F. Womakuyu
13 January 2009
Kampala — FOUR African universities, including Makerere University, have received funding for research programmes.
Under the project dubbed the Irish-African Partnership for Research Capacity Building, the funding is part of a 1.5 m euro grant from the department of Irish Aid for International Development.
Prof. Elly Katunguka, the director of the School of Graduate studies, Makerere University is one of the co-chairpersons of the project.
"We need to address development challenges. The research will help to influence national policy," Katunguka said.
The researchers will tackle issues concerning health, education, information and communication technology (ICT) and gender empowerment, among others.
In education, the partnership is focusing at training manpower that is synonymous with global development trends. In the health sector, the research aims at ensuring the delivery of quality services to the population, while in ICT, the essence is to avail people with the key knowledge in the digital era.
Grimson, the co-chairman of the steering committee, further stresses that tackling gender imbalance would be a major focus in the research.
"The women must be equipped in all spheres of life. They should have access to a good education, health and information gaps that have made them remain behind in development trends bidged," Grimson adds. "
An educated mother will reduce infant mortality because she can take care of her baby."
Other sectors to be tackled are infrastructure development, rural empowerment and energy sustainability.
The university officials are also mindful of how their countries are failing them. "Politicians promise the impossible.
They neither work with scholars to bring about development nor put our research findings into practice," regretted Rose Kyokwijuka, an economist at the University of Zimbabwe.
"We cannot depend on donors all the time," said Prof. John Saka, the dean of science at the chancellor college, University of Malawi.
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