E-waste Management Policy

This policy aims at enforcing several strategies for e-waste management. Establishment of e-waste management infrastructure, awareness and education, human resource development, resource mobilization are some of the key strategies encompassed by this policy document. The policy enforcement process will be through several stakeholder parastatals led by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, National Information Technology Authority-Uganda, Ministry of Trade Tourism and Industry, Ministry of Health, National Environment Management Authority, the private sector and other stakeholders.

Enforcement of this policy will enable sustainable e-waste management for a safe environment and a healthy nation.

Information Management Services Policy (IMS)

The IT industry worldwide is an ever changing and complex environment that requires effective management of IT services across all sectors on an ongoing basis. How well governments implement policies that enable information to be shared using ICT assistive technologies will determine successful economies. Uganda needs an IMS policy as a guideline and governance model to keep up with the standards of IT Service delivery and support in this ever changing IT industry.

It is the intention of the Government of Uganda to consolidate its efforts and focus its energies to harness the vast information resources to facilitate improved service delivery provision and ease of access to information by the citizenry hence the need for the IMS policy.

Top Country Code Domain Level Policy

It is recognized that although the Internet started in Uganda at around the same time as the mobile telephony market, growth in the former has been comparatively slower. Key constraints to the growth of the Internet market have been identified to include appropriate infrastructure, appropriate content, high costs and the management of the .ug.

This Policy shall establish a system of registration of Internet domain names that facilitates the proliferation of Internet in a country, since the number of registrations of Internet domain names in a country is also a measure of its popularity in the Internet space.

Government of Uganda Website Standards

This document provides the Government of Uganda Ministries and Departments guidelines and recommended best practice in the planning, design, evaluation and day-to-day maintenance of their web sites, in the context of the Uganda Government Website Standards

BPO strategy and Model for Uganda (2008-2011)

The strategy looks at the various categories of BPO services, Uganda’s country profile and current initiatives put in place to support the industry. It provides information on lessons learnt from countries like India, Tunisia, South Africa and many more. This strategy also provides information on why companies outsource and provides information on opportunities for the BPO Industry in Uganda. The strategy proposes a conceptual model for the BPO Industry in Uganda clearly defining the inputs and expected outputs. It looks at the current strategies that are vital in the creation of an enabling environment and also proposes a governance model and also discusses the sustainability and risk mitigation strategies.

National Information Security Strategy (NISS)

The ICT Sector has been overtaken by various security emerging issues such as;

1. Increasingly Sophisticated Web Site Attacks that exploit Browser Vulnerabilities - especially on trusted Web Sites
2. Cyber espionage efforts by well-resourced organizations looking to extract large amounts of data - particularly using targeted phishing
3. Mobile phone and VOIP threats
4. Increasingly malicious spyware and;
5. Web application security exploits among others

Therefore, there is a need to produce a comprehensive National Information Security Strategy that addresses the above emerging issues that are of paramount concern. Its main purpose will be to combat threats to information security. The NISS will provide a common platform for the information security efforts of the Government, businesses, Organizations’ and individual citizens
The Strategy is intended to support sub-sector policies and frameworks of the different sub –sectors. This will help guide exchange of secure and timely information through the use of ICTs.

IPv6 transition Policy

The Internet has rapidly grown to become a fundamental infrastructure for economic and social activity around the world. The Current network deployments of the Internet Protocol (IP) are based upon Version 4 of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) specifications. There is, however, a perceived need to migrate to a more advanced and newer version of the protocol, known as IPv6, in view of the technical limitations of IPv4.
However, progress in actual usage of IPv6 remains very slow to-date and considerable challenges must be overcome to achieve a successful transition. Immediate costs are associated with deployment of IPv6, whereas many benefits are long term and depend on a critical mass of actors adopting it.
This Policy therefore provide for the following:

1. The new (user) service opportunities and customer benefits that will result from adopting IPv6;
2. The operational benefits; technical, economic and social
3. Cost Effectiveness (i.e. potential reduction of future operating costs)
4. Minimizing industry-wide disruption during the transition (e.g. commercial risk, loss of market confidence).

E-Government Framework Policy

The Government of Uganda has a strong belief that ICT has the potential not only to revolutionize the way government operates, but also to enhance the relationship between Government and Citizens (G2C), Government and Business community (G2B) and within Government to Government departments (G2G).
With this in mind, the GOU developed the e-Government framework which clearly identifies the goal of e-Government and spells out its core pillars, critical success factors and a roadmap which will be adopted to achieve it.
All government agencies have been encouraged to use this framework to further focus and inform their e-Government strategic plans as one of the facets to transform our country into a knowledge-based economy.

Policy for creating IT positions in public service structures for all MDAs and Local Government

Developments in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) have dramatically changed the way information is collected, stored, processed, disseminated and used, thus making it one of the most powerful tools for modernization and development.
In Uganda, ICT has been identified as one of the rapidly growing areas that have the potential to ‘leap-frog’ the nation to benefit from the globalized economy.
This policy aims at establishing IT personnel positions in the public service structures for all MDAs and Local Governments to provide Technical support in the provision of IT services within these entities.

Uganda Broadband Infrastructure strategy

Uganda was one of the first Eastern African countries to get connected to the internet with the first connection in 1995. Despite being introduced at about the same time that cellular telephones were introduced in the country, growth in the internet segment has been far from significant in comparison with growth in the mobile market.
This slow growth in internet is twofold from both the infrastructure end riddled with low capacity as well as a comparatively lower market demand for the internet.

This strategy therefore, provides options for enabling Uganda to access International Broadband Infrastructure networks at the earliest opportunity to fulfill its needs and developmental objectives, while not losing sight of issues related to cost, completion dates, ownership and capacities as well as taking into account the initiatives taken by the private sector leaders so far.