Makerere University Rotary Peace Center

23/09/2026

A decade into her journalism career, Vivian Agaba had one question she could not shake: what next?

The answer came at a Rotary club meeting in Kampala, where a conversation with a fellow journalist from Cameroon pointed her toward the Rotary Peace Fellowship at the Makerere University Rotary Peace Center.

She applied in 2023. Was not selected. Attended the Capstone Conference that same year, watched fellows from across the world present their social change initiatives, and made a silent vow to come back. She applied again in 2024. In 2025, she was selected as a Cohort 9 Makerere University Rotary Peace Fellow.

That persistence changed everything.

During a lecture on media and peacebuilding, Vivian found her answer. Peace Journalism: the practice of reporting that reduces harm, promotes dialogue, and refuses to amplify conflict for the sake of a story.

Her Social Change Initiative turned that conviction into action. She brought together senior police officers, prison superintendents, and journalists to work through their rights and responsibilities toward each other, covering press freedom, international protections for journalists, and how attacks on media erode public trust and electoral transparency.

Vivian has begun registering the Global Peace Journalism Foundation, designed to nurture a new generation of journalists who use their craft to reduce harm, build dialogue, and advance social justice.

Read the full story:

A Ugandan journalist, Vivian Agaba had reached a point in her career where she was uncertain what to do next. A fellowship at the Rotary Peace Center at Makerere University proved a pivotal point i…

22/09/2026

The countdown to the 10th Capstone Conference is officially on! 🎉

Under the theme, "Collaborative Peace Building for Societal Transformation," the Makerere University Rotary Peace Center will welcome peacebuilders, Rotarians, scholars, and thought leaders from around the world for a dynamic exchange of ideas, experiences, and solutions.

Together, we'll explore how collaboration can drive meaningful change, strengthen communities, and build lasting peace. Join us as we count down to this inspiring gathering dedicated to shaping a more peaceful and resilient future.

17/09/2026

Some peacebuilders arrive at their fellowship with a question. Isaac Kisambira arrived with a conviction.

His focus is inclusive dialogue: creating spaces where communities with competing interests, grievances, and histories can sit together, speak honestly, and move toward something better than the conflict they arrived with. In contexts where exclusion from decision-making drives tension, that focus is not idealistic. It is precise.

Through the fellowship, Isaac is stress-testing his instincts against global frameworks, diverse perspectives, and the rigorous peer challenge of learning alongside practitioners worldwide. He is sharpening his strategic approach, building leadership capacity, and developing the analytical tools to design initiatives that go beyond short-term intervention toward lasting cooperation.

15/09/2026

The Makerere University Rotary Peace Center extends its warm birthday greetings to His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda.

On this auspicious occasion, the Center joins the people of Uganda in wishing Your Excellency continued good health, wisdom, and strength.

As an institution committed to nurturing peacebuilders and advancing dialogue, leadership, and peaceful societies, we recognize the enduring importance of leadership that fosters peace, stability, and national development.

May Your Excellency’s birthday be marked by good health and renewed strength for the responsibilities of national service.

Happy Birthday, Your Excellency. 🇺🇬

15/09/2026

Communities without strong education systems recover more slowly from conflict and fall back into it faster.

The research and SCI interventions of the fellows keep returning to one point. Weak education systems feed displacement, radicalization, and resource conflict. Strong ones prevent it.

This September, Rotary asks us to view literacy and access to education as peace infrastructure, not a separate cause. That is the work this Center exists to advance.

11/09/2026

Melkam Addis Amet 🇪🇹

10/09/2026

What happens when young women are given the space to pause, reflect, and recognise their own power?

Cohort 10 Makerere Rotary Peace Fellow Geraldine Dunn says that the answer lies in creating spaces where the next generation can develop the confidence, agency, and inner peace needed to become leaders for peace.

The Answer: https://rpc.mak.ac.ug/the-sacred-space-of-the-pause/

Through her Social Change Initiative, the Kimberley Girls Leadership & Peacebuilding Workshops brought together 120 learners from four schools to explore personal agency, positive peace, leadership, and practical tools for navigating conflict and pressure.

One powerful takeaway from the workshops was the “Three Laws of Inner Peace”:

🔹 The Law of the Filter - not every voice deserves a seat at your table.

🔹 The Law of the Pause - creating space between a challenge and our reaction.

🔹 The Law of Boundaries - having the courage to protect your future self.

These are more than personal development lessons. They are foundations for peacebuilding. By equipping young people to reflect, regulate, set boundaries, and make conscious choices, we strengthen their capacity to prevent conflict before it begins.

As Geraldine reflects, peace is not simply something we teach. It is something we become.

Read Geraldine Dunn’s full reflection: https://established.co.za/the-sacred-space-of-the-pause-finding-peace-in-the-next-generation/

07/09/2026

Identity is one of the deepest roots of conflict. It is also one of the deepest foundations of peace.

Cohort 6 Rotary Peace Fellow Julius Meleng Ntang spent his 2026 leave in Cameroon doing something that looks simple on the surface and runs very deep underneath: helping children remember who they are.

Through the 2026 Bum Language Camp in Fonfuka and Konene, more than 80 children spent their summer learning Jisibumi, their indigenous language, alongside traditional stories, songs, dances, games, food, values, and cultural practices passed down by elders in their communities.

This is peacebuilding at its most foundational. When children grow up disconnected from their language and culture, they lose more than heritage. They lose a sense of belonging, a framework for understanding their place in the world, and the community ties that make peaceful coexistence possible. Reconnecting them to that identity is not a cultural exercise. It is a conflict prevention strategy.

More;

How the 2026 Bum Language Camp Reconnected Children with Their Cultural Roots and Inspired Hope for a Peaceful Future in Bum, Cameroon For several weeks between July and August 2026, something special happened in Bum Subdivision, Cameroon. Children gathered not simply for a holiday programme, but to

03/09/2026

Presence at a peace table is not the same as power at it.

That distinction is at the heart of a recent conversation with Dr. Helen Nambalirwa Nkabala, Associate Professor and Principal of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Makerere University, and Inaugural Director of Africa's first Rotary Peace Center.

Watch the full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xKegoOK8_E

Speaking on 10-Minute Talks with Buddika Amarathungage, a Cohort 11 Makerere Rotary Peace Fellow, Prof. Nkabala addressed a pattern that runs through peace processes across the world: women are invited to the table, counted in the statistics, and then systematically sidelined in the decisions that matter. She goes further, noting that women are sometimes selected for negotiation processes precisely because they are perceived as easy to overlook.

Prof. Nambalirwa Helen points to four practical shifts that peacebuilding organisations must make: genuine capacity building, the kind that transfers real skill and not just confidence; authentic trust between institutions and women practitioners; co-leadership structures that share decision-making rather than delegate tasks; and mentorship that connects emerging women peacebuilders to those who have navigated these spaces before them.

28/08/2026

We join the Royal Family and the Kingdom of Tooro in mourning the untimely loss of Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV. His was a life of leadership, service, and commitment to the betterment of his people.

Enkuba Etutire. Omukama Atulize.