The birth and start in Fort Portal
We have evolved from a self-help group through a CBO to a Research and Innovation Facility that enables embedding research into community realities through innovations. First, in 2016, a brainchild was born: the idea of a self-help group was initiated, and the first team of seven was mobilized. This occurred in what was then Fort Portal Municipality, now known as Fort Portal City. The name given and agreed upon by the members was THE DEVELOPMENT FACILITY (TDF), and the initial key activities involved informal internal savings and credits. Our motto was “together for development (T4D),” signifying the self-help centrality.
The second milestone was formal registration: upon agreement among members, TDF was registered in the West division of what was then Fort Portal municipality (Rwenzori region) on 10 October 2017, thereby attaining community-based organization status. Only self-help activities continued throughout 2018,
with that very year being complex with a leadership crisis as the team leader then commenced doctoral studies.
Revival after a leadership crisis
A revival happened in mid-2019, with new members introduced into the leadership. With this increased vitality, a secretariat was established in March 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 countrywide lockdown in Uganda. More vitality in this period also came with additional community-based programs, including initial discussions of the educational support (referred to as EDUCARE) program. This program was developed for nearly a year and could start in 2021.
The extensions beyond Fort Portal
By the close of 2020, following the conceptualization of the EDUCARE program, the need to broaden our activities beyond Fort Portal (encompassing the entire Rwenzori Region and beyond) was born.
This culminated in the third milestone in 2021: registration at the Uganda national level. The national registration came with refining the name to THRIVE DEVELOPMENT FACILITY, maintaining the TDF acronym. An incorporation status was obtained for THRIVE DEVELOPMENT FACILITY (TDF) LTD, Registration number: 80020002931885, limited by guarantee on 24 February.
From 2021 to 2024, more programs were devised, including training and education focusing on livelihood improvement. In addition, the team grew to learn and lean on innovations for bolstering resilience based on successful and evidence-based adaptations that tackle the societal and natural hazards that confront societies. It was apparent that this would be best done at the interface between academia and practice to make knowledge work for community resilience.
The research and innovations status
Discussions around innovations for bolstering resilience culminated in refining the name to THRIVE RESEARCH AND INNOVATIONS FACILITY. The renamed entity was registered and published in the Uganda Gazette of 09 May 2024, and subsequent processes followed to finalize the renaming process with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau.
Subsequently, a new acronym was sought. THRIFA was considered the acronym. This was later refined to THRAIF after it was discovered that another entity used the same acronym. A short name, the THRAIF Facility, was adopted, allowing for a variant in reference. What has been maintained throughout these changes is the non-profit status: THRAIF is a non-profit institution dedicated to scientific research for development and operates at the nexus of academia and practice. Consistent with our ambition, since late 2023, we have excelled in brokering science and technology while
enabling feedback loops between scientific knowledge and practice, focusing on building socio-ecologically resilient societies.
In addition, since 2023, we have been striving to maintain our status as knowledge-based institutions by actively applying that knowledge in academic and local communities to develop innovative technologies for excellence. We have evolved to ensure our research is embedded into community advancement through innovation by ensuring that the research questions are designed with and for the community or communities considered. To achieve that standing, we have expanded our national and international collaborations, including in various scientific and community projects, emphasizing community engagement.
Furthering: knowledge-based status
Reach and innovation efforts continue to strengthen and shape us into our three domains of operation: scientific research for
development, science-based training and education, and community-engaged improvement. These domains characterize our core faculties of operations as a community-embedded science or knowledge-based institution. So, we act at, above, and over the level of any research-based institution (e.g., a research university), focused on real-life situations and transformative social change. This is possible by defining the research question with the concerned social agents, based on which the co-innovation of practical solutions becomes possible and central to us.
Moreover, through these engagements, THRAIF continues to establish itself as an authority on practical knowledge for securing sustainable transformation, enabling societies to thrive despite challenges. This is done by utilizing existing knowledge to produce innovations or embedding new research questions into real-life situations. Details about this are on the webpage, which describes Who We Are and what we stand for.
That is our brief history. The full and detailed one is in our booklet, THRAIF: History and operations of a Community Embedded Research and Innovations Institution (forthcoming).