The training was attended by participants from government ministries including the ministry of health, education, and ministry of labor, gender, and social development as well as those from civil society organizations.
The training, akin to a crash-course, extensively covered more than 10 research and programme areas namely: understanding the research process; searching, organising and storing research literature; communicating research findings to policy makers and implementers; tenets of child-focused research; policy development; systematic reviews and meta-analysis; the research to policy gap and problem identification.
Speaking during the four-days training which took place at Fairway Hotel in Kampala from Monday to Thursday, Prof. Rosalind Grace Lubanga, a seasoned social-work academic said, there is need to have transparent processes to uptake research evidence in various government and civil society organization departments.
Prof. Rosalind Grace Lubanga
“The practice landscape comprises many actors and there is a lot of politicization of issues which does not bear results for our children. We need individuals with skills to use the research evidence and that is why this training is timely.”
The training was attended by participants from government ministries including the ministry of health, education, and ministry of labor, gender, and social development as well as those from civil society organizations such as Dwelling Places, Parenting Uganda, ANPPCAN, UWEZO.
Participants from religious bodies such as the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) and the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) were also in attendance.
Regarding acquisition and use of research evidence, head of department-Early Childhood Development at Kyambogo University, Dr. Godfrey Ejuu told trainees to always check the quality of research evidence because it ought to fill gaps in programming and policymaking.
Dr. Ejuu also told trainees to acquaint themselves with knowledge of the political system and manifesto in order to ease policy absorption and implementation.
