By: Derrick Senyonga
KAMPALA
The Minister for General Duties Rt. Hon. Justine Kasule Lumumba has hailed the Uganda Management Institute (UMI) for domiciling the leadership of the Uganda Evaluation Association (UEA) which has led to the professional appreciation of evaluation by working together with other academic institutions.
Noting that evaluation wasn’t considered a big component before, the Minister thanked the institution for awakening everybody who matters to know that evaluation is key. “And I see progress. We are progressing so well and I appreciate the efforts of everybody,” she said.
Rt. Hon. Lumumba made these remarks during the official opening of the 8th Uganda evaluation week at UMI that started on Monday and ends today under the theme: “Development with Purpose: Empowering Accountable learning for achieving Development Goals and Enhancing Climate Resilience.”
She highlighted the need to induct politicians and all civil servants in the areas of monitoring and evaluation which will enhance competitiveness for sustainable wealth creation, employment and inclusive growth especially if Uganda is to achieve its Vision 2040 aimed at elevating the country towards middle income status.
“Unlike some of us, and by the way, as you do that, in every Ministry in this government, there is a Department for Monitoring and Evaluation but how do we politicians interact with them? We wait for reports. They write to us what they want us to hear but this induction will help us to say, yes, I’ve read but according to what I know or according to what I see in the field, there is this aspect missing in this evaluation report. You can only do that if at one time you have ever been exposed to some knowledge to do with evaluation,”
MGD planting a tree at UMI to commemorate UEW2024
“The government will require your technical and financial collaboration and partnership in the implementation of the actions and strategies that will be born out of this conference,” Rt. Hon. Lumumba added.
On his part, the Director General of UMI, Dr. James Nkata assured the Minister that UMI as the Secretariat will ensure that the partnership with the Association is taken very seriously and will do everything possible to make sure that the Association achieves its set goals and objectives.
“I’m proud to say that I believe we hold a number of faculties who have got PhDs in M&E in Uganda, which I don’t think any other university has,”
“We are the midwives of this association. Therefore, we would like to thank our baby for being nurtured by other institutions. I would like to extend our great appreciation to the Office of the Prime Minister for all the support they have given us in making sure that this association takes off and of course the Executive of the Association for the support,” Dr. Nkata said.
Citing the evaluation of CCTV cameras done for the Uganda Police Force among others, Dr. Nkata said, “I’m glad to report that the M&E program here has got the highest number of participants and is now overtaking Project Planning and Management. In the area of research, a number of our participants have undertaken the research in this area and we have held some public dialogues covering these areas and published some policy briefs in M&E which I believe the government can take advantage of when they are doing their policy formulations.”
About the Uganda Evaluation Week
The Uganda Evaluation Week is an annual event that provides a platform for Evaluation and Research professionals and actors to discuss and share evidence, lessons arising from the development of evaluation in Uganda and beyond. It is an opportunity to reflect on ongoing initiatives to understand their effectiveness and impact.
Organized by the Uganda Evaluation Association, the week draws evaluation practitioners from Government, Civil Society, Private sector, Young and Emerging Evaluators (YEEs), the academia and development partners.
