1. Emerging Developments in the ICT Sector: Policy and Legal implications Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba Vice Chancellor, Makerere University vc@admin.mak.ac.ug 1

2. 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 2

3. The Context: The NDP Egg Analogy 3

4. The “Purported” Relationship between ICT & Economic Growth The Purported relationship between ICT and economic growth, adopted from Eggleston et al. [2002]. 4

6. There are policy and legal implications

7. Need to identify gaps in policy

8. Need to identify gaps in legal frameworks/ acts 5

9. 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. 6

10. 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 7

11. 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

13. so that all actors can appreciate, value and act their part e.g. investing in ICT, allocating adequate funding, etc

14. national collective responsibility and acceptability of ICT as a conventional part of service and production ventures9

15. 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 10

16. 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. 11

17. 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 12

18. 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 13

19. 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? 14

20. 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? 15

21. 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 16

22. CiS at a glace 17

23. The Facilities at CIS CIS BLOCK B-10,000 SITTING CAPACITY BUILDING 18

24. THE 800 SITTING CAPACITY LAB 19

25. NEW TECHNOLOGY-THIN CLIENT COMPUTING LAB 20

26. RECORDING STUDIO TO SUPPORT E-LEARNING 21

27. REACHING OUT TO THE COMMUNITY-UPDF BEING TRAINED IN ICT SKILLS 22