Takeaways from our recent engagements with key government agencies in Uganda:

During the month of February 2023, ToroDev through the Open Data Analytics (ODA) initiative, embarked on consultations with key stakeholders, primarily government agencies in Uganda to discuss preliminary findings from the Urban Data Governance (DG) baseline study, and their implications for the future of the new cities created in the country. The research, as a basis for these engagements, aimed at finding out how data governance and management in the newly created cities of Uganda were organized, and whether there was need to be improved, in order to support proper planning and routine decisions that are responsive to residents’ needs in the “smart city” modelling environment.  A smart city may be understood as a well organized, complex urban area that uses modern digital technology to generate quality data resources for increasing operational efficiency, share information with residents and improve both the quality of government services and residents’ welfare.

During these engagements, Christopher Maloney, a representative from our partner, The Hewlett Foundation, was also present and gave an overview of the foundation’s Evidence-Informed Policymaking (EIP), and how it might be relevant to the new cities’ formations in Uganda.

1. Discussion with the MoLG – Ministry of Local Government

The discussion at MoLG on February 7, 2023 at the Ministry’s Board room, led to a proposal led by the Commissioner – Urban Administration, Mr. Justinian Nuwagaba, of developing a concept that may potentially address issues of coordination and design of a project/program of mainstreaming data governance in the newly created cities. The agenda was potentially to be led by the Ministry of Local Government, with other key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) likely to be invited on board, viewed to have the potential of contributing to the program. This would further call for a quadripartite Technical Working Group (TWG), which could potentially be comprised of, among others, MoLG, UBOS, ODA, NITA-U and PDPO, each with anticipated specific roles such as;

• MoLG earmarked to likely undertake an overall administrative role, sensitization, conflicts management in the new cities, streamlining governance issues and ensuring that city administrative units are clear with required personnel.
• UBOS could potentially oversee administrative data generation, training on statistical matters, advocacy and data methodological systems’ quality assurance/maintenance
• ToroDev/ODA may handle issues of facilitating city data governance frameworks’ building, support to big data generation through application of AI, satellite tools andsocial media data analytics, among others. If these happened, they would support the building of resilient modern digital technology-enabled data systems, rooted in sustainable data governance frameworks;
• NITA-U would be requested to undertake the building of a dedicated and sustainable IT infrastructure, and create city data centres/portals.
• PDPO would be invited to lead capacity building that prioritizes trust, mutual sharing, security and privacy of data producers, data holders and users within the cities and beyond;

The above ideas were hinged on the facts, among others, that;

• The study unearthed data governance and management challenges faced by the new cities, and the issue needed urgent addressing. This would help in promoting efficient data governance (frameworks/guidelines, methods, trust-building and other incentives), as data resources are critical in service delivery planning and delivery in a smart city modelling environment.

• There was need for automation of data management (collection, processing and dissemination/sharing) tools, the need to identify data champions in new cities, employing adequate data human resources (staffing and skilling), providing funding and other motivation for the staff to deliver effectively on quality data and evidence application in city routine decisions and policymaking.

• There was also need to model, and start with a few cities across the country. In these few cities, the interventions would be, for example, aiming to have a fully-fledged Research & Planning Department/Unit withing each piloted city. Such units require necessary equipment and data-oriented human resources with requisite skills. The suggested cities during ToroDev’s meeting with MoLG for piloting were; Hoima (Unique perspective of Oil), Fort Portal (unique perspective of tourism), Jinja (for Industry), Gulu (Regional) and Soroti (Regional) cities.

• The Ministry of Local Government (MoLG) potentially to provide a “coordinating function” of other relevant MDAs, working with the cities on data generation aspects, during the implementation of the new planned project/program proposed by ToroDev – ODA and partners. The MoLG was also requested to support a harmonized and integrated/interoperable data system/portal for each city. This would be more realized during the modelling/piloting process of the program/project.

2. Discussion with the Personal Data Protection Office (PDPO) at NITA-U

The engagement with the PDPO on the afternoon of February 7, 2023 was also a worthwhile meeting, aimed at understanding how ToroDev – ODA and partners could collaborate with the national data protection office to enhance data governance systems at urban/city level in Uganda. The ToroDev – ODA team was joined by the UN Pulse Lab (Kampala) and Chris Maloney, program officer -IEP, the Hewlett Foundation, to the meeting with the Director – PDPO and her team, at the National Information Technology Authority of Uganda (NITA-U) headquarters in Kampala.

Specific areas of priority to potentially design practical interventions in the near future, in partnership with the PDPO included, but not limited to the following;

• Developing a national capacity building plan for Data Protection Officers (DPOs) in both public and private institutions in Uganda, in order to comply with the requirements of the Data Protection & Privacy Act (2019).

• Establishment of regional PDPO offices, maybe including in the new cities.

• Opening of customers’/clients’ service centers around the country

• Establishment of a national forensic investigations lab at PDPO to examine data security breaches

• Establishment of a disciplines’ handling team to resolve matters of data protection and privacy

• Extension of the personal data protection/privacy awareness, through sensitization in media using local languages around the country

• supporting the PDPO to achieve a long -term strategy of establishing a data protection and privacy academy in Uganda, since the issue of data governance (frameworking for tapping the missed uses of data, while observing its protection, security and privacy).

3. The summary of our reflections for the future from the above discussions

The above engagements demonstrate potential enormous work at hand in the near future, to support the data governance discourse, not only in the newly established cities, but also potentially at national level MDAs that work with such cities in Uganda. ToroDev – ODA and partners are in a reflection phase, as a result of findings from the baseline study and recent meetings held at MoLG and PDPO. The takeaways from the above meetings are helping us to understand and generate knowledge on design options for practical interventions that may change the new cities’ status quo. The ultimate goal of this phase is to kick-start early planning, targeting how to transform/develop such new and growing complex urban areas into “smart cities”, that responsibly use data resources for an inclusive and resilient urbanization in Uganda. Our reflection is guided by two key foundations; data governance principles and smart city frameworks;

• Emphasizing “Data Governance Principles” in planning & designing of future city interventions

ToroDev – ODA is reflecting on how to support Uganda’s new cities to enact and operationalize a set of well articulated by-laws, regulations and policies rooted in best practice principles, to guide their data governance strategies. Top priority issues identified so far by the recent study conducted on urban data governance include among others are; (1) need to re-orient, raise awareness and/or sensitize key stakeholders at city and MDA levels, on the importance of digital data resources and how they are governed for efficient urban development, (2) coordinate and integrate data governance efforts and systems within cities and supporting MDAs, (3) build trust and other technical capacities among stakeholders (MDAs, cities and residents), and (4) nurture a sustainable source of funding/city self-reliance for data resources’ generation and management in each of the new cities.

The foregoing priority issues may be tagged to specific data governance principles (CIPIT, 2021; Brous & Vilminko, 2016) that ToroDev-ODA believes are important to guide near future engagements and support to the new cities in Uganda, related to collective pursuance of;

(a) Supporting specific city organizational goals and context: Each new city may have differentiated aspirations for the future inclusive urban growth and development. Any sustainable data governance strategy should be cognizant and deeply ingrained into addressing such distinct goals and context. ToroDev-ODA will need to engage city authorities to articulate such organizational goals and tailor their data governance policies to achieving them.

(b) Alignment of data governance strategies/policies to routine city business operations: City authority staff and other stakeholders/residents need to see, tangibly, the application of data resources to their daily routines/work and how such resources contribute value to their business operations – as an intrinsic incentive/motivation. If this happens, the stakeholders may develop strong appreciation and support mechanisms to the operationalization and implementation of the city data governance and management strategy. This means that, ToroDev – ODA may need to engage in events with new city authorities to develop and articulate/demonstrate practical routine data use cases; how they influence routine activities of staff and benefit residents’ business endeavors. In other words, the city data governance strategy and quality data use for decision making, should not only be felt or be a preserve of senior policymakers and technocrats at city authority level. But also, it must be strongly felt by the city residents, who are involved in the routine provision and consumption of daily business products/services of transportation, entertainment and hospitality, tourism, food-vending and catering, banking/financial inclusion, credit services, health and sanitation and/or waste management, etc in a particular city.

(c) A compliance mechanism to evaluate ethical use of data resources : City data governance strategies and policies ought to incorporate an oversight mechanism/function within, in order to evaluate, on a frequent basis, how data access and use is being enforced/implemented in each of the new cities in Uganda. A legitimate authority or a steering committee comprising of key stakeholders, for each new city may be a solution here. Besides, such an authority may need to also acquaint itself with data governance laws, regulations both in Uganda and beyond (East African region, continental like the African Union Data Policy Framework of 2022, and global/UN standards). These regulations seek to emphasize data access and use accountability/responsibility, openness, security, privacy and quality, among others.

(d) Common/Shared Understanding on benefits of a sustainable data governance strategy: New cities in Uganda should develop as “locally – globalized centers”, which are attracting and benefiting many stakeholders within and around the world. For instance, a tourism city (Fort Portal), an industrialization city (Jinja) or an oil extractives’ city (Hoima) will attract visitors, expatriates and investors, respectively, from all over the world. These key stakeholders need to experience world-class handling of data resources in order to invest in the cities, but also to enable indigenous city residents to showcase their products and services in the most secure, accountable, open and high quality way. ToroDev – ODA and partners may need to critically evaluate such needs and support the new city data governance strategies, operationalization and implementation to such standards, where data resources’ purpose, usage and benefits that accrue, are well known and mutually understood by every stakeholder.

• Developing “Smart City Frameworks” for digital data-enabled city resilience

Once the issue of developing robust cities’ data governance strategies has been sorted out, ToroDev – ODA and partners may embark on devising a number of frameworks to set in motion the “smart city” modelling. As explained above in the opening paragraph of this article, smart cities are digital technology driven urban areas in terms of economy, social life, mobility, etc. The smart city frameworks, as informed by our recent study findings and engagements with key government agencies above, may include among others, for the start, the following;

The Technological Framework – digital and intelligent platforms (use of responsible and ethical artificial intelligence’s (AI) sensory, satellite capabilities and machine learning (ML) models that are ingrained or deep-rooted in robust city data governance strategies, earlier developed based on four key principles discussed in the previous section above.

The Data Management Framework – the use of intelligent tools brings in the concept of “Big data”. This is where and when large volumes of datasets are generated within a short time spontaneously through application of AI and ML, requiring critical hands-on management. This framework may devise robust methods of data collection, process and dissemination consistent to the security and personal privacy measures prescribed in the city data governance strategies, and as evaluated from time to time by the steering committee/authority. This may eventually improve the quality of data resources, increase trust/confidence in the smart city model and quality of life of residents.

The Human Capital Development Framework – this relates to contributing to building the digital consciousness and innovative capabilities of individuals and enterprises in a city, promoting learning, incentivizing knowledge seeking attitudes of city residents, among others. Also this may entail the creation of “inclusive digital zones” for the under-resourced resident groups of youth, women and people living with disabilities, in order for them to equitably access smart city – enabled utilities, health and sanitation, transportation, entertainment and government services. All these are some of the examples under this framework.

Overall, the setting up of the above smart city frameworks may potentially require support from government MDAs like NITA-U, PDPO and MoLG to build a sustainable infrastructure that supports the thriving of the smart city model. Since these are likely to be mobilized during the development of the city data governance strategies, their support to implement the smart city frameworks may also come in much easier. Therefore, ToroDev – ODA and partners are banking on such assumptions for an improved data and evidence-informed urbanization in Uganda by end of 2026.