Like many countries throughout the world, Uganda has placed digitalization at the heart of its national development journey, as not only a key enabler to improve service delivery but also as an avenue to create employment for the country's youthful population. In recent years, Uganda has made great strides, with mobile networks allowing for connectivity even in geographically remote areas of the country. Meanwhile, we have witnessed breakthrough innovations in the area of financial technologies. 

So there have been pockets of success on Uganda's digitalization journey, though there are still areas that are lacking when we consider healthcare, education and several other public service delivery spaces. It is for this reason that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is working together with the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance to design a Digital Transformation Roadmap that will bring a greater sense of coherence to this space. Encompassed within this Roadmap will be a Big Data Utilization Strategy and a Digital Skilling Strategy.

Approach to Design

To design the strategy, a multi-pronged approach is being used placing the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance at the heart of the process alongside UNDP, Centenary Technology Services and the Ministry of Education and Sports. Some of the methodologies being used are:

• Desk Reviews: Uganda has already launched the Digital Uganda Vision and established several supporting policy frameworks. These will be reviewed alongside any previous public documentation relating to digital transformation in Uganda.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Using the UNDP Accelerator Lab methodology, we are employing participatory design approaches to engage stakeholders throughout the design process. Both "usual" and "unusual" partners have participated in stakeholder engagement workshops, where we tried to uncover the barriers to digital transformation in the country
• Solutions Mapping: From our stakeholder engagement, we found there were several initiatives already in place encouraging digitalization, both in the private and public space. You can read about one of these solutions in our most recent blog here. As we continue to move around the country in the coming weeks, stay tuned for more solutions that will be mapped. 
• Benchmarking: An inclusive Digital Transformation Roadmap is at the very core of this process, and a dedicated team will be moving around the country to not only understand and benchmark the different contexts but also to map some community solutions that are being adopted to encourage digitalization.

The UNDP team recently joined a benchmarking visit to Estonia, led by Ministry of ICT & National Guidance Permanent Secretary Dr. Aminah Zawedde, to draw lessons from their digital transformation journey and share our own unique experiences. Some of our lessons have been shared here in this blog. 

With the continuous evolution of the scope and style of digital services, there remains a continued hunger from end users for coherence and convenience, and the delivery of public services is no exception. Through this Digital Transformation Roadmap, we hope to create an opportunity for clear implementation of services and a harmonized approach to use of resources in this space. Continue watching this space for the final Roadmap and complementary digital strategies.

By Berna Mugema, Head of Experimentation