Vernon Tugumizemu
18 February 2008
Kampala — At various State functions the president has vowed to elevate technology in Uganda come 2015. This though is a global initiative supported by the G8 nations under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) package.
Ugandans should be happy for all villages will now be able to access the Internet. This was said by Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development official Mr Richard Ndiku during "awareness creation workshop on community Information Systems" in Hotel Greton in Masaka on February 15.
Accompanied by National Planning Authority's (NPA) Mr J.B. Kavuma, Mr Ndiku told local leaders that Unicef has already supporting this project. It is already funding five districts in the Lango sub-region, and it has also engaged mainly government departments of Statistics like UBOS.
Mr Johnson Kagugube, UBOS's director, says all political leaders and the general public should nurture the programme as its success will help the government to plan for its people without encountering setbacks such as inaccuracies in figure compilation that has for long resulted in sub-county chiefs, LCIII and other local council officials being under paid because of poor population figures.
While officiating at the opening of a NPA, MOLGSD, MOLG, UBOS, workshop in Masaka, the district Vice Chairperson Mr Annas Mawanda appreciated the government's initiative as it will make both recordkeeping and data collection at both local and national levels easy. He added that 'much as a lot of technological know-how is required at this stage, the timing, given that this is the cyberspace era, is indeed approperiate.
Development strategies
Mr Kavuma said CIS project was announced during the presentation of Budget Strategy Paper for FY2006/07, following an earlier pronouncement by Minister for Finance and Economic Planning Dr Ezra Suluma on December 12, 2005. The minister was commissioning the Rural Development Strategy/Economic Development Strategy at Speke Resort Hotel Munyonyo.
The cIS will fasten the information dissemination from communities to various donors and other development partners across the world.
Katine' Observer-The Guardian's funded Project and the Nusaf programme can be accounted for if government finances the CIS project up to the grass root level.
Take for example the cost of maintaining the required equipment and paying the data collectors. Local leaders argue that funds for capacity building has been reduced and that what is now given can only support the civil servants who get scholarships at the expense of LCs.
However, District Information Officers together with LC secretaries for information have to be brought on board because they are stakeholders in the ICT field. They will mainly be a support force as they will continue executing their duties.
Unfortunately, the MOGLSD, MOLG, UBOS and NPA plans of action do not appreciate their influence as key players in the information flow system!
Mr Kagugube said that CIS will ease work and urged especially the press to reconsider their steering committees with the aim of incorporating information officers.
He said that they are discussing with the ministry of Information and ICT on how to achieve a complete information flow.
UBOS has distributed computers and provided Solar systems to the pilot districts and this is in line with the presidential initiative of Bonna Baggagawale.
Kyankwanzi retreat
During the recent LC3 officials and sub-county chiefs retreat at the National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi, State Minister for Micro Finance Institutions (SACCOs), Gen. Salim Saleh cautioned the leaders to end poverty in their constituencies through the Rural Development Strategy and Modal Sub-county Development Programme programmes.
These programmes, if properly implemented, will go a long way in making government programmes such as Naads and PMA relevant to various communities across the country.
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