Blueprint Consortium Africa
  • OUR PEOPLE
Blueprint Consortium Africa is steered by a team of seasoned practitioners with deep expertise across research, data science, public health, M&E, and capacity building.
The Advisory Board provides strategic direction, technical guidance and thought leadership to advance the Consortium's mission and long-term impact. The Board comprises members with distinguished expertise and leadership, and a strong record of contributions to Uganda's research and development.
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Dr. Bob Bonabo Munene

Chairperson

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Dr. Sarah Wasagali Kanaabi

Member

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Mr. Paul Mbaka

Member

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Dr. Mildred Barungi

Member

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Assoc. Prof. Richard Opaka Awichi

Member

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Mr. Ronald Mukasa Ssenkubuge

Member

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Dr. Peace Musiimenta

Member

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Mr. Godfrey Kumunyai Kuboi

Member

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Mr. Smartson Ainomugisha

Founder & Executive Director

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The Consortium Management team provides operational leadership and technical oversight, ensuring the highest standards in research delivery, capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation across all Consortium activities.
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Mr. Smartson Ainomugisha

Founder & Executive Director

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Dr. Victoria Kakooza

Director, Research

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Mary Mbulilo

Director, Partnerships & Policy Engagement

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Ronald Elly Kimuli

Director, Evidence & Impact

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Dr. Emmanuel Ahishakiye

Director, TrainLab

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Dr. Emmanuel Ahishakiye

Director, TrainLab

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Ambrose Ogwang

Expert

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Caroline Nankabirwa

Expert

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Sulaiman Kavuma

Expert

Blueprint Consortium Africa brings together leading experts in research, data analytics, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) from government, private sector and academia to deliver high-quality research, capacity strengthening, and innovative, actionable policy solutions.
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Dr. Moses Arinaitwe

Public Health Scientist

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Emmanuel Obuya

Biostatistician

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Dr. Emmanuel Ahishakiye

AI & Data Scientist

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Sulaiman Kavuma

GIS & Spatial Analyst

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Ambrose Ogwang

Economist

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Angel Nagaba

Software Engineer

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Keneth Asiimwe

Economist

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Jude Sebuliba

Economist

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Africano Byamugisha

Data Scientist

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Alice Nalwera

Economist

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Duncan Kabiito Matovu

Data Scientist

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James Baguma

Environmental & Climate Specialist

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Joab Wamani

Economist

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Allan Nuwagaba

Statistician

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Brenda Nayebare

M&E Specialist

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Caroline Nankabirwa

Statistician

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Mathius Amperiize

Public Health Scientist

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Mary Mbulilo

Biostatistician

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Joseph Mushabe

Statistician

The Advisory Board provides strategic direction, technical guidance and thought leadership to advance the Consortium’s mission and long-term impact. The Board comprises members with distinguished expertise and leadership, and a strong record of contributions to Uganda’s research and development.
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Dr. Bob Bonabo Munene

Chairperson

LinkedIn Profile

Dr. Bob Bonabo Munene is an Assistant Commissioner under the Financial Services Department at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. He is an economist with extensive experience in development economics, finance and public sector management having served in various positions at the Ministry.

He has previously served as a Senior Economist under the Infrastructure Social and Services Department and as a budget officer for several Ministries Agencies and Departments. He is a council member of the Uganda Institute of Banking and Financial Services representing the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

Dr. Munene holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Western Cape, South Africa, Masters of Science in Development Economics from Uganda Martyrs University, Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from East Southern Africa Management Institute (ESAMI) and Bachelor of Science in Statistics and Economics from Makerere University.

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Dr. Sarah Wasagali Kanaabi

Member

LinkedIn Profile

Dr. Sarah Wasagali Kanaabi was the first female board chairperson of Electricity Regulatory Authority, which maintained the record as the best regulator in Africa under her leadership.

Dr. Sarah Wasagali Kanaabi is a qualified Economist with varied experience in administration, teaching, research, and policy formulation. She has trained in various fields including Economic Planning and Policy, Financial Modeling for Public-Private projects, Governance and Enterprise Risk Management. She has 22 years of University teaching experience gained at the Islamic University in Uganda and Kyambogo University.

She has served on the Board of Directors of Private Sector Development Center, Mbale and the Eastern Private Sector Development Center Ltd. She also served on the Board of Governors of various secondary schools. Dr. Kanaabi has made several academic and professional presentations in the areas of economics, governance, gender, HIV/AIDS, career guidance, project planning, poverty and development.

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Mr. Paul Mbaka

Member

LinkedIn Profile

Mr. Paul Mbaka is an Assistant Commissioner and Head of the Health Information Division at the Ministry of Health, Uganda. He is an accomplished statistician, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) specialist, researcher, and database and software developer, with over 20 years of professional experience.

He has previously served with the World Health Organization (WHO) as a National Professional Officer for the African Health Observatory (AHO) and Real-time Strategic Information Systems (rSiS). He has also worked with the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development under the FINMAP program.

Mr. Mbaka holds a Master’s degree in Statistics and a Bachelor of Statistics from Makerere University. He has undertaken specialized training in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and ArcGIS from the United Nations World Food Programme (UN-WFP) and the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).

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Dr. Mildred Barungi

Member

LinkedIn Profile

Dr. Mildred Barungi has built a distinguished career in applied policy research, monitoring, and evaluation, with over 20 years of professional experience. She currently serves as Director – Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Uganda Development Corporation (UDC).

Before joining UDC, Dr. Barungi served for more than ten years at the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), where she progressed from Research Analyst to Senior Research Fellow. During this period, she led multidisciplinary research teams, generated high-impact policy-oriented research, and engaged extensively with government and development partners.

Dr. Barungi holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Malawi. She also earned a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Makerere University.

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Assoc. Prof. Richard Opaka Awichi

Member

LinkedIn Profile

Richard Opaka Awichi is an Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics with Lira University, Uganda. He holds a PhD in Mathematical Statistics from Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria; an MSc (Mathematical Statistics) and BSc/Educ from Makerere University.

Assoc. Prof. Richard Opaka Awichi previously worked with Busitema University as a Lecturer and later Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, before joining Kyambogo University as Senior Lecturer in July 2021 till June 2025.

He has attended several short-tailor-made training courses (Leadership and Management of Universities by AAU, HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination in Universities by UNESCO, Doctoral Supervision by University of Stellenbosch, Curriculum Design and Implementation, Programme Evaluation at National and International levels, Grants Writing) as value addition to his career. He constantly improves his teaching and research using a Teaching Philosophy anchored on the 21st Century Skills especially Learning Skills and the Statistical Thinking Philosophy to keep abreast with the goings on in his field of specialization.

His research interests span several fields: Statistics (Spatial & Econometric Statistics, Multivariate Statistics, Biostatistics, Time Series Analysis (SSA/MSSA, CaterpillarSSA) and Probability Theory); Financial Mathematics (Risk Modeling and Financial Time Series Analysis) and Mathematics (Operations Research, Numerical Analysis, Differential Equations and Linear Algebra).

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Mr. Ronald Mukasa Ssenkubuge

Member

LinkedIn Profile

Mr. Ronald Mukasa is a Financial Literacy Coach, Business Development Advisor, Personal Finance Trainer and Author. He is currently the Director-Research, Innovation and Learning and Chief Operating Officer at Enterprise Uganda. He previously worked as the Business Development Manager at Enterprise Uganda.

Mr. Ronald Mukasa holds a Master’s of Science degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Statistics from Makerere University.

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Dr. Peace Musiimenta

Member

LinkedIn Profile

Dr. Peace Musiimenta is a professional educator, Senior Lecturer, and researcher currently serving in the Institute of Gender and Development Studies at Makerere University.

She holds a PhD in Gender Studies, a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts with Education — all from Makerere University. She has also completed a Professional Development Programme for Gender Trainers from KIT Royal Tropical Institute in the Netherlands.

Her research interests span a wide range of gender-related issues, including gender and education, children and family dynamics, gender and agriculture, women’s socio-economic empowerment, feminist pedagogies, gender-based violence (GBV), and masculinity studies.

Peace is a passionate advocate for gender equality and has actively collaborated with several women’s rights organizations and international consultancy firms including Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET), NAWAD, and Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET).

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Mr. Godfrey Kumunyai Kuboi

Member

LinkedIn Profile

Godfrey Kumunyai Kuboi is a strategic ICT and digital health leader with over a decade of experience driving technological transformation and ethical governance in health research, international development, and humanitarian sectors. His expertise lies at the intersection of technology, leadership, and human development.

Throughout his career, Godfrey has led agile software development teams in building scalable digital solutions that improve program efficiency and community-level outcomes. He has pioneered the development of large-scale clinical enterprise applications that digitize health workflows, significantly reducing patient wait times and improving diagnostic service delivery.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Information Technology, a Master of Science in Information Technology, and is currently a PhD candidate in Information Technology. He is certified as an Azure Cloud Administrator, a PRINCE2® Practitioner, and holds an ITIL® Foundation certification.

His technical command spans cloud platforms (Azure, AWS), software development, health informatics systems (LIMS, EHR/EMR), and governance frameworks, consistently applied to solve complex challenges at the nexus of technology, health, and human development.

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Smartson Ainomugisha

Founder & Executive Director

LinkedIn Profile

Smartson Ainomugisha is an accomplished Economist and Statistician with over 15 years of professional experience. He leads the Consortium, providing strategic vision and leadership to advance its mission and ensure the delivery of high-quality research, capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation services.

He has previously worked at the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), Makerere University School of Public Health, Kyambogo University, RTI International (Uganda), Bank of Africa Uganda Ltd and Amref Health Africa, serving in various capacities across research, academia, development programming, and banking.

Smartson holds dual Master’s degrees in Biostatistics from Makerere University (DELTAS Africa SSACAB Scholar 2019) and in International Relations (Research) from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom (Commonwealth Scholar 2019). He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management from Uganda Management Institute and a Bachelor of Economics and Statistics from Kyambogo University.

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Dr. Victoria Kakooza

Director, Research

LinkedIn Profile

Dr. Victoria Kakooza is a statistician and academic researcher with over two decades of experience in applied statistics, economic policy analysis, and development research. Her work focuses on addressing real-world socioeconomic challenges in Uganda and East Africa, with particular emphasis on food security, labour markets, and the economics of higher education.

She holds a PhD in Statistics from Makerere University, a Master of Arts in Economic Policy and Planning, and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) — all from Makerere University. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research has advanced statistical methods for studying poverty and starvation in Uganda’s Karamoja region, including pioneering applications of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition model to household food insecurity.

Dr. Kakooza has authored 8 peer-reviewed publications in international journals, presented at major conferences across Africa, and serves as a reviewer for four academic journals including the Asian Research Journal of Mathematics and the Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies. Beyond academia, she contributes to national policy as a Member of the Technical Advisory Board of the Uganda National Bureau of Standards and has served the Uganda Bureau of Statistics as both a National District Census Officer and a Post-Enumeration Survey Officer.

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Mary Mbulilo

Director, Partnerships & Policy Engagement

LinkedIn Profile

Mary Mbulilo is a Biostatistician and Monitoring and Evaluation expert with over a decade of experience in Research, Monitoring & Evaluation, and data management within non-Government organizations and Public Health projects that include Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV, TB, Malaria, noncommunicable diseases, adolescent health and Health systems strengthening particularly for Data analysis and use. Proficient in designing surveys, statistical analysis plans, research methodology, presentation and Project coordination.

She currently serves as Project Coordinator for the Impact Evaluation for Evidence-Based Decision (IEED) project at Makerere University School of Public Health, where she oversees implementation, stakeholder engagement, and impact evaluation training. Prior to this, she coordinated the Maturity Index Model under the PERSuADE II Project, supporting self-assessments across five Eastern and Southern African countries. She has also served as Data Manager for the ARISE-NUTRINT Project, Data Analyst for the Research for Scalable Solutions (R4S) project covering Uganda and Nigeria, and M&E Officer at Makerere University Joint AIDS Program (MJAP) from 2017 to 2022. Earlier in her career, she was a Research Co-Investigator on a COVID-19/TB feasibility study, a Clinical Trial Statistician at the Natural Chemotherapeutics Research Institute, and a Data Officer at MJAP.

Mary holds both a Master of Biostatistics and a Bachelor of Science in Statistics degree from Makerere University. She also holds a Master of Management Studies specialising in Monitoring and Evaluation from Uganda Management Institute.

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Ronald Elly Kimuli

Director, Evidence & Impact

LinkedIn Profile

Ronald Kimuli is an M&E Specialist with over 18 years of professional experience. He has led the design and implementation of M&E frameworks for high-impact initiatives funded by USAID, Global Fund, CDC, PEPFAR, and UNAIDS.

Ronald has a proven record in strengthening national health information systems, scaling digital health innovations such as the Uganda Electronic Medical Records (U-EMR), and aligning donor-funded projects with national strategic goals. His expertise spans performance management, data analytics and visualisation, digital health, and strategic information.

Ronald holds a Master of Science in Public Health from International Health Sciences University (IHSU), Uganda, Post-Graduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation from Uganda Management Institute (UMI), and a Bachelor of Statistics from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

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Dr. Emmanuel Ahishakiye

Director, TrainLab

LinkedIn Profile

Dr. Emmanuel Ahishakiye is a leading expert in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, with extensive experience in applying advanced analytics to solve real-world challenges in healthcare, agriculture, and education.

He holds dual PhDs: one in Information Technology (Artificial Intelligence & Data Science) from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, and another in Medical Image Processing from Mbarara University of Science and Technology, developed in collaboration with Delft University of Technology.

Dr. Ahishakiye has led groundbreaking projects, including AI-powered cancer and malaria detection, predictive modeling of crop yields, and the development of data-driven tools for education and public health. He has authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications, secured competitive grants, and worked with organizations including WHO, USAID, and the African Union.