A panel of external evaluators from the EfD Global Hub at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has consented to recommend the re-accreditation of the EfD-Mak Center Uganda for another five years.

 Edwin Muchapondwa from the South African EfD centre at the University of Cape town, Precious Zikhali from Nairobi Kenya and Ted  Horbulyk  from Canada were in Uganda on  a three-day evaluation exercise  on 23^rd – 25^th October 2023.

Every five years, the EfD Global hub evaluates its over 15 centres across the world on various parameters including institutional development, capacity building, research, policy engagement and outreach, performance and also on publication as a research output.

The EfD Uganda was established in Honai in 2018 and launched at Makerere University August 2019 funded by Sida.

The panel heard testimonies from the administrative staff, students the research fellows that work with the center, the university administrators, right from the Head of Department to the Dean, the College Principal and the Academic Registrar, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor as the Chief Executive of the university.

The trio visited government ministries, departments and agencies including the National Planning Authority, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the Ministry of Water and Environment, Wakiso district local government, and ACODE-a civil society organization to find out how collaborative engagements with the EfD-Mak center have shaped the policy environment and practice, as well as the plans and areas they felt the centre could serve better to make more impact.

In a closing meeting with the centre administrative staff and researchers, the Lead Evaluator Edwin Mchapondwa gave a glimpse of what the evaluation report will look like outlining some of the themes and pledged to produce the report within a month.

“But the headline is that the panel has agreed that we will make a recommendation that the center should be re-accredited for five more years. Okay, so with this, we have come to the end of the review process. So we thank the colleagues for tolerating all our hard questions, imposing on your time, not allowing you to attend some meetings you should have been attending. That way, it has been good for the center,” Mchapondwa announced.

Under the institutionalization, the team commended Makerere University for its plan to position the center between the two colleges as a good strategy for sustainability and encouraged the staff to maintain the team spirit and dedicate more time to serve the centre.

“With respect to engagement, I am very impressed with the people we spoke to as entry points into getting ongoing collaborations with people in government and civil society and local government and so on. I think the challenge I see is getting good traction with them” Canadian external evaluator Ted Horbulyk said.

The centre also scored highly in terms of its policy engagement with government ministries, departments and agencies, academia, civil society and local governments. The team advised on the need to formalise the collaborations to ensure they are institutionalised within the university.

“I see policy engagement as a great platform, which a lot of work has really been done, that there is a lot of dedication, I think everybody that we spoke to said they are very engaged, I think that presents a very great opportunity. But of course I think that there is also more that can still be done, just to build on the foundation that has been made. I’m really happy about the potential that you have and the links that you’ve established”, the Kenyan external evaluator Precious Zikhali added.

The evaluators also commended the centre for capacity development initiatves for students, researchers and policy makers in a range of aspects in Environment and Natural Resources Economics but advised on the need to narrow down its focus on areas of field.

“…You are doing well with your programs. And we heard the numbers of typical enrollments. And you seem to be inspiring students right from the undergraduate level. I think that is the right way to go. And we also appreciated hearing about this collaborative program you have in particular, the Masters in Environmental and Resource Economics, which is supported by both colleges.

“What you are doing with the policy makers, particularly IGE, and soon RAMP is also quite good. We saw some evidence that there is some impact that is coming across from there.” The team leader, Edwin Mchapondwa stated.

With respect to publications and papers, the evaluators tasked the centre to submit all publications to justify that there is an active body of scholars at the centre who are doing work.

Evaluators further observed the need for the centre researchers tap into each other’s expertise and narrow the scope of the fields into something that is of high impact when it comes to policy engagement.

On the gender side the centre was also advised to continue to think about initiative to expand the meaningful participation of women, both within EfD Uganda and EfD Global collaboratives.

EfD Uganda has created a mark in the country through policy engagements and outreach.

The Director Edward Bbaale said entering the EfD network is a prestigious issue that has contributed to the internationalization agenda as Makerere drives towards the research-led university status.

The center, he reported, was given notice more than a year ago that it was due for evaluation, and requested to conduct a self-evaluation and ranking on a number of parameters for which it is charged to deliver .

Bbaale said, the center has been preparing a document of self-evaluation which involved appending evidence of MoUs, outcomes of the engagements, and caused policy changes in government.

“And we prepared ourselves to receive this evaluation team. And in the three days of evaluation, we have endured a lot of questions, which, to the best of our ability, we responded to very well”, He said

Bbaale described the evaluation exercise and conversations as enjoyable, and one that gave him pride as he observed people give testimonies about the impact that EfD-Mak has made over the years.

“And as a result, we have not been shy at all to interface with this team. Our heads have been high up, confident, and we tried as much as possible to respond to each of those parameters the way we are supposed to deliver”.

“And then the D-Day, and the awaited hour was at 4 o’clock today 25^th October 2023 where the evaluation team chose to give highlights of what they have observed. They highlighted a  a number of strengths and gaps to be worked on.”

“But finally, what made us very proud this afternoon is that the EfD evaluation team, all the three panelists agreed that the EfD-Mak Center is worthy to be accredited for the next five years, which was a great thing we celebrated and are still celebrating,” the Professor remarked.

Lessons from the evaluation and way forward

Bbaale appreciated evaluators for pointing out different perspectives and great opportunities to engage more with line ministries.

“We should always be in the corridors of the Ministry of Water and Environment to show case of what we are and what we can do, to let them know that in the EfD-Mak Center resides great expertise that can give answers to a number of questions that the government workers may not have answers to.

“We are going to write a profile about what we are as EfD-Mak, our research team,  what we have done over the years, and tell the ministry that we are ready to offer solutions to some of the things they have been grappling with”. He pledged.

The other lesson, he said, is interesting students to like environment and natural resource economics right from undergraduate and graduate students that come as freshers and creating a pool of fellows to offer supervision as well as  participating in the EfD Global Hub competition for the best dissertation.

On international collaborations, the Director clarified that the center belongs to the Forestry collaborative where center researchers Peter Babyenda and Patrick Byakagaba are having a forest project. Babyenda and a representative from the National Forestry Authority under the same collaborative will be travelling to Nepal under the same arrangement for a study on how the country has succeeded in the forestry policy. The center is active in SETI collaborative, that deals with energy and the very first center’s project was on electricity, which was done by Dr. Nicholas Kiliman followed by Dr. Aisha Nanyiti.

In addition to providing a write-up on each of those collaboratives that exist and encouraging people to always be part, Bbaale promised to submit a detailed list of publications from the research fellows.

On the question of gender and ensuring women full participation in the centre activities, Bbaale said Makerere University has been deliberate and intentional to balance gender and to  protect women in general including against sexual harassment.

“With government addition of 1.5 points to women, its fruits have been seen after very many years. Now we graduate 52% female. We are yet to see the fruits translate into graduate programmes and when that happens, we shall be sure that we are in the position to have more women researchers in the center.” He said.

Audit process as a reflection for improvement while re-accreditation offered confidence

Delivering the vote of thanks, the Dean, School of Economics Dr. Ibrahim Okumu described auditing as a way that allows institutions to reflect for purposes of improvement.

Okumu was happy that the evaluators engaged with a number of stakeholders,

“And the outcome tells me that it’s been a really positive engagement. And of course, the last strong point that I got out of this was the positive feedback we got from the policy arena that we are positively contributing to their area of work.

 “And of course, the greatest thing today was the fact that we have an additional five years of contributing to the development of environment, economics, within our space and within the global space. All the areas of strengthening would indeed come through as positive as you suggested.” The Dean noted.

Jane Anyango is the Communication Officer EfD Uganda