The three day International ICT For Development summit has started at Speke Resort Munyonyo with over 900 international participants attending from over 80 countries around the world. The event was hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and National guidance in partnership with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
The conference that was started in 2010 by the Catholic Relief Services is aimed at connecting private, public and the civil society to exchange digital innovations for development and also help organizations use ICT in becoming more effective and expand their reach.
The conference was officially opened by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry if ICT Vincent Bagiire who emphasized the need to embrace technology in the country and the spread of digital services to remote areas.
The CRS Global Vice President Jenifer Poidatz asked stakeholders and the delegates at the conference to make technology easier and more accessible to use adding that ICT will have a big role to play in aid and developmental sector in the next 5years.
The CEO of Nethope Lauren Woodman argued that digitalization “going digital is not a matter of having a social media account for an organization or individual but rather consists of redefining the whole technology process.
Peter Butali, a refugee from South Sudan living in Rhino camp, and Co-founder and Executive Director CTEN elaborated on how ICT has helped them connect with the people in villages and other displaced persons villages.
“As refugees, we are scattered and live in distant areas with no clear communications as some keep on running but by the use of ICT mostly social media we have been able to connect with our relatives who are in distant areas or we lost contact”.
This year’s edition of ICT4D conference is the first of its series to be held in Kampala and East Africa as a whole. Last year the conference was held in Lusaka Zambia where over 600 participants from 80 countries attended.
