Empowering Action in Complex Systems
Overview
The CIREM Hub is Africa’s leading centre for advancing practical knowledge, capacity, and partnerships to tackle complex health and development challenges.
At CIREM, we believe complexity is not a barrier but an opportunity for smarter, more resilient solutions. We innovate research and evaluation methods, build individual and institutional capacity to navigate complexity, and catalyse multisectoral collaboration that drives real-world systems transformation.
Through cutting-edge studies, tailored training, participatory systems mapping, and trusted knowledge-sharing platforms like the Complexity Action Series, we empower students, researchers, practitioners, governments, and communities to co-create context-sensitive solutions that last.
Vision
Mission
CIREM’s mission is to develop and apply cutting-edge research and evaluation methodologies, strengthen capacity, and catalyse multisectoral partnerships that empower people and institutions to navigate complexity, coordinate action, and deliver resilient, contextually grounded systems solutions to Africa’s health and development challenges.
Core Values
- Excellence: We uphold the highest standards of research and evaluation excellence, ensuring the quality of all the Hub activities.
- Inclusivity: We welcome participation from students, researchers, and professionals across various disciplines and sectors to foster a diverse and collaborative learning environment.
- Innovation: We promote creativity and innovation in research, evaluation, and action inspired by complexity and systems science, encouraging the exploration of cutting-edge methodologies and holistic solutions.
- Relevance: The Hub is guided by a commitment to addressing complex public health and development challenges faced by Uganda and the SSA region, ensuring that the evidence and solutions generated are relevant and impactful.
- Continuous Improvement: We continually assess and adapt our programs to meet the evolving needs of the various communities engaged in public health and development work.
Background
In an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) global context, addressing today’s and tomorrow’s public health and development challenges requires more than conventional approaches. It calls for innovative tools, context-sensitive methodologies, and the capacity to navigate interdependencies across sectors and disciplines.
The Complexity, Innovative Research, and Evaluation Methodologies (CIREM) Hub is a proactive response to this need. Anchored within the Health Economics and Policy Program (HEPP) and Research Group and the Department of Health Policy, Planning, and Management (HPPM) at the Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), CIREM serves as a hub for advancing complexity-informed research, evaluation, capacity building, and multisectoral collaboration in Africa and beyond.
CIREM’s core mission is to generate practical knowledge, strengthen individual and institutional capacities, and foster partnerships that empower policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to navigate, coordinate, and transform complex health and development systems. Drawing on principles of complexity science and systems thinking, CIREM provides robust frameworks, methodological innovations, and collaborative platforms that enable evidence-based, contextually grounded solutions.
While firmly focused on sub-Saharan Africa, with its unique socio-political and institutional dynamics, the Hub is equally connected to global conversations and cutting-edge methodological trends. It ensures that research, evaluation, and policy action in Africa remain responsive, globally relevant, and locally impactful, contributing directly to continental and global development agendas such as Agenda 2063, the New Public Health Order, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Purpose Statement
The CIREM Hub exists to contribute substantially to evidence-based policy and practical solutions by championing collaborative problem solving, innovating research and evaluation approaches, and supporting global, regional, and national development aspirations, including the SDGs, Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the New Public Health Order. We also exist to strengthen the positioning of Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) as a locus for innovative research and evaluation approaches, attracting top talent and research partnerships.
Goal
To contribute to improving the health and well-being of people in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond through the advancement of innovative research and evaluation methods, capacity building, and collaborative action that transforms how complex health and development challenges are understood and addressed.
Strategic Objective: Innovate Methods Rooted in African Contexts
Objective:
Design, test, and refine innovative research and evaluation methodologies that are contextually relevant, draw on African knowledge systems and perspectives, and effectively respond to the realities of complex, adaptive systems.
Key Activities:
- Develop and pilot methodological toolkits, frameworks and practical guides tailored to diverse African contexts and real-world complexities.
- Host annual methodological masterclasses, bootcamps, and innovation labs to co-create, test and share context-sensitive approaches with researchers and practitioners.
- Document and publish accessible guidance materials, case studies and examples of locally grounded methods and practical applications.
- Build partnerships with African and global methodological leaders to adapt and advance cutting-edge approaches in ways that respect local contexts and priorities.
Strategic Objective: Build Capacity to Navigate Complexity
Objective:
Strengthen the skills, tools and competencies of individuals and institutions to understand, analyse and address complex health and development challenges using practical, context-adapted systems approaches.
Key Activities:
- Deliver short courses, interactive webinars, and hands-on training on systems thinking, complexity, and applied research and evaluation methods.
- Provide structured mentorship and coaching for early-career researchers and practitioners to apply new methods in real-world settings.
- Integrate complexity and systems perspectives into academic curricula, professional development modules, and training materials.
- Develop and maintain an online hub providing access to scholarly materials, case libraries, and interactive discussion forums to foster continuous learning.
- Establish and nurture an active alumni network to encourage peer support, collaborative problem-solving, and knowledge exchange.
- Capture and disseminate lessons learned and good practices from capacity-building initiatives to inform future programming and policy dialogue.
Strategic Objective: Foster Networking and Catalyse Multisectoral Collaboration
Objective:
Establish and strengthen interdisciplinary and cross-sector partnerships, networks and collaborative mechanisms to tackle interconnected health and development challenges through shared learning and coordinated action.
Key Activities:
- Organise the flagship Complexity Action Series and related webinars, bringing together diverse stakeholders to share emerging insights, practical experiences and context-sensitive best practices.
- Convene regional knowledge exchange forums, symposia and collaborative workshops to address complex public health and development issues jointly.
- Support and sustain thematic communities of practice, working groups and peer learning circles focused on designing and testing systems-informed solutions.
- Broker joint research, evaluation and policy initiatives that promote inclusive, co-created approaches and foster collaborative governance for sustainable development.
Strategic Objective: Enable Systems Transformation and Policy Impact
Objective:
Promote evidence-informed decision-making by translating locally relevant research and learning into practical policy support, advocacy and solutions that drive inclusive and resilient systems transformation.
Key Activities:
- Produce and disseminate user-friendly policy briefs, practice guides and other knowledge products that distil actionable insights and local lessons.
- Provide technical advice, responsive evaluation support and tailored capacity strengthening for government ministries, agencies and development partners to embed systems thinking in policies and programmes.
- Facilitate inclusive policy dialogues, roundtables and engagement platforms that connect evidence producers and decision-makers to co-create solutions.
- Establish and operationalise a Policy and Systems Innovations Lab and Observatory to design, monitor, evaluate and learn from real-world reforms and interventions.
- Continuously monitor, document and communicate the impact of CIREM’s activities to support adaptive learning, iterative improvements and scaling of effective approaches.
Projected Outcome & Impact
Short to Medium Term
Over the next 1–5 years, CIREM aims to achieve the following outcomes:
- Development, testing and application of innovative, evidence-based frameworks, toolkits and methodologies that inform research, monitoring, evaluation and adaptive learning processes.
- Broader adoption of systems thinking and complexity-informed approaches in policy design, programme implementation, and multisectoral development planning across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
- Strengthened the capacity of professionals, researchers, and policymakers to analyse, design, and manage interventions in complex, adaptive health and development systems.
- Improved multisectoral collaboration and inter-institutional coordination, leading to more coherent, integrated and context-sensitive policy actions.
- Enhanced culture of peer learning, knowledge exchange and methodological innovation, embedded within institutions and professional networks.
Long Term
Over the next 5–10 years, CIREM’s work is expected to contribute to sustainable systemic change through:
- Measurable improvements in population health and well-being, particularly in low-resource and complex settings in Africa, driven by policies and programmes that recognise and manage system interdependencies.
- Resilient, adaptive, and inclusive governance structures capable of addressing persistent and emerging health and development challenges through cross-sector collaboration and evidence use.
- A cadre of empowered leaders, practitioners and communities with the skills, networks and confidence to co-create, test, and scale contextually appropriate solutions for complex local and regional issues.
- Institutionalised complexity-informed research and evaluation culture that shapes a new generation of scholars and practitioners in the Global South.
