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Conclusions and Recommendations
for the future
Uganda has come a long way in trying to improve the monitoring and evaluation activities help keep activities
management of environmental information. There was on track or to re-direct them for optimal effectiveness.
a time when looking for data was as challenging as look-
ing for the proverbial needle in a haystack. This has now When working on such life-cycle activities it always helps
changed. This section of the report provides some recom- if a network product is defined. Such a product would
mendations for improvement and issues for the future. give a general picture of how the different resources or
institutions would come together to deliver the ‘informa-
1. It is time to think of scaling up the EIN activi- tion management capability’ (Martin 1996). It would also
ties. Uganda has been addressing EIN issues for over 10 allow each level or sector to see how what they bring fits
years now. It was probably important to keep the numbers into the entire scheme of things and make the issues more
small and manageable during the infancy stages. A lot of relevant while working towards a common goal. SOE re-
interest has been generated amongst other institutions ports at national, sectoral or lower levels are examples of
that are not EIN members and this is the opportune time such products. These could be designed to become the
to learn from the past experience and to include these key asset of the network, acting as a stimulus for product
institutions in the network. diversification within the collaborating institutions them-
selves. As discussed earlier, the lack of a network product
2. It might be necessary to develop an appro- around which to coalesce could be one of the reasons why
priate set of rules or subsidiary legislation that the vertical EIN is not as vibrant as the horizontal EIN.
specifically governs environment information.
This would further strengthen the provisions under the 5. It would be beneficial for professionals from
Environment Act and the Access to Information Act while the different districts and sector institutions to
also addressing some of the issues such as practices and meet regularly to share ideas and best practices
technologies that have been identified in this document and generally keep up the momentum that characterized
the inception of the EIN. The distributed nature of the
3. There should be a more innovative approach to EIN means that the information management personnel
the production and dissemination of public infor- (technical officers, and others) involved in this endeav-
mation. Demand for products will only grow when the pub- our are located in different parts of the country. Although
lic is aware of the potential of the existing technology and/or it is theoretically possible to communicate using email,
what products are available. For instance, a lot of effort is put for a great part of the time, personnel work independ-
into the production of the SOER, but dissemination tends to ently. Facilitation of continuous dialogue among network
stop at launching and distribution. This, as indicated in the members is central to its sustainability and growth. Best
assessment for SOER 1994 is not adequate (NEMA 1995). practices from over the years on issues such as data stand-
After all, access to information is a constitutional right and ardisation or dissemination mechanisms should also be
information is a public good. It must be packaged to reach documented and published in the form of guidelines for
as many people of Uganda as possible. There are a number use by the network.
of relatively cheap approaches that can be used to ensure
that the public is informed of what is available. Continuous 6. There needs to be a deliberate strategy to
updating of databases, production and dissemination of continuously address technical competence in
targeted information in multiple formats could be a good environmental information management. The
starting point. This must be done on a regular basis and ac- information management skills of personnel at the dif-
cording to an agreed outreach strategy. ferent levels vary. These differences can greatly affect
the level of participation and the quality of information
4. It is necessary to strengthen the entire infor- provided. Basic training is therefore required, but this
mation management life-cycle. Issues regarding needs to be complemented by regular upgrading of skills
policy, standardization, and access are very important as and exposure to new approaches and ideas. NEMA has,
they subsequently impact on collection, analysis, market- on occasion, carried out training of national and district
ing and dissemination of the information. For example, staff in various aspects of information management and
when it comes to data collection, applying international handling. The trainees are then expected to transfer their
metadata standards would be useful in developing and acquired skills to colleagues in their departments. Most
maintaining a high quality and standard database. Is- of the districts have high turnover of staff and once staff
sues of management of information especially related to have left there is once again a gap in the skills set of new
the collection-archival phase are also important. Regular employees. Since NEMA does not carry out regular train-
The Uganda Case Study 23
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