DATE / TIME:

2016•06•21    16:00 - 17:00

Location:

Guimarães

Abstract

This seminar will present the outcome of a study on the Uganda’s journey towards Knowledge Societies and the role of digitally-transformed government along this journey, conducted as part of the joint Government Fellowship programme by UNU-EGOV and UNESCO-IFAP. The study:

1. Takes stock of existing research and policy literature on Knowledge Societies and Digital Government in general and in the Ugandan context in particular;
2. Collects relevant indicators that track how the country progressed in this area and maps such progress against various policy initiatives adopted over the years, for example the National ICT Policy 2012-2018, National e-Government Strategy 2012-2018 or the overall National Development Plan 2015-2020;
3. Recalls a conceptual framework that explains the evolution and convergence of Digital Government and Knowledge Societies following the Digital Government Evolution model from (Janowski, 2015) and the Knowledge Societies Policy Handbook jointly developed by UNU-EGOV and UNESCO-IFAP;
4. Applies the framework to carry out a systematic analysis of the situation and progress of Uganda in the journey towards Knowledge Societies based on the literature review, policy initiatives and measurement results; and
5. Presents the findings including drivers, barriers and enablers for Knowledge Societies development in Uganda and offers a set of policy recommendations.

The recommendations will be used as inputs to the process of updating the Ugandan National ICT Policy, National e-Government Strategy and various sectoral policies due for revision around 2017. The recommendations are also expected to lead to the consolidation of various ICT-related policies into policy for Knowledge Societies, to serve as a uniform platform for sectoral and national development planning. In turn, such consolidation will help Uganda fulfil its international commitment towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

Speaker

Kenneth Bagarukayo is a Government Fellow at UNU-EGOV under a joint project funded by UNESCO-IFAP. He is also the Commissioner, Information Management Services, Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Uganda. He is currently pursuing PhD in Informatics, and holds MSc in Computer Science, MBA in Strategic Planning, and Honors Bachelor’s Degree in Statistical Computing.