NAMIREMBE: The Acting Provincial Secretary of the Church of Uganda, Mr. Balaam Muheebwa has commended Uganda Christian University’s Africa Policy Centre (APC) for offering to partner with the Church in policy formulation, research, reviews and evaluations.
According to Mr. Muheebwa, this intervention is timely given that the Church is a key actor in national development, and will help the Church in advocacy, promoting evidence based research and policy making ahead of the next strategic plan.
Speaking during a consultative meeting between Church of Uganda’s Provincial Secretariat Staff and a team from Africa Policy Centre in Namirembe today morning, Mr. Muheebwa said that although the Church generates and keeps a lot of data, there is need for its consolidation, sharing and utilization for proper planning and service delivery.
Dr. Emily Comfort Maractho, Africa Policy Centre’s Director noted that there are many policy issues that affect the Church that need its input to ensure that it’s not left behind.
“We need to critically look at the relationship between the Church and governance and how the Church can influence governance systems. We also need to create an enabling environment where our Christians can meaningfully contribute to policies that affect them.” Dr. Maractho said.
During the consultative meeting, both parties agreed to come up with a research agenda that will guide the policy formulation, research areas and reviews.
Among the areas that Africa Policy Centre offered to support the Church in are; capacity building in research and policy, joint resource mobilization, promotion of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and sharing of results.
According to Mr. Obadia Kashemaire, Church of Uganda’s monitoring and evaluation officer, potential areas for research and policy include; mission and outreach strengthening, education, health systems strengthening, household and community transformation, leadership and succession planning, conflict and crisis management, disaster management, financial stability among others.
