The African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) has completed a two-day workshop for African lawyers and government negotiators, aimed at strengthening their capacity to negotiate complex deals involving investments in key economic sectors.

The workshop, co-organized with the African Business Law Firms Association (ABFLA) under ALSF, was held in Accra, Ghana, from February 14-15, 2019. Forty government negotiators and 30 lawyers in private practice representing public and private organizations across Africa, attended the workshop.

In his opening remarks, Stephen Karangizi, Director and Chief Executive Officer of ALSF said the topics covered were “carefully chosen to fill identified knowledge gaps between lawyers’ academic training and legal practice.”

“Participants benefited from a wide array of rich legal contributions and content on the techniques needed to successfully negotiate sustainable and equitable investment agreements for projects in the energy, mining, oil and gas sectors,” officials say.

Further, the negotiation and legal intricacies of infrastructure projects and public-private partnerships were also covered. Participants and government officials attending the workshop commended the initiative, stating that the skills acquired were relevant and vital for the effective and efficient discharge of their professional duties and official responsibilities.

Karangizi said the academy’s curriculum was co-developed by ALSF, national and regional bar associations, including the Southern African Development Community Lawyers Association (SADCLA), the East African Law Society (EALS) and the International Training Centre in Africa for Francophone Lawyers (CIFAF) based in Cotonou, Benin. The academy’s capacity building initiative is also accessible virtually via a portal with learning tools and documentation sourced from the ALSF library.

The Accra workshop was also an opportunity for the ALSF to call on Regional Member Countries to contribute to the financial resources of the ALSF – all in a bid to strengthen its capacity to support African countries with their creditor litigation and negotiations for complex commercial transactions.

Similar ALSF Academy sessions were held in Kigali, Rwanda, and Cotonou, Benin, in October and November 2018.

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Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD) Janat Mukwaya has said Uganda is set to mark International Women’s Day in recognition for their role and contribution to the development process of their country.

Celebrations will be held under the global theme ‘Think Equal, Build Smart, and Innovate for Change’, peddled at creating a paradigm shift for transforming mind sets to the goal of gender equality as well as identifying new ways of advancing the women’s agenda at all levels.

In a statement released by minister, the day provides an opportunity to enhance advocacy for inclusion of women’s concerns in the development agenda at all levels by calling on United Nations Member States to design and implement interventions aimed at attaining gender equality and empowerment of women.

She said National Celebrations will take place in Rwimi Primary School Playground in Bunyangabu District under the theme ‘Empowering Women through Innovative Approaches to Social Protection; a Pre-requisite for Inclusive and Sustainable Development’.

“This theme recognizes the importance of providing social protection to women with the aim of minimizing their vulnerability, building their potential through innovative approaches so that they contribute to and benefit from the development process,” she said in a statement.

Mrs. Mukwaya said gender mainstreaming in social protection is critical in the programme design, implementation and evaluation because it lays a foundation for fair distribution of outcomes and impacts on all the categories of beneficiaries.

She vowed that the ministry will continue to address gender inequalities and equity in delivering social protection services, build capacity of duty bearers to effectively implement gender responsive and equitable social protection interventions, developing and institutionalize system for delivering gender responsive and equitable social protection interventions.

She said Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE), Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP), Private Sector and Civil Society Led Initiatives have been place for empowerment and improving women’s welfare.

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The modern time challenge of education is finding its useful place in complementing Government efforts to build society.

Universities especially in the south should find new and effective ways of developing, transmitting and applying knowledge for the public good; ways that may not always look anything like received western forms of teaching or research but rather contextualized relevant teaching and learning.

Measuring a university’s success here does not mean comparing it to the failures of neighboring institutions; rather it is often precisely through active collaboration with other stakeholders such that key widespread improvements can be effected. This is not charity work; it is what universities should be for in modern time

Inspired by a common interest to work together towards the improvement of the welfare of the people they serve. Victoria University sought a partnership with Mpigi District Local Government to set up a world class smart model village that will be globally identified as success story of a sustainable rural community.

A formal letter from Victoria University was written to the District, dispatched and received in November 2018. The district then invited the University team to share this concept with a select committee of the Technical team on 20/2/2019.

The University was represented by the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences Mr. Fred Kasirye – Head of Delegation, Dean Business and Management Prof. Omotayo Adebujyi, Dean Science and Technology Mr. Fred Lwanga, Head of Department Humanities Mr. Mark Namayo, and Mr. Amos Turyatemba (Head of Department-Social Sciences).

They were welcomed by the District CAO Ms. Lucy Frances Amulen, the Deputy CAO – Mr. Jack Byaruhanga, and the District Community Development Officer, Mr. Mwanje Anthony. The University team made a presentation to a select committee of the District Technical Planning Committee about the model village which was well received.

Through this initiative the University shall work with the district and development partners to promote home grown development paradigms, relevant community research, effective district leadership capacity building and policy guidance.

The partnership shall see the birth of a model village with unique potential and abilities to manage its health, business, technology and societal aspects as mirrored by the four faculties of the University.

For instance students undertaking the Degree in Public Administration will make vital community level initiatives towards Good Governance, Corporate Governance and Public accountability, on the other hand their counterparts in Business shall support SMEs with strategies to grow while also supporting the District to identify additional revenue streams.

In the Health Sciences area of study aspects of public health and nutrition at both family and community levels will be a regular life testimony that students will learn, unlearn and relearn.

Students reading IT will predominantly support the demystification of IT at the grassroots to improve livelihoods through for instance simple IT enabled banking operations, communication and business management. While research will be done throughout the district the pretest, test and model interventions will be done in the selected project villages.

Under this arrangement both the University and the District will spare resources to invest in this initiative over a spread period of time, closely monitor and draw agenda that will enable each party to realize its ideals with regards to service delivery on one side and relevant higher education on the other side.

The initiative is a brain child of the University management which thought it wise to offer additional value to University students’ education by enabling students interact regularly with the real situation on the ground in modern day life while providing relevant solutions through a scholarly approach.

The discussions are still ongoing and the initiative is expected to be launched by mid this year. The University offers Diplomas, Bachelors and Masters Programs in specialized fields.

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The executive Secretary of UNEB, Dan Odongo, has said examination malpractices has gone down as Female candidates outperformed their male counterparts in the 2018 Uganda advanced certificate of education (UACE) examination results that has just released at presidents offices adjacent to Parliament.

Last year, UNEB registered a total of 99,576 candidates for UACE exams from 2,094 centres compared to 101,269 candidates from 1918 centres in 2017, a decrease of 1,693 candidates. 1,052 however didn’t show up for exams.

“UNEB has only withheld results of 91 candidates from 21 centres. The most common forms of examination breaches have been external assistance,” revealed Mr. Odong adding that malpractice has greatly decreased.

Speaking at the releasing of exams, Odongo, said Centre number U2804 allocated to Seesa High School, Kakungube is being withdrawn for gross violation of examination regulations both at UCE and UACE.

Mr. Odongo said, female candidates performed better than male counterparts at the principal level pass in Arts, Physics and Agriculture however Male candidates were better in Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and General paper.

“The failure rate among female candidates is also lower at 0.8 per cent than for all the male at 1.8 per cent, this scenario is similar to that of 2017,” he said.

He said, Good performance were exhibited by candidates from mainly the traditional government schools and some of the better established private schools. These candidates demonstrated adequate knowledge of the subject matter.

Minister for higher education John Chrysostom Muyingo who received examination results of behave of the minister of education who doubles as the first lady Janet Museveni, said incidences of examination malpractices has gone down and pledged that Government will support UNEB in all forms to eliminate this vice.

“The Country should know that the war against examination malpractices is like that against corruption. It’s a war that must be fought by all of us,” he said.­­

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