Engagement with Uganda’s Ministry of Public Service

On September 14^th, 2023, part of the team from Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF) secretariat engaged a team from Uganda’s Ministry of Public Service through the office of the Permanent Secretary Mrs. Catherine Bitarakwate Musingwiire. The Mak-RIF team was led by Prof. Robert Wamala, Deputy Director of the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training at Makerere University, a member of the Mak-RIF Grants Management Committee and Chairperson Mak-RIF Research Agenda review subcommittee.

Discussions with the Permanent Secretary and her team included how else we can work together leveraging knowledge, expertise, experience, partners, resources among others both at the Ministry of Public Service and Makerere University. In addition, we identified several low hanging fruits for us to leverage including the following;

• Joint proposal writing and submission for funding. E.g Salary Enhancement related research proposal, an idea muted and shared by the PS.
• Moving forward we need to purpose to work together as Stakeholders – participate in the Ministry’s Budget review workshops and leverage an opportunity to present to Ministry’s top management sharing about Mak-RIF and the outputs coming through etc. We also agreed to continuously look out for possibilities for us to work together for the good of those we serve and communities we live in.
• Mak-RIF to share research and innovation outputs to-date with the Ministry while highlighting those which are informing policy for potential utilization.
• Mak-RIF team to engage and review/support the Ministry’s Research and Innovation Unit.
• We also agreed to draft and sign an MoU between Makerere University and the Ministry of Public Service. There in, we shall stipulate all possibilities for us to work together.

We look forward to executing the tasks discussed for the benefit of the communities in which we live and serve.

By: Harriet Adong, Mak-RIF Communications Officer