Prof. Barya Keynote address

Emerging Developments in the ICT Sector: Policy and Legal implications
Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba
Vice Chancellor,
Makerere University
vc@admin.mak.ac.ug
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The Issues – Global Arena
ICT- means of communication; & technologies which enable users to create, access, manipulate & disseminate information
ICT is the fastest evolving sector globally
There is growing demand for universal access to high speed broadband internet
Growth Opportunity in the IT-Based Services
Unprecedented potential of ICT as a transformational enabler
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The Context: The NDP Egg Analogy
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The “Purported” Relationship between ICT & Economic Growth
The Purported relationship between ICT and economic growth, adopted from Eggleston et al. [2002].
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Policy and Legal Implications
In the use of ICT for service provision and production:
There are policy and legal implications
Need to identify gaps in policy
Need to identify gaps in legal frameworks/ acts
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Service Areas whose delivery can be enhanced with ICT
Health: Maternal &child health, Telemedicine, national health data bank, Electronic patient management, National drug distribution monitoring, etc
Education: Management and administration of institutions; online academic programmes (e.g. E-learning, E-supervision, e-assessment); Student management; monitoring and regulation of teaching activities
Agriculture: Pests & disease diagnosis, Livestock movement management, Delivery of advisory services, Market information, National Agriculture data bank, M & E, etc.
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Service Areas whose delivery can be enhanced with ICT
Governance: Revenue collection, Visibility for the country & its products & services, Law & order, Election management, National planning data bank, mass mobilization, sensitization and awareness, Citizen participation and empowerment, etc
Business: E-business, hospitality, out sourcing, teleworking, e-shopping, etc
Communication (mass media): Attitude & behavior change, Mass mobilization, sensitization and awareness, facilitate efficiency of other service sectors e.g. education, health, business, etc
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Production areas whose delivery can be enhanced with ICT
Trade & Industry: Automation of production processes, Quality assurance, Security provision, Marketing, etc.
Business (Process) Outsourcing: Customer care, Software development, Marketing, book keeping, Call centre services, etc
8

Strategy for Achieving desired Impact on Service delivery & production
Mainstream ICT into the country’s production & service sector
so that all actors can appreciate, value and act their part e.g. investing in ICT, allocating adequate funding, etc
national collective responsibility and acceptability of ICT as a conventional part of service and production ventures
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Strategy for Achieving desired Impact
National Literacy in basic ICT skills e.g. Kenya’s public servants are required to have ICDL certification
Strengthening research in ICT
research in ICT is not given the kind of attention and support it deserves
Adequate funding for ICT sector growth
An enabling environment for knowledge transfer partnerships with big ICT companies like Microsoft and Google
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Strategy for Achieving desired Impact cont...
Utilization of local talent to address national challenges through strategic public-private partnerships
Support cross breeding in capacity development with more ICT developed countries such as India, China, South Africa, Netherlands
Support ICT Innovation Centres
Support local content development, etc.
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Achievements to-date and their implications:
Liberalization of the Telecom Sector has brought down communication prices
But more ICT enabled services are needed. Promising developments such as mobile money, mobile agriculture by Applab (NGO),mobile health by Health Child (NGO in Jinja), etc.
But incentives for the development of more ICT applications in service and production needed e.g. a content strategy to guide and stimulate content development for education, governance, health, etc
The nation wide access to high speed internet through the national backbone needs to be backed by content strategies for it to be beneficial to the country
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Achievements Cont’d
Acts: Passing into law several ICT bills– need to identify the gaps
The number of service providers has increased
More Ugandans accessing higher education with opportunity for specialization
Infrastructure development
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Issues to ponder upon
What is the status of ICT usage/deployment in Uganda?
What is our National ICT Agenda at integration level?
What informs our procurement and deployment at national level?
Where is government’s single source of information----National Database?
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Issues to ponder upon
What specialty areas need urgent attention? Like IT-Legal experts, Forensic Audit Experts
Who is who in the sector and how can they be accessed?
What systems are in place to support decision making in a timely manner?
What is the PR strategy for promoting ICT as a service and production enabler?
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In Conclusion
We must manage our information to support quick decision making Appropriate Information Systems are required
We must support Content Dev’t; Content is critical to drive use and adoption
Need for Research; Research gives direction and continuous improvement
Need for Technical Expertise; Invest in training technical persons to support sector growth
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CiS at a glace
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The Facilities at CIS
CIS BLOCK B-10,000 SITTING CAPACITY BUILDING
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THE 800 SITTING CAPACITY LAB
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NEW TECHNOLOGY-THIN CLIENT COMPUTING LAB
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RECORDING STUDIO TO SUPPORT E-LEARNING
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REACHING OUT TO THE COMMUNITY-UPDF BEING TRAINED IN ICT SKILLS
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Prof. Barya Keynote address

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