Policy on gov't communications ready, national service program to start in 2023

The final National Communications and National Guidance Policy has been presented to government, with national service program set to begin in 2023.

The policy was presented on Friday by the Taskforce on Government Communications and National Guidance, to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, Dr. Aminah Zawedde.

The policy seeks to fight misinformation, bring back confidence in government communications among other targets.

Recently, government has suffered a significant loss of trust among a substantial population due to uncoordinated communications.

In some cases, officials have oftenly criticized one another, and as a result, public confidence in government communications is lost, creating a gap filled by alternative media sources and fake news.

National Communications Policy seeks to mitigate the above challenges, ensure effective communication, especially as Uganda implements critical national, regional and global plans, programmes, and policies to improve the quality of people’s lives.

‘‘I thank the National Taskforce on Communications and National Guidance. It has been a busy 10 months for them and we can see the fruits. We shall now these documents on and submit them to Cabinet for approval,’’ Dr Zawedde said at the presentation.

She added that, once approved, the policies will anchor all of government efforts that relate to government communications and national guidance.

In her concluding remarks, Zawedde shared that the National Guidance Policy ‘’will spur one to love Uganda and have a desire to see it become the best version of itself, to point out its failures, to recognise how we each have been complicit in allowing its negative to persist, to work together to create an environment in which every citizen has all that they need love, food, health, peace, prosperity and are truly treated as equals in every regard.”

In his remarks, deputy coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation, Maj Gen. Kavuuma said, ‘‘We live in an era of advancements and technology; humans are developing intelligence to unimaginable extents up to the creation of artificial intelligence, but at the same time we might be losing touch with emotions like compassion which are the very essence of humanity,” Kavuuma.

Kavuuma added that individualism is killing the country and that the task is upon the taskforce, to ensure that their policies can kill this issue of individualism.

Led by Dr Arthur Sserwanga and deputized by Marcella Karekye, the Government Communications and National Guidance Taskforce was formed to guide the Ministry of Information Communication Technology to ensure that Government communications are consistent, relevant and understandable.

The Taskforce includes distinguished communications professionals from public and private sectors, who have extensive experience in mindset change and communications.