg Sweden Prof. Anders Ekbong said the program collaborates with the EfD Centres across the globe to support and build capacity in government ministries and agencies.

The EfD contributes to more effective environmental management to policy relevant research capacity development and policy engagement and the IGE is part of this.

In 2023 and beyond, Anders said EfD and IGE will jointly focus on sustainable energy transitions and interdisciplinary collaboration.

“An Inclusive Green Economy is an economic development that improves human being and social equity while significantly reducing environmental risk and ecological scarcities. The program strives to avoid economic growth that is attained at the expense of the environment and includes the aspect of inclusion such as social acceptance, public involvement in planning, decision making and follow up”.

IGE is a capacity building program for senior public servants in East Africa and economic policy instruments to achieve green transitions. Other parts of EfD focus on academic capacity building while the IGE is in this, it translates research into policy and practice, bridging gaps between research and policy”. Anders explained

He said, during the two years, the IGE program covered 5 countries and 55 civil servants have been enrolled constituting the IGE Alumni/fellows.

The program according to Anders has received 7.5 million dollars to implement the second phase of a slightly modified IGE program to accelerate transition towards inclusive green economy, develop skills and increase use of evidence based policy making and to build a community of practice on IGE to improve collaboration between government organisations, sector stakeholders and the academia.

The EfD-Mak Board Chairman Prof. Umar Kakumba said the university is delighted to have this strategic partnership that enabled the university join the global network of environmental economists to establish the Centre as one of the hubs, expanding opportunities of pursuing strategic partnership.

“The launch of the IGE for the next five years attest to the fact that the preliminary phase has been successful in a way of meeting the goals that were set and it is an affirmation on our part that Makerere continuous to be a university for the region and the university that is seeking the North-South partnership to create interventions that can address emerging problems related to environment”, Kakumba said.

The new IGE phase according to the board chair comes on the heels of capacity building that has taken place where the university has had the  policy makers, governments and nongovernmental agencies spread across and where the training has come in handy of supporting the mission of training and capacity building and human capital development of the country.

Kakumba underscored the importance of training people in policy as important

“Policy remains key without which a country may not succeed even with resource because they may be wasted. Policy must provide a pivot around which the entire operations rotate and policy must guide action and ensure that goals and objectives of any institution or project are achieved.

Representing the Principal CoBAMS, Dr. Yawe Bruno congratulated the fellows upon successfully completing the program. He said the activities executed by the EfD-Mak Centre speak to the University and college strategic objectives, the national development plan as well as the sustainable development goals.

“It is encouraging to learn that Sida has agreed to fund the new IGE phase for which we congratulate the IGE team lead. I appreciate the hard work of your team. The college appreciates the leadership of the EfD-Mak Centre for coordinating the IGE activities.

The Centre is a special kind of undertaking because its leadership is of hybrid nature bringing two colleges together  and following that, we have joint academic programs”, The Principal appreciated.

The Director EfD-Mak Centre Prof. Edward Bbaale said, Makerere University has had a long-term collaboration with Sida particularly through the university of Gothenburg including training PhD candidates specialising in environmental economics with the objective of ensuring that candidates come back home and participate in policy reviews, formulation and advising government  in the area of environmental economics.

Later Bbaale said, it was realised that the candidates lacked a platform to engage with government and undertake several activities related to policy engagement and advise to government and hence the University of Gothenburg sought to create an institutional platform where research and engagement takes place leading to the birth of the EfD-Mak Centre – one of the 14 others across the world.

“I want to give credit to the institutional framework established at Makerere in that when Dr. Anders and colleagues came up with the concept of Inclusive Green Economy, there was an established platform to leverage.The Inclusive Green Economy is being implemented through the EfD-Mak Centre”. Bbaale said

Both the EfD and IGE operated as sister interventions sponsored by Sida from the University of Gothenburg. Within the two years implementation of the IGE, senior civil servants have been trained and because of the synergies of the IGE and EfD, the two beginning 2023 merged  into one mega program to create more impact in green growth and environmental sustainability.

“The ingenuity and hard work of our leads in the University of Gothenburg and Sida agreed to sponsor another phase for five years where we are going to train government officials at senior level and uniquely we agreed as a team to recruit only five per year because the hands-on and other closely monitored activities that take place during the training”, Bbaale added.

The participants are selected by heads of government ministries who recommend participants on the program. Through this program Bbaale said, both the visibility of the university and connection to other partners have improved.

IGE Graduands speak out

The graduating IGE fellows applauded the initiative as enriching

“We have been having knowledge on green economy but the inclusive bit has been missing. IGE program is helping us to make green economy inclusive because as we transition, we want programs, projects and investments which reconcile environment and economic development. The inclusive component is enabling us to have a win-win situation by bringing in the would-be losers for the green economy among the beneficiaries”, Aaron Werikhe from the National Planning Authority.

“The course is very timely for us particularly in two ways; It is going to enable previous participants form a community of practice that is going to connect the dots between what has been researched and what we are going to practice”, Andrew Masaba from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

“As a city, we are struggling with issues of climate change, environment, waste, dust in the city and the increasing city population and the growing economy. This program has been very useful in helping us to learn the policy instruments that we can use in addressing environmental problems in the city, developing strategies and how to address climate change issues but also make economic growth of the city sustainable without affecting the environment.

So, we are developing a number of projects around this to make the city better. I thank the organisers, it has been a very good program and I pray that many other people benefit from it”, Robert Kyukyu Ag. Director Strategic Management and Business Development at Kampala Capital City Authority.

Courtesy Call on the Vice Chancellor

Prior to the launch of the new five year IGE program (2023-2027) and IGE 2022 cohort graduation ceremony, the IGE Lead team from the EfD Global Hub paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe in his office in the Frank Kalimuzo Central Teaching Facility.