Uganda to Digitalize the existing Paper Based Registers for Local Councils (DVD)
Participants at the recently concluded Digital Village Directorate (DVD) development workshop on Paper-based Village Register at Hotel Africana in Moroto District. The Commissioner Local Council Development MoLG, Mugyema Swizin (in pink tie) and Commissioner Tumwesigye Everest from MoGLSD posing for a picture with the Project Implementation Team.
The leadership structure in Uganda is rich with leaders at all levels from the national to the village level. To foster service delivery by leaders at all levels, there is need for accurate data for the people we serve.
Working with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MoGLSD), key MDAs, the District Local Governments of Moroto and Kabong, and a host of Development Partners, the Ministry of Local Government (MoLG) has set out to digitalize all the local council registers. Instead of the paper based registers, the local councils will now electronically capture all the required data, and update the registers. The Digital Village Directorate (DVD) will be a one stop center where data is to be collected and stored for its availability to be used by various Government Ministries Departments, Agencies, and stakeholder. The DVD will capture details from the village level and process through the parish, sub county and district for eventual uptake across different programmes and systems to inform service delivery.
Critical stakeholders include the following Government entities as part of their constitutional mandate requires real time access of village registry system to ascertain the location of people. Ministry of local government (MOLG), All security Agencies (JIC), Ministry of gender labor and social development (MoGLSD), Uganda Bureau of Statistics, National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), National Planning Authority (NPA), Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, National information Technology Authority (NITA-U).
With support from World Food Program the DVD shall be piloted in Kaabong and Moroto District. It was agreed that MOLG be involved in the pilot implementation since they are the one overseeing Local Government implementation of the PDM. Their support will be key in the roll out of the different interventions to other Districts.
The DVD will also be housed at MoLG with the supper users the Ministries and Agencies shall receive all the information on an Application Programming Interface (IPI)server under the department of Local Councils Development which is mandated to build and sustain the necessary capacity of the Local Councils and Administrative Units to enable them perform efficiently and effectively. The capacities to be built are both for elected and appointed officials of the Local Councils right from Village to District Council levels.
The Commissioner Local Council Development MoLG, Mugyema Swizin accompanied by Commissioner Tumwesigye Everest from MoGLSD, MoLG Team and representatives from key MDAs conducted a Digital Village Directorate (DVD) development workshop on the 28th, Nov,2022 – 02nd, Nov,2022 at Hotel Africana in Moroto District hosted by the World Food Programme (WFP) Project funders.
During his remarks he said, once developed, the DVD will digitalize existing paper-based registers, be a single source of truth for all MDAs Management Information Systems. MDAs can be able to access any required data from this Tool to manage all citizens location information and open Application Programming Interface (APIs)to expose the information for external use Improve security and reduce community crime, support social protection, welfare programs Support national Planning and Improve service delivery.
The CAO Moroto District Mr. Charlse Kumakech Olulba thanked all the members for attending the meeting to have their input on improving the DVD to attain its objective of improving data collection and management which has over time been a challenge and affected planning in Local Governments and the country at large. Appreciated the lead Ministry of Local Government for taking lead and also the other Ministries and agencies for giving in support. WFP Representative committed that WFP shall continue giving all the support it takes to see the agenda of achieving the launching of the DVD.
The Commissioner Tumwesigye Everest Ministry of Gender Labour, And Social Economic Development gave his closing remarks and encouraged the team to work as hard as possible to ensure the work is done and that all the relevant help shall be rendered by his Ministry towards achieving the DVD launched for the good of improving planning and implementation of programs in this country.
