Hannah Akuffo: Championing Sweden-Uganda Bilateral Research Cooperation

Congratulations on receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Makerere University. How do you feel?

Honored! The Honorary Doctorate was a complete surprise, I was thrilled! Our work with bilateral research cooperation between Sweden and Uganda has been intense with both joys and difficulties. I respect Makerere University as an institution very much. As a person who really nagged them in the beginning, because I was convinced change could be achieved, I did not want anything to go wrong. I knew we could achieve results, so I “went on a bit” with the pushing and nagging, not because I knew it all, but because I wanted to convey the “yes you can” mentality. When they said they were going to offer me the award it meant that despite the nagging, they knew that I had done my part. It was easy to do things with Sida money behind me, but I dare to say it ended up being teamwork and respect for each other. Having money doesn’t mean you know it all, so we disagreed, but continued to have dialogue and productive interactions. I am extremely grateful and humbled!

So tell us, who is Hannah Akuffo?

I am a Senior Research Advisor at the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), and an affiliate Professor of Parasitology at Karolinska Institute. I was born in Ghana and have lived and studied in different countries. I completed my PhD and conducted my post-doctoral research at the University of London. I received my bachelor degree at the University of Ghana, Legon; and my masters degree from the University of London, working with a mouse model of leprosy. My post-doc research in London led me to seek to learn more about human leprosy in Ethiopia at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (named after the Norwegian doctor/scientist who identified the causative agent of leprosy), where I met my husband to be and ended up at Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Sweden. I have tended to attract students from different parts of the world; Ethiopia, Sudan, Guatemala, Nicaragua, but also students from Sweden and other European countries including Germany. Despite working in Sweden, I have really appreciated the privilege to train students from different parts of the world, including those from low income countries, in basic science in the area of diseases that disproportionally affect the poor.

How did you shift your career from academia to development work around research capacity building?

After spending some time working at KI, I decided to look elsewhere. I had previous experience working at KI managing a programme on capacity building in Central America. The need of low/middle income countries to have competent researchers who can ask their own questions and have the skills to investigate and hopefully address solving the questions, became a passion for me.  I applied to work with Research Cooperation at Sida which taught me a lot and helped me realize the importance of research capacity. It was easy to assume that just because one encountered excellent students, it meant there were many more people in their country who could compete for competitive research grants, but this was often not the case.

Most of the research I conducted tended to be on infectious diseases like river blindness and leprosy, which disproportionately affect the poor. I was mostly interested in the immunology of how these infectious diseases came about and could be controlled. I was able to combine my work at KI as an Associate Professor, with the work at Sida to assist in the building and strengthening of institutional research capacity in areas beyond health.

Is this how you ended up working to support Makerere University’s research programs?

In short, yes! I was informed by my boss at Sida that they were planning on starting a research capacity building program in Uganda, and she thought that I would be the right person for the job. At the time, I did not know much about Uganda, only negative things like the war in Northern Uganda, so I was hesitant, but she encouraged me to do it and I was grateful for the opportunity. It was a great privilege for me to have the backing of Sida to contribute to assisting Makerere University to develop and strengthen its research capacity. After a few years, I was put in charge of all the bilateral research cooperation between Sweden and other programme countries.   

What did you do after working on the bilateral research cooperation with Uganda?

For about a year I was the in charge of development cooperation at the Swedish Embassy in Kampala, and for part of that time as Chargé d’affaire for the Embassy.

After this I went back to continue working with research capacity building – where I knew I belonged!  I have had several senior research advisor positions within various portfolios. As the Swedish representative in the General Assembly of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), I quickly realized that those involved in decision making were all Europeans in a so called “partnership”. After I was appointed as the Chairperson, we were able to change the statutes to allow African representation in the general assembly, which was the decision-making organ.

I remain passionately interested in infectious diseases that disproportionately affect the poor. In my work at Sida, I have represented Sweden in tropical disease research programs based at the World Health Organization in Geneva. I have also worked as Sweden’s representative for an EU-Africa program that was part of Horizon 2020 for infectious diseases like HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. Here we worked to find science that would allow us to control these diseases. Giving projects grants was not enough so I brought expertise from Sweden to help build the capacity of low-income countries by improving the environment to do research. Capacity building in research remains my passion.

What were your main achievements for the work you did on bilateral research cooperation in Uganda?

I worked as the research advisor of Sweden’s bilateral research cooperation with Uganda from 1999. As the first person to open our research cooperation with Uganda, I was sent to initiate discussions for first; a week, then two weeks and then longer durations. I viewed the people that we trained as products for continued capacity building, and we had to ensure that the basic infrastructure to support research was in place. At the time, there was a lot of research in the context of HIV/AIDS and Makerere University had benefitted by having labs built but the facilities were for a select few. There were several people with PhDs at the University that had done great work, but there was hardly any supervision. Our thinking was that if we wanted to build capacity, we would have to help with setting up cross-cutting courses, since people needed theoretical support and other skills like writing papers and analyzing statistics.

We established the need for coordination positions that would lead our effort of research capacity strengthening. We thought the people that were trained would be appointed by the University and continue carrying out research, however, we discovered that there were no positions for post docs in Makerere. Reforms at the University were needed to include post-docs, which was not easy. We sensed a potential conflict and engaged a facilitator who guided the changes at the University so that stakeholders would not become nervous. This resulted in a change in the constitution of Makerere University which encouraged people to do research. I was involved in this process as a Research Advisor and continued as the head of Bilateral Research Cooperation at the Embassy of Sweden.

Due in part to our support, Makerere University is more attractive to other funders now. As Sida, we did not view our work as a Sida project, but more like we are assisting Makerere University to achieve what they said they wanted to achieve. This required a change in mindset, as we hoped to provide assistance only for a time, after which the university should be able to manage on its own. I have been one of the drivers for the phasing out of our bilateral research cooperation. This means we can now have different kinds of relationships between Ugandan and Swedish Universities. Our mission is accomplished! Connections have been built between Swedish and Ugandan scientists. Makerere University is now a research hub for Universities in Uganda and the broader East African region. It is a vibrant institution.  

As a female scientist in research, what challenges do you see women facing in this field?

When we started our program in Uganda, only the Norwegian government was supporting the Gender Studies Unit in Makerere University. We engaged with the Unit closely when we started our cooperation, which we ended up supporting for quite some time.  

As the youngest of 11 children, (three boys and nine girls) I grew up not knowing the difference between the sexes. We grew up in a large pastor’s family and the issue of who would and wouldn’t get educated was never brought up. I went to a girl’s school and I am happy I went there. It enabled me to do science, which was not very common with girls back in the day. At the time, education was a government priority where resources from the then Cocoa Marketing Board were used to educate most Ghanaians. In some parts of Ghana and other West African countries, inheritance is through women and not men. This gives women power and has helped to give them status as well.

When I meet young women, I am able to convey to them the “yes you can” ideology. Within my work, I don’t immediately talk about gender, but if I see things that are not going well for women and girls, I will call it out. At the beginning, it is important to analyze the numbers to see how opportunities are provided. I believe that mentorship is important as well. In my free time I mentor young women from different parts of the world, especially those interested in science. I often call out committees that are not gender balanced. These things are changing in my realm. One of the encouraging things about Uganda is the fact that there was a movement for gender equality when I came, which was great.

What is your most memorable experience while working in Uganda?

After working as the coordinator of bilateral research cooperation, I came back to Stockholm for a while. During this period, there was an opening at the Embassy for the position of Head of Cooperation and I was encouraged to apply. I applied and was selected. During this position, at some point the Ambassador left and I was therefore acting as Charge d’Affairs at the Embassy. Many people had never seen a black person as an Ambassador of a European country. It was quite an experience, many people from Makerere University and other Europeans responded to it in an interesting way. I hope that my experience can encourage other women to step up as well.

So what is next for you now?

What’s next is retirement. I plan to sleep a bit. I also want to continue mentoring people. I am still on committees for selecting research capacity strengthening elements, which I do in my private time. The way that Sweden has funded research capacity strengthening has not been understood by other funders, so I remain as part of their advisory committees. I will continue to do this if called upon.

Do you have anything else you would like to share?

I am really pleased that we have been able to have a long-term concerted support to Makerere University. I would like to emphasize that research capacity strengthening is a a long term endeavor! Makerere University has built its capacity, and I am really glad that the government has come in now for sustainability. There is no doubt that the University will continue to win grants from different sources. Who knows what kind of relationship Sweden will continue to have with Makerere University. Finishing on this note, this is a good place for Makerere to be the university it has aspired to be. Gity and other colleagues have done fantastic work and I need to acknowledge them as well.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about one of my subjects.

Compiled by Andrew Byaruhanga