A high-level decision has been made to draft and sign a memorandum of understanding as a strategic way forward for digital preservation of Uganda’s documentary heritage for the good of humanity, under the memory of the world arrangement.
Uganda, represented by Makerere University, Uganda National Commission for UNESCO (UNATCOM) and certain key government ministries, departments and agencies, will partner private company First Coast Technologies Ltd (FCTEC) to achieve this goal.
In addition, the two parties will finalize preservation pilots with funding support based on expression of interest and willingness of Ugandan organisations to partner and procure certain essential equipment.
These resolutions were made at a high-level breakfast meeting on preservation of Uganda’s documentary heritage organized by Makerere University, Uganda Textbook Academic and Non-Fiction Authors Association (UTANA), UNATCOM and FCTEC at Hotel Africana in Kampala on June 5, 2025.
This awareness meeting for key stakeholders in the public and private sectors was a prelude to a technical training on digitization of documentary heritage on June 6 and piloting and scaling digitization projects on June 7, both at Makerere University.
The three-day activities ran under the theme, ‘Strengthening Uganda’s documentary heritage: Collaborative capacity building for national memory institutions’.
The breakfast meeting stressed the importance of preservation, especially in digital form, and expanding and deepening partnerships for future generations, with Prof Elisam Magara, the convener, saying this was the first of a series of many engagements to come in the future.
A South Africa-headquartered company established in 2000, FCTEC has formed strategic partnerships and, through distribution agreements, delivered digitization hardware and software, document-centric data management, automation solutions and business process outsourcing across the world.
Niklas Zimmer of FCTEC stressed that preservation of heritage is not just a technical activity but also an action of care to preserve and share emotions for the good of all humanity and for all generations.
He hailed the transformative power of digitization, clarifying that digital preservation is much more than physical back-up of documents.
“Digitization is also organisation and resources. We provide a variety of highly specialized services including intelligent document processing, metadata, document control and security, training, tools and techniques,” Zimmer said.
Higher Education state minister Dr John Muyingo, represented by University Education and Training commissioner Timothy Ssejjoba, emphasized how heritage preservation is not merely protection of the past but, rather, also building bridges between the past, present and future.
