Uganda Management Institute (UMI) continued to elevate its global footprint and academic stature as a premier center for public administration, management, and governance training in Africa. In a significant demonstration of international academic engagement, a delegation of four Professors from UMI participated in the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) 2026 Conference, which was organized in cooperation with the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government (EKDDA) and held in Athens, Greece, between 12th and 16th October 2026.

Anchored by the global theme, “Rethinking Governance for a Changing World,” the IASIA 2026 Conference gathered public administration scholars, policy experts, institutional leaders, and international practitioners to exchange insights and construct adaptive governance frameworks for global public management. The conference comprised several plenary sessions, keynote addresses, panel discussions, working group meetings, PhD seminar sessions and award ceremonies among other engagements

The UMI delegation consisted of distinguished scholars and senior leaders whose contributions continued to shape public sector management across the region and beyond. During the summit, they presented research insights grounded in African public sector realities and institutional capacity building.

Notably, UMI’s leadership was led by the Director General, Professor James Nkata, who serves as the IASIA Vice Chairperson for Africa. In his executive leadership capacity, he plays a pivotal role in steering IASIA’s strategic agenda across the African continent, championing the integration of Afrocentric governance models into mainstream administrative discourse and strengthening institutional linkages between African public administration institutes and global networks. His stewardship significantly continues to impact IASIA’s activities by amplifying the African continent’s scholarly voice, driving institutional capacity building and ensuring that African administrative realities inform international policy frameworks.

In addition to his leadership oversight, Professor Nkata and Professor Karyeija presented a co-authored paper at the IASIA conference titled “Rationalization of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure and Uganda’s Public Sector Administrative Reform Model: Embedding Afrocentric Governance for Democratic Resilience.”

At the same session, Professor Michael Kiwanuka presented his authored paper entitled “Building Sub National Resilience in Disruptive Environments: Reality, Opportunities and Implications of Strategic Governance Adaptation in Uganda.”

Other IASIA paper presenters from UMI included Professor Michael Galukande Kiganda who presented two paper contributions which he co-authored with Nakadama Maimuna and Kaniora Bagabe Albert respectively.  One was titled “Merging of Urban Local Governments and Sustainable Public Service Delivery in Uganda,” and the other was titled “Faculty Engagement and Quality of Spatial Plans in Small Towns in Uganda: A Case of University-Community Engagements”

UMI’s active participation and leadership reinforces its status as a regional powerhouse in public administration training and as a key contributor to international governance discourse, fully aligning with the Institute’s strategic goal of fostering global knowledge exchange, advancing evidence-based policy research and extending institutional diplomacy globally.