An Academic Librarian with a MSc. Information Systems & a Bachelor of Library and Information Science, Andrew Mwesigwa is specializing in management of information systems and digitization workflow management in order to add value to information delivery.

He has conducted research in the field of information management, disseminated research findings at international conferences and engaged in international collaborations. All this has led to showcasing the value of academic librarianship to users of information.

Reflecting on why he got interested in applying for the WIMEA-ICT scholarships, Mwesigwa says, “In an age of climatic changes that have impacted communities globally, it is incumbent on the research community to investigate mitigation interventions.

It is evident that Research and Development (R&D) has made a difference in the developed world. I would like to contribute to R&D efforts in the East African context.” He will focus on Weather Information Management Policy analysis: investigating the regulatory environment.

He projects that his research will have implications for Weather Information Management Policy formulation and related business process re-engineering. As a research leader and PhD student on the WIMEA-ICT project in charge of developing a Weather Data Repository (WDR), he can reliably report that he has so far prepared requirement analysis, deployed research assistants to assist in designing the WDR and presentation of the proposed WDR to UNMA stakeholders.

He was part of a stakeholders’ meeting with UNMA that was held on April 10, 2015 to discuss the Integrated Weather Data System where the challenges faced by the Authority like scattered data sets were highlighted.

In addition the functionality of the proposed WDR were clarified to include: automated system notifications, advanced report generations and data quality assurance, which are actually benefits of this automated repository.

UNMA welcomed this idea going on to agree that it will be effectively in place by end of June 2015. As far as the digitization activity at UNMA is concerned, Mwesigwa says there have been some delays at the procurement office due to the lengthy procurement process at Makerere University.

However, the mobile handheld scanners and a scan dock are available and this activity will be able to start by end of this June. Appointments are being made on which dates are suitable to have this process start.