The BelgianTechnical Cooperation (BTC) and the UN Pulse Lab Kampala have partnered to develop mobile applications to monitor public services in Uganda.
The Belgian ambassador to Uganda, Hugo Verbist, and UN resident coordinator Rosa Malango last Thursday signed the 12-month partnership, dubbed “Real Time Information and Delivery to Support the Quality of Public Service Delivery in Uganda”.
The project will develop six applications, focusing on geographical areas where BTC and the education and health ministries are running joint programmes.
“In Uganda, our priority is education and health and we are looking at technological innovations that fall in this line and, therefore, this partnership is a major step for us,” said Verbist. “One of our priorities is how much we can use digitalisation to enhance development.”
For instance, in case of disease outbreaks, maps detailing particular entries are produced per health facility on a daily or weekly basis based on health centre reports.
“This allows [one] identify very quickly clusters of infection and rates and it makes allocation of medicines and medical personnel more efficient and also ensures quick response to the disease outbreak,” said Erwin De Wandel, the head of cooperation at the Belgium Embassy.
The project set to start on January 13, 2017 will cost at least Shs 1.5bn.
UNDP boss Rosa Malango said: “We chose Uganda because it is the hub of Africa’s future. It is at the heart of Africa and has over 70 per cent of its population as under the age of 30; so, this type of technology innovations is relevant in this country,” Malango said.
The UN Pulse Lab brings together partners from academia and the private sector to develop innovations towards the 17 sustainable development goals.
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