Dear RAN Partners, Collaborators, and Friends,

2023 Festive Season Greetings to you and all your dear ones!

In this issue of our Bulletin, we not only send you and all your dear ones Festive Season Greetings but also continue to leverage the opportunity of sharing about some of the work we have continued to engage in.

This year has been filled with various activities ranging from work to enhance the voices of the indigenous people of Uganda, document and share sustainable pathways in Northern Uganda, scaling the Safe Bangle Technology which is directed towards ending violence against women and men, efforts to improve Tanzania’s education sector with spillover effects to improving education in other countries too especially given context, research capacity strengthening and learning among others.

Enjoy reading.

Prof. William Bazeyo
Chief of Party, RAN

Highlights

• Leveraging and Enhancing the Voices of the Indigenous Peoples of Uganda and Combating Child Trafficking in Karamoja, Uganda
  • On August 31, 2023, Makerere University, School of Public Health, ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), Gulu University Constituent College (GUCC) in Moroto, and Purdue University brought together 89 multidisciplinary researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and donors at a project dissemination workshop in Hotel Africana, Kampala Uganda. The dissemination event featured the findings from six research interventions conducted under the “Voices of the Indigenous People of Uganda” project.
• Sustainable pathways in Karamoja-Uganda summit
  • USAID/Uganda through its partners held a Karamoja Learning Summit between September 12-14, 2023 in Uganda at Speke Resort Munyonyo. The theme for the Summit was “Sustainable Pathways to Food Security and Economic Growth in Karamoja: Reflecting on a Decade of Investments”. Makerere University School of Public Health – ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) was represented by Dr. Julius Ssentongo, Director Operations and Director Eastern Africa Resilience Innovation Lab.
• SafeBangle: A Guardian Angel for Women’s Safety
  • SafeBangle Technologies, a groundbreaking company dedicated to designing and developing wearable safety tools for women, emerged winner of the prestigious DataFest Vizquest competition organized by Pollicy. The competition run for one month to prepare the 10 teams with exceptional data visualization and storytelling skills.
• Engagement with the University of Dodoma, Tanzania May 15-16, 2023 in Efforts to improve Tanzania’s Education Sector
  • Multidisciplinary stakeholders convened in Morogoro, Tanzania over a period of two-day Monday May 15th through Tuesday May 16th, 2023 for an engagement during which results from a project funded by USAID through LASER PULSE were disseminated. This project, running from April 2021-July 2023, is titled Tanzania Early Grade Social and Emotional Skills and Phonics-Based Literacy Learning Agenda.
• University Research Engagement and Capacity Strengthening Workshop in Uganda
  • On April 12-13, LASER PULSE convened university leaders and researchers from around sub-Saharan Africa in Kampala, Uganda, to continue their efforts towards strengthening capacity in research leadership and project management at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
• USAID LASER PULSE Research for Development Learning Summit
  • The LASER PULSE consortium members (Purdue University, Indiana University, University of Notre Dame, Catholic Relief Services and Makerere University–ResilientAfrica Network) convened in Washington DC, for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) LASER PULSE Research for Development Learning Summit, Tuesday May, 2^nd, 2023.
• Community Engagement sharing SafeBangle to end SGBV
  • On March 21, 2023, RAN researchers together with the team working on the SafeBangle under the umbrella of SafeBangle Technologies and Somero Uganda held Focus Group Discussions with the adolescent girls and women of Nakawa (Kinawataka) and Kawempe (Bwaise) to talk about the sensitive and crucial issue of sexual gender-based violence (SGBV).
• The 2^nd Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Kimeza with Voices of the Indigenous Peoples in Uganda at USAID Mission
  • On January 30^th, 2023, representatives of the Ik and Tepeth communities, together with a team from Makerere University – ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) and Gulu University Constituent College (GUCC), engaged with 23 United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Uganda Mission staff.
• The Voices of the Indigenous People of Uganda
  • Uganda language policy requires rural schools to choose a dominant local language to use as the language of learning and teaching for the first three years of primary school, while English is taught as a subject. The Tepeth and Ik people face the worst case scenario with only a few elders still able to speak So Lang (an ancient language by the Tepeth slowly approaching extinction among the young generation) and Ik, while the majority have adopted Ngakarimojong and other indigenous languages. Most Tepeth and Ik children study and receive language instruction in neighboring Ngkarimojong-dominated schools.
• USAID Mission Uganda team visit to Mbarara University of Science and Technology
  • On 15^th December 2022, teams from the USAID Uganda Economic Growth and Partnership Office visited Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST). The teams were represented and led by Ms. Jackie Batanda, USAID Mission Uganda Project Management Specialist (Partnerships), and Mr. Robert Bagyenda together with Ms. Kevin Namulembwa from the USAID Mission Economic Growth Office. This was a learning visit targeting the Batwa Livelihoods Innovation Challenge (BLIC) sub-awardee project on Employing integration of mutual aid groups and informal saving schemes to alleviate gender-based violence among the Batwa in Kanungu.

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