Stella Rose Amuge, Impact Evaluation Researcher

Using Evidence-Based Research to Evaluate the Impacts of Permaculture in Eastern Africa

Meet Stella Rose Amuge, a trained and experienced research professional in assessment, monitoring and evaluation and a Master’s Degree candidate in Public Health Disaster Management at Makerere University in Uganda.

She is also permaculture trained, certifed, and experienced, volunteering for four years now with

Steven W Jones

of Sector 39 Permaculture Academy based in Wales, UK to monitor and evaluate permaculture projects in East Africa. With all of her academic training, lived experience, and in-the-field track record, Stella is a gem of a research partner for any international organization or foundation, and particularly those that are interested in supporting and/or integrating permaculture into their work.

Stella at a community garden site visit in Rwanda.

She is multilingual, has traveled extensively throughout Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, and has experience working with and a passion for helping refugees. Her resume includes work with the World Health Organization, Medical Teams International, and Research World International. She has conducted site visits, assessments, and produced accountability reports back to international funders and organizers.

Professionals like Stella assess community needs and validate program activities, outcomes, and resource deployment. They also identify spillover effects, secondary benefits, and unintended consequences.

As someone in the same field, I know the importance of having a monitoring and evaluation plan and an experienced team for any intervention program. Without quantitative and qualitative data from participants and stakeholders, we can only guess at a program's impact. Professionals like Stella are crucial for accountability and feedback, making them worth the investment for funders.

Researching the Impact of Permaculture

The work of Stella and other monitoring and evaluation professionals can benefit the permaculture movement. Investing in these resources will help measure and communicate the impact of Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) trainings, train-the-trainer programs, and permaculture hubs on trainees and their communities. This data is essential for building a supportive funding network to expand permaculture in East Africa and beyond.

This is why when Steven Jones of Sector 39, the Welsh-based permaculture training institute, suggested I interview Stella, I jumped at the chance.

Steve writes about his permaculture work as well as his life’s adventures on his Substack publication called Chimanimani (highly recommend!).

In one of Steve’s most recent Substack articles entitled Sector 39 Permaculture Academy he published a piece by Maria Paez of the Permaculture Association that presents findings based on Stella’s research about the impact of Sector 39’s Permaculture Academy trainings in East Africa from 2016 to 2019.

Over that four-year time period, Steve and a small group of Sector 39 permaculture trainers delivered PDCs to over 170 people in East Africa resulting in three locally-organized permaculture hubs. The trainees and the formalized networks and hubs the trainees went on to create have brought permaculture principles and practices to hundreds more, impacting not only individuals but families and communities. Impacts documented include behavior changes, improved nutrition and health outcomes, enhanced food security, as well as household and community resiliency.

Stella on a visit to Homa Bay and Paul Ogolla’s Permo Africa Centre.

In Steve’s recent article reporting research findings, he credits Stella for her outcome and evaluation work:

In early 2024, Stella Amuge, a dedicated S39 member leading project evaluation, conducted fieldwork, visiting groups who received PDC training. Her extensive research involved conversations, observations, and group and individual interviews, revealing the profound impact of permaculture in TAPA. - Steve Jones, Sector 39

For this RainMaker & ChangeMaker post, Steve kindly provided additional detail on the work that Stella conducted that led up to the Permaculture Association report:

It wasn’t until Stella went back to the villlages and compounds of the trainees, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months later did we start to get a picture of the incredible spread that the training was having. It was reaching much further than we could have possibly realized, and drawing in people who had no prior involvement in local food growing at all. Patrick Olodan revealed in an interview with Stella, back in 2021, whilst showing her around his impressive gardens and growing plots that before permaculture he and his friends passed their time drinking and gambling on cards, but now they simply didn’t have time for that. Something like a penny dropping could be heard… permaculture is a culture shift and a pathway forward into very dfferent behavious and outcomes. - Steve Jones of Sector 39

Apart from her evaluation work with Sector 39, Stella has been Steve’s eyes and ears on the ground for the last several years, vetting potential partners, helping to set up trainings, conducting follow-up and facilitating accountability for any funds spent in Africa on behalf of Sector 39.

For a deeper dive into the far-reaching impact of Sector 39’s permaculture trainings and Stella’s work with Sector 39, visit Steve Jones’s YouTube Channel. For instance, this interview between Steve and Stella about the impact of trainings in Teso, Uganda or this video, a Zoom recording with Stella sharing findings from a visit to a Rwandan community garden.

This short video (5 minutes) highlights the trajectory of permaculture adoption over the last 10 years as a result of of Sector 39’s work, focusing on

Paul Odiwuor Ogola

and his PermoAfrica Centre in Homa Bay, Kenya.

Stella’s experience with permaculture extends far beyond Sector 39. She has worked with Morag Gamble of Our Permaculture Life and Ethos Foundation, Australian permaculture activist Robyn Williamson (who has since passed on), and Scottish University on community gardening.

Participating in permaculture development site in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda

What Makes Stella a ChangeMaker?

During our hour-long conversation, Stella and I talked about permaculture, its prospects for changing people’s lives for the better, and the need to drive more resources and supports to refugees in Africa.

Clearly, Stella is a ChangeMaker. From our conversation, I noticed three characteristics that put Stella at the level of ChangeMaker: commitment, passion, and persistence. Not all researchers take the data they collect, analyze the outcomes, and then use it to both personally and professionally to change lives and communities. And, they don’t all talk about their work with the same heartfelt passion as Stella.

Permaculture Activist

First, she is committed to and passionate about permaculture. She not only believes in the principles, she has persistently put them into practice herself alongside others. That is, she has witnessed and experienced first-hand how when people work together to implement permaculture principles (which are meant to be done in community rather than isolation) that they not only benefit from having a closer partnership with the land but they have a closer relationship with each other. Engaging in permaculture practices together with others builds stronger ties between individuals and creates community while also building adaptive self-reliance.

In Solidarity with Refugees

Second, she is committed and passionate about serving refugees. Her Master’s Thesis is about the knowledge, attitude and perception of refugees with regards to integrated health services in Adjumani, West Nile, Uganda.

• As an intern with Medical Teams International, she worked directly with refugees from South Sudan and war-affected refugees from North Sudan (Khartoum) at Adjumani District, West Nile Uganda. She helped receive refugees at the border point, assessing their health status, providing nutrition screening, conducting community health assessments, implementing disaster risk mapping. and faciliting community dialogue.

• She has spent time in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda to conduct assessments and research. She has also worked alongside them on permaculture projects.

Stella made a profound observation during our conversation on the topic of refugees. She made the point that due to climate change, we will all at some point become refugees whether from extreme heat, droughts, forest fires, floods, or other natural disasters that result from climate change.

With that perspective, she made the case for putting in place supports and resources to help refugees. Why would we not support the most vulnerable amongst us, especially when we might be next?

For perspective, the number of people internally displaced (IDPs) on the African continent alone is 44 million due to conflicts and wars (which at the heart are always about resources, oil, mineral or otherwise) and climate-related drought and flooding. According to the Internally Displaced Monitoring Centre, the worldwide number of internally displaced people at the end of 2022 was 71 million, a 20% increase over the previous year. While 17 million of these were Ukrainian, 8 million were displaced due to Monsoon floods in Pakistan.

Internal displacement is a global phenomenon, but nearly three-quarters of the world’s IDPs live in just 10 countries - Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ukraine, Colombia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan - many as a result of unresolved conflicts that continued to trigger significant displacement in 2022.

Helping Others in Need

Third, Stella is committed and passionate about helping anyone she can who needs her help. She told me a story about a day when she had to make the trek to University. She didn’t want to, but something pushed her to go out that day instead of staying at home to attend online. It was also raining. She stepped out and one of the first scenes she witnessed was an “old mama”, as she put it, outside in the rain with all of her belongings. She had been evicted. Stella, not even knowing where she would find the funds to help, negotiated with persistence that the landlord accept a promise of payment to allow the woman to return to the house with her belongings. Not much longer after that, Stella received a work assignment that helped her pay for her commitment to keep that woman housed.

Stella’s Advice and Plans

I asked whether she thought resources should be invested in training more people in permaculture? Or, is it more effective to help a smaller number of already passionate permaculture practitioners build their skills? Her answer suggested the latter. Not everyone, she said, has the passion for permaculture. Not all of them put it into practice. Her suggestion was, therefore, to train the people who are passionate and support them in building the demonstration sites, training other people, and leading by doing.

I asked Stella how she plans to use her skills when she completes her Masters. That is, what can we expect to see Stella doing in the next decade? She shared that were she to work for UNHCR or a similar organization or foundation, she would have a unique perspective to share not only for monitoring and evaluation but also program design. As a permaculture expert, she can imbue her work with three ethics of Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares.

Who is Stella’s ChangeMaker?

Stella named Steve Jones as her personal ChangeMaker. No surprise as the two of them have worked hand-in-hand the last several years.

Steve is a very passionate person when it comes to permaculture and has put into practice the aspect of Fair share,earth care and people's care. These three are at the center of his work. He does things at times that one can't imagine. And that makes him more happy.

Where in the World is Stella?