Dr. Julius Ssentongo is a Research Fellow at the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) at Makerere University School of Public Health. His current research focuses on examining the resilience of communities that are contending with the effects of climate change and chronic conflict. He primarily focuses on studying the underlying causes of vulnerability as well as mitigation and adaptation strategies, leading to intervention pathways for resilience building. This includes resilience of whom, to what, where and when; what makes individuals/communities/systems vulnerable and how they mitigate and adapt from vulnerabilities; and consequently how innovations can be designed to address vulnerability and consequently strengthen resilience.

The ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) is a USAID funded Research and Innovation Network currently in 18 African Universities in 13 countries, congregated into four Resilience Innovation Labs (RI Labs) - the focal points for commercialization of research, sourcing, developing and supporting innovations. The network works to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities using innovative, evidence-based approaches developed in collaboration with University students, faculty and the community. RAN http://www.ranlab.org is led by Makerere University www.mak.ac.ug, with the secretariat at School of Public Health. It is one of eight University development labs under the Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) www.usaid.gov/hesn of United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Global Development Lab. To date, RAN is supporting over 150 innovative projects with a rich trans-formative potential. The RAN team nurtures and upholds strategic partnerships to strengthen the innovation ecosystem (fostering a culture of innovation and creativity) in Africa and beyond.