ACRES recognised for contributions to Monitoring & Evaluation
ACRES team members Sarah Nakabira (left), Prisca Auma (center), and Carol Nakalema (right) display the recognition plaque. The Center for Rapid Evidence Synthesis (ACRES) has been recognised with the UEA Excellence Award 2024 in the Civil Society Organisation category. The award, presented during the 8th Uganda Evaluation Week, acknowledges ACRES’s contributions to Monitoring and […]
Africa: the youth employment crisis and the Mastercard Foundation’s response
Africa is the youngest and fastest-growing continent in the world. By 2030, there will be 375 million young people in its job market. However, there is a significant lack of employment opportunities that young people deem dignified and fulfilling. Youth unemployment rates are as high as 65% in South Africa, and 80% in Djibouti. […]
ACRES and NCDC partner to enhance curriculum development with evidence
ACRES and NCDC partner to enhance curriculum development with evidence The Center for Rapid Evidence Synthesis (ACRES) recently conducted a one-day training session with the senior management team at the National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC) in Kyambogo as part of efforts to promote Evidence-Influenced Decision Making (EIDM) through capacity building. Dr. Grace Baguma, […]
ACRES and ERI’s Evidence Gap Map to inform natural resources policy
ACRES and ERI’s Evidence Gap Map to inform natural resources policy By Bakari Ssettumba The Center for Rapid Evidence Synthesis (ACRES) and Earth & Rights Initiatives Uganda (ERI) have embarked on an initiative to create an Evidence Gap Map on natural resources degradation in Uganda. This innovative tool aims to inform evidence-driven litigation and […]
The Center for Rapid Evidence Synthesis (ACRES) annual report, 2022
The year 2021/2022 saw ACRES scale up responses to more decision-makers questions at national and subnational levels in response to the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic. At the national level, ACRES supported processes at the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD); Education service commission, Ministry of Education and Sports; […]
Ministry of health governance and management structures implementation guidelines
The revised MoH Implementation guidelines for governance and management structures are meant to facilitate how developments in health policy and strategic planning interventions shall be handled within the MoH. The guidelines are intended to improve processes taking place in this regard where many different stakeholders happen to participate. They were released in 2022, at the […]
Evidence for informing health policy development in Low-income Countries (LICs): perspectives of policy actors in Uganda
Although there is a general agreement on the benefits of evidence informed health policy development given resource constraints especially in Low-Income Countries (LICs), the definition of what evidence is, and what evidence is suitable to guide decision-making is still unclear. Our study is contributing to filling this knowledge gap. We aimed to explore health policy […]
Task shifting in maternal and child health care: An evidence brief for Uganda
There is a shortage and maldistribution of medically trained health professionals to deliver cost-effective maternal and child health (MCH) services. Hence, cost-effective MCH services are not available to over half the population of Uganda and progress toward the Millennium Development Goals for MCH is slow. Optimizing the roles of less specialized health workers (“task shifting”) […]
Embedding rapid reviews in health policy and systems decision-making: Impacts and lessons learned from four low- and middle-income countries
Demand for rapid evidence-based syntheses to inform health policy and systems decision-making has increased worldwide, including in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). To promote use of rapid syntheses in LMICs, the WHO’s Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR) created the Embedding Rapid Reviews in Health Systems Decision-Making (ERA) Initiative. Following a call for […]
Feasibility of a rapid response mechanism to meet policymakers’ urgent needs for research evidence about health systems in a low income country: a case study
Despite the recognition of the importance of evidence-informed health policy and practice, there are still barriers to translating research findings into policy and practice. The present study aimed to establish the feasibility of a rapid response mechanism, a knowledge translation strategy designed to meet policymakers’ urgent needs for evidence about health systems in a low […]
