EAC information to be easily shared

The panel of experts will also develop harmonised sensitization materials for the political federation, social, productive and infrastructure sectors, as well as a general information guide on the EAC integration process. PHOTO/FILE 

By Zephania Ubwani, The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

Information management experts from the region met in Kampala to set in motion the process which followed a recent study which yielded the need for “One-Stop-Shop’ data base.

Arusha. The East African Community (EAC) will digitalise its vast information resources ranging from treaties and protocols to photographs and maps.

Information management experts from the region met in Kampala to set in motion the process which followed a recent study which yielded the need for “One-Stop-Shop’ data base.

The initiative to digitalise the information resources is due to the recognition for the need to make EAC information easily accessible and shared effectively by stakeholders and reserachers.

According to the EAC director of Human Resource and Administration, Mr Joseph Ochwada, the project will also cover all the EAC organs and institutitons scattered across the region.

“However, there are challenges of visibility, accessibiliity, preservation, harmonisation and effective dissemination of EAC information,” he told IT experts in the Ugandan capital.

In 2013, the EAC Secretariat commissioned a study to develop digitisation modalities for EAC information resources. The report of the study presented recommendations with emphasis that the EAC should establish a “One-Stop Shop” framework for its organs and institutions that shall provide a single access point for all information.

The Kampala meeting, attended by librarians, communication and IT experts, reviewed the findings and recommendations of the report and was expected to develop an action plan and road map.

Carried out by the Tropical Royal Institute of the Netherlands (KIT), the study conducted a situation analysis of existing resources (human, systems, equipment, policies, standards, guidelines) for digitizing information resources in all EAC organs and institutions.

One of the recommendations was to request the five EAC partner states —Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda — to harmonise EAC information policies, guidelines and processes, to streamline EAC information management.

Also proposed for harmonisation are the existing systems for the EAC Libraries and Information Resource Centres, in particular, the library management and digital library systems.

The experts also suggested the establishment of a collaborative approach to EAC information management with a shared framework for information resource management modalities to streamline data and information exchange within EAC.

In a related meeting in Mwanza, the communications experts from the EAC organs and institutions and partner states’ ministries responsible for EAC and harmonised versions of the EAC documents and sensitisation materials are meeting to develop simplified and harmonized versions of the EAC documents and sensitisation materials.