Professor Eli Katunguka Rwakishaya, the Vice Chancellor of Kyambogo University has asked researchers to always conduct studies that are aimed at creating solutions to society’s problems.
This was during the official opening of three days of workshops of researchers organized by Kyambogo University in partnership with the University of Gothenburg and the Swedish University of Agricultural science under the Agriculture for Food Security (AgriFose) 2030 program at Royal Suits Hotel on Monday.
Prof. Katunguka said many studies conducted by researchers have ended up on the shelves of different Universities and Libraries, “not because of poor quality but the poor areas of interest,”
“Not every study will be considered by policymakers, researchers have the capacity of transforming our country through informing policymakers but this can be done if they do research that is problem-solving,” he said
“Look at the politicians you are doing this research for are they really interested in policy, most of the time policies are drawn based on planners and that is why the government gets hardships in implementing them,” he added.
Prof Katunguka also asked researchers to use this workshop and learn vital skills like writing policy briefs because the target policymakers always do not have time for reading all the pages.
Titled: translating Science into Policy and Practice training, the workshop according to Anders Ekbom the lead trainer aims at strengthening the researchers’ individual skills and capacites, and national, and regional networks for enhanced policy engagement and science-based sustainable agriculture and food security.
“At the end, participants should be able to present scientific results and tentative recommendations aimed at a given target group, understand and describe the roles in the policy-making process and also perform stakeholders napping and analysis,” he said adding,
“They should also be able to; present an overview of the policy landscape relevant to their research, possible research policy linkages and different models for policy engagement including social media- all with a focus on their own research field and formulate and present research-to-policy plan l, policy brief or press release,”
Like Prof. Katunguka, Ekbom said it is very bad and a pity to see researchers conducting their beautiful studies but lacking any policy attraction due to the poor way of presentation.
“They should understand the nature of their politicians and do studies in those areas,” he said
The workshop which ends on March 29 has attracted numerous Scientists from Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania among others.
