The Society for International Development Eastern Africa (SiD) received funding
from the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa to carry out a study
which would help understand the status of youth in Uganda. The research
reviewed existing policies and interrogated whether they were responsive
to the current needs of youth in Uganda who form the largest percentage
of the population. In April 2014 the Society for International Development
held a consultative meeting in Kampala with sampled sections of Ugandan
youth in order to get their thoughts on what thematic areas that touch on
the youth they would like to see included in the research that was soon to
be commissioned and fed into the fnal report. Afer the meeting, SID commissioned
researchers who upon completion of their papers were asked to
present their fndings for review and validation.
Following the submission of research papers, SID planned and organized
a peer review and validation meeting in Kampala. This review brought
together all authors who presented their papers to SID and OSIEA representatives
as well as a panel of academic reviewers who were at the time
PHD students at Makerere university. The peer reviewers encouraged authors
to include evidence for factual statements made in the papers in other
words ensure proper referencing. Authors were also asked to elaborate their
strong points clearly and unpack their ideas well in order to reach diferent
readers with relevant messaging. Peer reviewers indicated areas in the textthat were superfuous and encouraged authors to use a variety of sources
as opposed to monopolizing them. The authors went back and incorporated
reviewers’ comments in their fnal work.
Due to the fact that this research was about young people SID decided
to commission young Ugandan researchers. Afer the submission of papers
SID planned and held a two day training workshop in Uganda on research
skills.