IICD supported project: Information Flow Management and Networking

Countries: Uganda [UG]
Sectors: governance

Summary

The poor flow of information within Uganda’s Tourism, Trade and Industry sector is hampering its growth. The Ministry for Tourism, Trade and Industry therefore developed the Information Flow Management and Networking (IFMN) project in 2004 to address this issue. The project’s three main goals are: to train ministry staff to use ICTs; to set up an intranet at the ministry; and to help the ministry create its own website. These initiatives will improve the flow of information internally (between the ministry’s five departments) and externally (between the ministry and its affiliated institutions). In the long term, the ability to provide timely and accurate information, particularly to businesses at home and abroad, could mean the difference between an opportunity gained and an opportunity lost for this sector.

Update

Updated: 2006-12-07

On 5 August 2005, the Ministry invited over 300 guests to a prestigious launch ceremony during which both its website <a href="http://www.mtti.go.ug">www.mtti.go.ug</a> and intranet were officially activated. The Ministry focuses on three very broad areas – tourism, trade, and industry. Thanks to the new intranet, Ministry staff and employees at other institutions with links to the Ministry can now access a wealth of information on each subject. The website, on the other hand, is progressing more slowly and is still developing its content to reflect the ‘look and feel’ of the Ministry. Aside from setting up an intranet and website, this project also provides ministry staff with basic ICT training. So far, 25 Ministry employees and 8 staff members from institutions affiliated to the ministry have followed ICT courses and have learned how to use the intranet. Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry has asked IICD to collaborate on developing an ICT policy for this sector and to help harmonise ICT projects within the ministry; a Task Force was recently set up within the ministry to guide this process.

Introduction

In November, 2000, MTTI and IICD organized an ICT roundtable workshop in Jinja - Uganda, where all stakeholders agreed to the fact that the poor information flow within the sector was a hindrance to its development and indeed may have a negative effect upon the alleviation of poverty which is one of the most important objectives of the Ministry. The participants of the workshop agreed therefore that a project (Information Flow Management and Networking - IFMN), among the many identified, be formulated and implemented to address this weakness as one of the ways to stimulate development in the sector.

The IFMN project falls under the Resource Center of MTTI. Its activities cover the five departments within the ministry. It was formulated to improve information flow within the Ministry departments i.e. Tourism, Wildlife, Trade, Cooperatives, Industry and Technology as well as between the ministry and its affiliated institutions e.g. Uganda Export Promotion Board (UEPB), Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), Uganda Tourist Board (UTB), Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC), Management Training and Advisory Center (MTAC), Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) and other (private sector) organisations.

Objectives

The main objectives of this project are:

• To improve the livelihoods of the Ugandan people by improving information flow within and between departments of MTTI, and between MTTI and its affiliated organizations.
• To put in place online communication channels between the policy makers and the consumers of the MTTI services.
• To make it possible for beneficiaries to access information from MTTI whenever they want it by facilitating the activities of the Resource Center.
• To train MTTI staff in use of modern ICT in their day to day operations.
• To generate electronic databases that will be regularly updated so as to provide up-to-date information to the beneficiaries.
• To recommend a suitable mechanism that will ensure continuous use of the established communication system.

Planned outputs

The planned outputs of this project are:

• MTTI develops and operationalises ICT Advisory Committee;
• Project management team is identified and constituted;
• Communication plan developed and operationalized;
• Information and requirements analysis carried out;
• Capacity Development plan developed and implemented;
• Implementation teams identified, contracted and commissioned;
• Pilot departments sensitized and trained;
• Hardware acquisition and installation;
• Applications software prototyped;
• Required organizational changes implemented;
• Other departments and affiliates kept informed of progress;
• Existing hardware equipment in other departments added to the installed communications network;
• Extension of applications software to all departments and affiliates;
• Training of all the other MTTI staff involved in ICT applications.

Development Impacts

The staff of MTTI will acquire ICT skills to be able to use the modern technology - use the database system to enter ministry data, process it, store and distribute information to a variety of stakeholders for decision making and to narrow the communication gap between the executives and the subordinates. The system is expected to have MTTI staff produce timely results, and to save time that would otherwise be wasted in meetings to discuss issues, which issues would now be posted on the ministry intranet. MTTI affiliated institutions will have "extranet" login to directly access a variety of information without necessarily going physically to the ministry.

The formulation and implementation of an ICT policy will bring opportunities for the entire sector of Tourism, Trade and Industry.

Management and organisation

The project is owned by the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry (MTTI) and therefore the organisation of the project is embedded in the organisational structure of the Ministry. The ICT Advisory Committee (ICTAC) is the committee is ultimate responsible for the project, which is chaired by the Permanent Secretary and will include the Project Manager as its Secretary. The committee will also include appropriate representation from all the ministry departments and will ensure that departmental ICT requirements and concerns are well represented.

Market and finance

This project is primarily meant to improve the information flows and therefore it is rather difficult to expect that any revenues are generated from this project. Through the improvement of the information flow it is expected that the costs will be reduced.

Results

Over the last one year, training in the use of ICTs has been provided to MTTI staff. Currently, there is a Capacity Development plan for the year 2005, from which MTTI staff shall benefit. Invitations have also been sent to affiliated organizations to benefit from that training.

A centralized documents database has been developed. It will be accessible on the ministry LAN, and the future plan is that the affiliated organizations will be able to access it as well.

A website for the ministry was developed and can be accessed at www.mtti.go.ug It is currently being reviewed for improvement.

Resource center/Project Office: The project enabled setting up of a resource center office at the ministry, and facilitated its furnishing. The resource center shall be used for capacity development activities. There is a Project Information Team (PIT) comprising of one desk officer from each Department. The PIT members have been trained at different training centers like Kyambogo, Rank Consult, Technobrain at Metropole House - Entebbe Road. Capacity development both within and without will be done throughout the year.

Project Owner : Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry (MTTI)
P.O. Box 7103, Kampala – Uganda
Tel: 256 – 41 – 314268, Fax: +256 41 340427
Email: jmwanja@mintrade.org
Website: www.mtti.go.ug

Project Partners : IFMN project is a result of negotiations between stakeholders in the MTTI and IICD. The Government of Uganda and IICD are the official partners of the pilot project.

Project Contact : IICD