KPC Gulu a.k.a. KPC Project Gulu

For anybody wherever they are, as long as they have been following news about Uganda for any section of the past 20 years, Gulu is not a new name. Well, I need to be fair to those who could have missed it. Gulu is one of the towns in Northern Uganda whose residents have suffered greatly both in the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Generals Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti and due to the effects of the war between LRA and the Uganda government forces.

Thank God for the current peace talks taking place in Juba and the ceasefire thereof. On this occasion, I will not comment directly on the talks or whatever is happening with it except to wish it the much needed outcome of total piece in the northern part of Uganda. I keep my hope alive for this.

I am interested in a local church’s (Kampala Pentecostal Church - KPC) involvement in bringing the healing of hearts and the love of Christ to the people of Gulu through what it calls 'project Gulu'. On the 5th day of August 2007, KPC Gulu will be launched in a celebration in the city of Gulu and I believe it will be graced by a cross section of the community, the local leaders in Gulu and probably some high-placed government officials. I pray I make it to Gulu again after over 27 years.

I was last in Gulu as a little boy. Besides looking forward to revisiting a town I have a beautiful child’s memory of (one of the memories is that of the air force planes doing beautiful manoeuvres over the city during training / rehearsal sessions), I would very much love to be part of the ceremony that ushers in yet another body that has already been proven to deliver hope to the community. I believe with the whole of my heart that before long, the significant contributions of KPC Gulu towards lifting up the hearts of a good proportion of the affected people of Gulu through meeting their spiritual and physical needs will become obvious to the open-minded and objective assessors both local and foreign. This is yet another contribution (by locals and foreign partners) that I will follow with great interest (for its good intentions and anticipated contributions) and hence will write quite a bit about in this space. Watch it.

Science education and science development in Uganda

Uganda's Ministry of Education and Sports about a year or two ago took a ‘drastic’ measure aimed at encouraging / promoting natural sciences education in Uganda. The government’s decision to increase the number of government-sponsored natural sciences students (with reduction of support to social sciences and humanities students) joining public universities triggered debate in various fora and still continues at a relatively lower 'tone'. It is my wish that this attempt by government should not degenerate into a mere increase in the number of Ugandans who go down in record as having been sponsored by government to study some form of natural science at undergraduate level in public universities in Uganda. I am sure the numbers will swell but as to whether the graduates will practice science (in Uganda) is another thing.

Discussions of the efforts taken by government need to be broadened beyond just numbers and more importantly beyond “fire is better than water” kind of debate that seems to put science on one side and humanities and social sciences on the other. Below are some of the additional issues I believe should be looked at when considering promotion of science education and practice in Uganda.

1. Motivation / remuneration of scientists.
As long as the average Ugandan-trained or Ugandan-based scientist will be paid “pea nuts” in Uganda, science education will not be attractive to our children. They would rather try law, banking, accounting, political science, and the likes. There are quite a number of first class scientists (engineers, medical doctors, veterinarians, industrial chemists, geologists, etc) who have opted out of natural science (into accounting, business, banking, politics, etc) for reasons purely related to remuneration (read survival). I personally consider them very wise individuals. That aside. How many prominent Ugandan scientists are living and participating in cutting edge science research and practice in Europe and America? To me, the biggest reason is that scientists are better remunerated in the west. The Ugandan scientist, being human with needs beyond professional satisfaction, will opt for better remuneration so as to take care of the physiological needs first before all else – a demonstration of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Quite a number of those who stick around maintain a lifestyle that they do not deserve besides not being enviable.

No wonder therefore that at this point in time when a science Professor living in Uganda is appointed to a lucrative administrative position in government or private institution, s/he will dash for the job at a breakneck speed. However, if the level of remuneration is improved and access to resources s/he needs for his/her science job, chances are higher that s/he will be very reluctant to leave the science arena. The heart is in science but survival is vital.

2. Realisation of the impact of science demands for patience.
Science is relatively slow and its impact can be felt after a relatively longer period of time than outcomes from other fields. The associated rewards are also slow and call for lots of patience on the part of the nation and that of the scientist him/herself. Unfortunately some sections of our society are impatient and do not know or rather accept the fact that for science research to yield an outcome, it goes through lots of stages of development, improvement and testing. There are scientists who never live to see the ultimate impact of their work! Sad but true. There is also an urgent need to distinguish between research and development issues in science and address them appropriately for impact to be realised.

3. Role models in science.
Role models are, to a great extent, ‘created’ by the media. For as long as the media ignores achievers and achievements in science, our children will not have any role model in science to inspire them – they would rather envy the lawyers handling the big political cases in court; the central bank governor; the prominent business owners; the parliamentarians (political ‘leaders’) and the likes who get good media coverage besides being well-remunerated. These are, no doubt, very important people but probably as important to the nation as a research scientist in the National Agriculture Research Organisation or Mbarara University of Science and Technology, for example. The question is, whose activities will the media follow? What headlines are ‘appropriate’ to the editors; what sells; what is politically correct? I believe that the role of the media is very vital in encouraging science education and science development in the country. The media should give science and scientists better publicity.

4. Political will and weight for support not interference.
Three issues here. Firstly, I propose that a desk be established in the president’s office (the disease, ‘Presidentialism’ is still with us) to handle science development and research (with ministerial powers and the necessary resources).

Secondly, a highly placed government official, preferably the President should be involved in announcing to the nation major scientific research and development outputs and do it with enthusiasm and pride. President Yoweri K. Museveni, in a move unprecedented in this country, recently (2005) established the first ever presidential science awards that recognised contributions of accomplished research scientists in Uganda. This is a positive development that should continue and be broadened. I am glad that one of the accomplished Ugandan scientists I nominated was among the 42 (pioneer group) recognised in the 2005/2006 awards.

Thirdly, an example of the negative role politics plays here is a situation where a politician promotes a science-related project perceived to be developmental to the community but bypasses the scientists or ignores their advice. Once such attempts fail, it gives negative publicity to science in that locality and puts the scientists several steps back in explaining how that particular science could help the community develop. Science can boost national development if all the stakeholders are involved in the process and the scientists’ opinion is respected.

5. Strategic training / work experience in the west.
One avenue Uganda (and indeed Africa) should explore is to acquire science skills from the developed world and bring them back home. This could be by way of training or encouraging science internships abroad whether in form of aid or by scholarships provided by the west. We could also market / loan out (contract) our labour to the west (for a specified short period of time). The government of Uganda ought to get actively involved in securing positions of assistantships and sabbaticals in western universities / research / development organizations and government departments. This way, we get our scientists exposed to and acquire skills in cutting edge science; they get into the global loop of scientists network, among others. By the way, there is a strong relationship between the big names in cutting edge science in Uganda today (especially in research) and foreign work experience and collaboration. We ought to learn from that. Such efforts are mutually beneficial.

6. Law enforcement against impostors (quacks).
In Uganda, there are quacks in every science discipline. Scientists therefore need support from law enforcers in wiping out quacks, not only to protect the professionals' 'bread' but also to protect the currently largely gullible Ugandans. Some Ugandans have lost and, I hate to say, continue to lose money (directly or indirectly) to these impostors. Controlling this vice could go a long way in motivating scientists to stick to their professions, earn better and subsequently encourage science education and development in the country.

I believe that these are some of the possible ways through which science education and development could be encouraged and developed in Uganda. Most of the suggestions are inward looking - every Ugandan must first develop the heart for promoting science before development partners provide the much needed complementary hand through strategic mutually beneficial partnerships.

Dokolo what's your vision?

Dokolo district is one of the new districts in Uganda inaugurated in 2006 having been carved out of Lira district (formerly Dokolo County in Lira District). Being among the youngest, it is expected to learn from the failures and successes of the relatively older ones and therefore perform better within the available resources. I believe that one of the factors for good performance is a common vision derived through an extensive consultative process. I am aware that an open consultative meeting was held in Kampala in August 2005. I am not aware there was a follow-up meeting thereafter. Being new, the district needs to be built on a firm foundation of a clear vision focused on improved livelihoods / welfare of the people of Dokolo and their development partners. Mine is a proposal meant to provoke discussion that could, hopefully, culminate into a broader discussion leading to the adoption of a common vision for the district. I am not in any way prescribing a panacea. I do, however, believe that Dokolo has the potential of becoming a model district within a few years from inception if such a direction is pursued.

I would love to see Dokolo being a district whose people are well nourished, healthy, secure, intellectually competent, socially and economically productive with a strong sense of moral dignity. Some of the probable elements of such a vision include the following. All members of the district together with other development partners such as the central government, NGOs, foreign donors, etc working:

• Towards food security throughout the district even in the aftermath of unfavourable weather. This would involve enhanced and diversified agricultural production, marketing, produce preservation / processing.
• To provide easy access to well-facilitated health service facilities with highly motivated qualified professionals.
• To provide security of life and property of the community in every corner of the district; respect and commitment to common local, national and international security guidelines.
• Generate / develop expertise and skills of a nature and quality that matches local and regional performance requirements and global standards; improving information management and language competence is vital (both local and foreign e.g. Luo, Kumam, Ateso, Swahili, English, French, Spanish).
• Enhance the level of social and civic responsibility; encouragement of teamwork and peer development.
• Proactively endeavor to engage in economically profitable ventures (in local and foreign markets), judiciously harnessing / investing in the vast / abundant natural and human resources. Enhance and harness the opportunities associated with its ‘hub’ location.
• Practice of basic human rights and responsibility of one to another; integrity; respect of persons and cultural/institutional systems.

Such a vision would be achieved through commitment and deliberate action by all (irrespective of ethnic / political inclination) starting with working out strategies and subsequently implementing them. The following values would be vital in guiding the implementation process:

• Accountability.
• Integrity.
• Teamwork / harnessing the power of synergy.
• Respect for self, others, nation and God.
• Excellence.

I wish I could persuade the people of Dokolo district to desist from the misconception that political organisations’ visions translate into the district’s (country’s) vision. Dokolo’s foundation should be built on a vision owned by all and that surpasses all political and ethnic inclinations. All political organisations active in Dokolo should only propose programmes within the district’s grand vision. The other districts and indeed Uganda could borrow a leaf.

I hail from Dokolo District.

Social networks - small world

Last week the majority of our fifth year Veterinary students returned from the field (the farms to which they were posted for a period of three weeks) as the last leg in their formal Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine course. The major purpose of the attachment was to expose the students to on-farm conditions and situations which very closely resemble the kind of working environment they would be exposed to during their formal jobs. This time it was shorter than the previous 10-week period.

Just today morning some of them started submitting their bound reports outlining, among others, their experiences and lessons learned over the short period of time. I had earlier enumerated to them some of the benefits of the attachment but the one I feel I should have endeavoured to explain further, besides polishing professional skills, is the element of social networking. Last week and today, I got the opportunity of sharing with a few of them just one aspect of the significance of social networks in our lives. I used the analogy of airline routes and hub airports (local and global). I took an East African example considering Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi Kenya as our local hub and Entebbe International Airport in Uganda as one of the smaller ones. There are a few flights out of and into Entebbe than there are into and out of Nairobi. There are therefore lots of flights out of Nairobi into cities that do not have direct flights from Entebbe. It implies therefore that for a person in Entebbe to reach some cities aboard a commercial flight, s/he would need to go through Nairobi and get connected to the city of his/her destination probably even going through yet another hub airport like Dubai in United Arab Emirates. With travel, visa and airline tariff requirements met, the opportunities / possibilities of getting connected to many other cities increase with every airport / hub accessed or arrived at.

I decided to keep it that simple to illustrate the point that you may not have direct access to / contact with a person you would wish to deal with but may use a contact you already know to connect / facilitate your connection to the ultimate person of interest. Alternatively, your attention may be drawn to somebody you did not know but who somebody you know knows. The interesting thing is that you may not know, at the time of first meeting, how useful a contact may be later in life. I therefore advised my students to make sure they maintained the new contacts they had made and 'warned' them that such contacts might become useful for future working relationships with other parties they (students) would not have known (at least in two steps) if they had not met their current 'new' contacts. I know for a fact that even a mere exchange of business cards between non-acquaintances in a cocktail can initiate and extend social and business networks that could accelerate the speed of progress of a business or career development plan of the involved parties or their acquaintances. How much more would days of contact do?

I had also earlier advised my students to make sure their professional and social skills are missed when they leave the farms. My main interest was to bring out the fact that good work, good social skills that one practices will always be told as a story to other people. In this way, people or businesses have the power of the 'word of mouth' work for them as a marketing tool. Who will recommend a person whose good works they are not familiar with? Is there anybody living today who cannot attribute their progress or success to some social network?

It was interesting to learn that we live in a small world, so small that the average path lengths for social networks is only six degrees of separation - the theory that anyone on earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries.

Is it necessarily obvious therefore that a person who is more sociable will be linked to more social networks than one who is not? And will this subsequently reduce such a person's "degrees of separation"? Daniel Goleman argues that sociability, as an element of Emotional Intelligence (EQ), is a factor that contributes towards increasing the probability that a person will be an effective leader. Do we have a choice but to be sociable? Maybe not.

Humble beginning

Today I launch my public weblog. I feel good that I eventually got it started. I also feel encouraged by the Biblical advice that we should not despise days of humble beginnings and the Chinese saying that, 'a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step'. Yes it is a humble beginning, yes it is the first step but I believe the future is blessed and the journey will be good. I invite you to walk it with me as we learn, share experiences and opinion that will bless each one of us and others who will read what we share here.