Last month, VVOB in Uganda became the newest member of the Regional Education Learning Initiative for East Africa (RELI). The membership was unveiled at RELI’s annual members convening in Kampala, where we gave insights into how we redesigned and rescheduled activities in the wake of COVID-19.
It’s a match
The RELI partnership focuses on policy engagement and building evidence of what works, two areas close to VVOB’s heart:
Policy engagement is a core task of our VVOB teams worldwide: within countries, through daily interactions with our partners at the ministries of education or participation in Education Development Partners groups; across countries through membership of for example the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation (KIX) Hub for Anglophone Africa; and globally through our seat in the steering committee of the International Teacher Task Force.
Moreover, VVOB invests heavily in learning together and developing substantial data of what works. VVOB maintains knowledge partnerships with the REAL Centre at the University of Cambridge, the Australian Council for Educational Research, KU Leuven University, and several African universities, including the University of Rwanda – College of Education, Rhodes University, and the University of Witwatersrand.
VVOB’s first time at RELI annual convening
The 2020 convening was characterised by presentations, group discussions and policy conversations with officials from the Ministry of Education and Sports. It was a special moment for RELI members to rekindle and share experiences on their collaborative initiatives. It was also an ideal time for RELI Uganda Country Coordinator Dr. Mary Goretti Nakabugo to announce VVOB as the newest member. VVOB was allocated a slot in all the three thematic groups of: Values and Life Skills, Secondary Education and the Accountability cluster under RELI Africa.
VVOB’s Uganda team, led by Deputy Country Programmes Manager Marianne Kiggundu (left), shared experiences on how VVOB has supported learning in Uganda in these challenging times. She demonstrated how our Teaching Agriculture Practically (TAP) programme redesigned and rescheduled activities to allow innovative ways of supporting teacher education in the wake of COVID-19: “VVOB in Uganda implemented a system to support Teacher Training Colleges for TAP. In June, we supplied them with gadgets such as tablets and laptop computers which helped engage them with online activities, meetings and activities through WhatsApp, Moodle and Zoom. These replaced the face-to-face sessions that were initially planned”, she said.
Some long-standing VVOB friends are also members of RELI, including Aflatoun, Dignitas, Education Development Center, Educate!, PAL Network, STiR Education and UWEZO! VVOB is looking forward to strengthening existing partnerships as well as creating new ones.
