The expertise of ELKA Center Limited’s core team members and associates forms the bedrock of its capabilities, ensuring the rigor and relevance of its work. The deep technical skills and practical experience of the team in African development contexts provide a strong foundation for ELKA to deliver on its promise of research rigor and data use. This demonstrates that ELKA is not just aspirational but possesses the foundational human capital necessary to achieve its objectives, which is crucial for attracting partners and funding.
Core Team
ELKA Center relies on a Board of Directors made of accomplished experts steering the institution toward achieving its vision.
Damazo T. Kadengye (Ph.D.)
Founder & Executive Director
Damazo T. Kadengye (Ph.D) is a Statistician, Evaluation Expert and Research Leader with over 20 years’ experience. Presently, Damazo serves as a Research Scientist and Head of Data Synergy and Evaluation with the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). He is also the Founding Partner for ELKA Center, a locally registered firm in Uganda whose vision is ‘Empowering Livelihoods through Knowledge Action (ELKA)’. He is a 2017 Impact Evaluation Fellow at the Center of Effective Global Action (CEGA), University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA). Damazo received a doctoral degree in Applied Statistics in Educational Sciences from the University of Leuven in Belgium, a Master of Biostatistics from Hasselt University and a Bachelor of Statistics from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. Damazo has also served as a Senior Lecturer of Statistical Methods at several Ugandan public universities including Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), Makerere University (Mak), and Kabale University (KAB); as well as an Epidemiologist with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Uganda. He has been involved in raising over USD 30 million for research projects, and has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals on several population and health topics.
Ashiraf Mawanda
Operations Director
Ashiraf Mawanda (MSc) is a Public Health Researcher and Data Scientist with deep expertise in quantitative research management, statistical data analysis and modelling, and machine learning. He has over a decade of experience in designing and implementing rigorous studies across East Africa, with a focus on Immunization and Maternal care, Food security, WASH, and Livelihoods in refugee settings. A strong advocate for reproducible research, Ashiraf is proficient in R, Python, and STATA and excels at delivering clear, stakeholder-focused reporting. Ashiraf holds a Master of Biostatistics from Hasselt University (Belgium) and a Bachelor of Statistics from Makerere University (Uganda).
Our Associates
A network of dedicated associates further strengthens ELKA Center Limited across a range of disciplines, including public health, education, agriculture, data science, and demography, among others. Their collective expertise significantly enhances ELKA Center Limited’s diverse capabilities and broadens its impact across various development sectors.
Caroline Mwebesa Kyosiima
Research Officer/M&E Lead
Atahigwa Catherine
Epidemiologist
Nuwamanya Simpson
Clinical Trials Manager
Leonidas Byarugaba
Health Promotion and Education Practitioner
Matsiko Nicholas
Statistician
Joseph Oriekot
Economist
