CPAR Uganda Ltd

We, at CPAR Uganda, are delighted to announce that the academic research project in whose design we participated in, “Challenging Categories: Educated Unemployed Youth as Institutional Innovators in Rural Uganda” (Challenging Categories Project), that is led by Dr. Ben Jones of the University of East Anglia, competed successfully and has received a grant award from The British Academy, under its programme “Youth Futures.”

On request from Dr. Jones, our Managing Director, Ms. Norah Owaraga, accepted to partner with Dr. Jones and his Co-Investigator, Dr. Laury Ocen of Lira University, to develop the research proposal for the Challenging Categories Project.  Together, the team of three thought through the project framework and strategy; and will jointly participate in implementing it.

It is exciting for CPAR Uganda that the Challenging Categories Project fits well with our on-going project: “Mentoring Young Adults into Innovators”, for which we are crowd-fundraising for in partnership with the GlobalGiving Foundation.

Eleven young adults have already begun their mentoring journey with us and in February 2020 they successfully completed Module I: Understanding Poverty in Rural Uganda. During 2020, funding permitting, it is our hope that these 11 young adults will complete the remaining three modules of our mentoring programme:

• Module II: Applying Development Methodologies and Theories to Rural Uganda
• Module III: The Dynamics of Uganda’s Rural Economy
• Module IV: Initiating and Sustaining Innovations for Positive Change in rural Uganda.

Also, funding permitting, it is our intention that we will be able to take on another 14 young adults and thus in 2020 we could mentor a total of 25 young adults.

Eight of the young adults whom we shall mentor will get the opportunity to actively participate in the Challenging Categories Project and to work alongside Dr. Jones and Dr. Ocen, as well as our Managing Director. The eight young adults will, in fact, receive hands-on practical training, including having an opportunity to play a full role in defining, designing, collating, writing and disseminating the project.

Hopefully, the Challenging Categories Project will begin soon, in 2020, depending on how quickly the COVID-19 pandemic is contained and is defeated in both the United Kingdom and in Uganda.