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KAS has been giving out scholarships for distance learning degrees at Uganda Martyr's University in the field of Democracy and Development Studies, and Local Governance and Human Rights for over a decade now. The aim of the programme is to enable future leaders to attain higher qualifications in the areas of governance, human rights, and democracy promotion to become drivers for positive change in their communities and their country. During the course of the programme many students from Uganda, and more recently also from South Sudan, have been able to benefit from the support given by KAS and are gradually developing a strong alumni network.

The KAS Scholarship Programme has been highly successful and beneficial in the past in granting young potentials access to higher education and democratic-value oriented degrees. However, in an assessment and tracer study from early 2014, it was noted that the full potential of the scholarship programme is not being exploited, especially in the areas of activating and supporting a lively alumni network and providing current scholarship holders as well as alumni with additional opportunities to further their skills and knowledge on the core topics related to KAS's work in Uganda and internationally.

For this purpose, the annual Scholarship meeting this year is not only called to introduce and welcome the newest members of the KAS Scholarship network from the intake of 2014, but also to engage all current and past scholarship holders in the design and creation of a more vibrant approach to enrich and develop the current programme further and unlock its yet untapped potential.

KAS aims to broaden its engagement with the Scholarship Holders and Alumni and this meeting is a consultation on the most sensible and effective ways to further promote KAS scholars, be it workshops on key issues of democracy, human rights, rule of law or social market economy, trainings in debating, policy analysis or activism and leadership or any other form preferred and suggested by the current and past scholarship holders. Moreover, the topic of debate should also be to create an effective communication platform and/or structure that will serve to keep alumni and scholarship holders connected and enable them to share resources, work or public engagement opportunities and information. These measures are being designed in this meeting and beyond with the overall goal to provide additional relevant training and capacity building to current scholarship holders and alumni as well as building a strong network between them to support their professional development and share interesting opportunities as quick as possible with all members.