EfD Uganda

About the Environment for Development Initiative- Makerere (EfD-Mak Center Uganda)

The EfD-Mak is a new Center at Makerere University established in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2018, under the Environment for Development Initiative (EfD), a global network of environmental economics research centers.

EfD contributes to effective management of the environment in the global South through applied research, institutional development, academic training and policy interaction.  EfD has 15 centers across the world, in Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Sweden, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, USA and Vietnam. The network is coordinated by the EfD Secretariat, a special Unit at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) is sponsoring the Environment for Development Initiative.

EfD-Mak Center is managed by two colleges - College of Business and Management Sciences (CoBAMS) and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES). The  Center    started its full operation in the Financial year 2019-2020 with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Makerere University launched the  EfD-Mak Center  on 29th August 2019, becoming  the first of its kind in the country.

                   Vision                                                                                      

A world of inclusive growth and environmental sustainability

Mission

To promote inclusive growth and environmental sustainability through quality training, relevant policy research, and engagement in Africa and beyond.

Leadership of the Center

The Center   is headed by Prof. Edward Bbaale from the School of Economics in CoBAMs , deputized by Dr. Alice Turinawe  from the School of Agricultural Sciences in CAES.

The center has  established a fully functional office with  six  (6) Administrative staff managing its operations.

Core Center Administrative staff

Our stakeholders

The EfD-Mak Center  works with relevant government departments, the private sector, development partners and civil society to drive research and policy action that are underpinned by issues regarding environmental management and sustainable development.

The Center’s teaching, research, technical support and policy engagement targets the development of skills in priority areas including climate change, energy, food, forests, water, fisheries, agriculture and sustainable development.

Activities

The project objectives and results are achieved through a number of activities including:

• Enrolling Junior and Senior Research Fellows and conducting training and research in environmental economics;
• Establishing local and international research and policy networks with collaborating research institutions and policy makers in Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies;
• Monitoring and evaluating the performance of the individual researchers;
• Organizing international conferences, seminar series and meetings for Senior and Junior Research Fellows, academics, researchers and policy makers;
• Training researchers and staff in rigorous environmental policy analysis/ frontier methodological approaches to environmental questions;
• Holding high-level policy dialogues with policy makers, private sector actors, non-government organizations, academia and civil society organizations to exchange ideas and debate on the status, impact and direction of environmental policy in the country;
• Developing policy briefs out of every technical research done or policy dialogue in non-technical language, for sharing with relevant policy makers;
• Conducting short course for government officials and parliamentarians to enable them better appreciate environmental economics and hence mainstream environmental policy in their daily work;
• Organizing policy tours, policy research workshop and fieldwork in the four regions of the country to bring on board environmental policy makers in government, environmental activists in the private sector and civil society organizations followed by a policy-research workshop;
• Conducting policy-research review dialogues and fieldwork   in different government Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as private sector and civil society organizations to identify the policy gaps that need to be closed through empirical research and to bridge the gap between research and policy;
• Publicizing EfD activities in both print, electronic and non-conventional media.

 Research Fellows

The EfD-Mak Center has lived to its mandate by enrolling 25 Research fellows (13 Senior Research fellows, 9 Research fellows and 1 Junior Research fellow).

To oversee its activities the center,  inaugurated its second and  new  13- member Advisory Board from government and non- governmental institutions  on 16th July 2025.

EfD-Mak Advisory Board Members 2026