Why Uganda won recent international slots in Posts and Satellite bodies

By Frank K. Tumwebaze

Uganda recently competed and won positions in the Universal Postal Union and the Assembly of Parties of the International Satellite Organisation. Below Frank K. Tumwebaze, the Minister for ICT and National Guidance, who headed the lobby team yesterday, explained to the press and general public how and why they won

I called you to appraise you, your various audiences and the country at large on the participation and performance of our country at the various international events in the ICT arena; that is the recently concluded 26th International Congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the 37th Assembly of Parties of the International Satellite Organisation (ITSO) in Istanbul, Turkey and Washington DC, in the US, respectively.

I led the delegations that represented Uganda at both of these high level meetings.

Uganda is a member to several of international organisations. These include; UPU, ITSO, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Pan Africa Postal Union (PAPU), Africa Telecommunications Union (ATU) and East Africa Communications Organisation (EACO) and Africa Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute (AFRALTI), among others.

International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation

The Government of Uganda is a signatory to the ITSO Agreement that was initially opened for signature by governments at Washington, D.C on August 20, 1971 and entered into force on February 12, 1973.

The signing of this agreement resulted from consideration by the State Parties of the principles set forth in Resolution 1721 (XVI) of the General Assembly of the United Nations that communication by means of satellite should be available to the nations of the world as soon as practicable on a global and non-discriminatory basis.

Leadership of ITSO

The Assembly of Parties of ITSO, is composed of 149 member countries. It is the highest decision-making organ of the organisation. The executive organ is headed by the Director General, who is directly responsible to the Assembly of Parties.

The Director General is elected and appointed by the Assembly of Parties for a term of four years and is eligible for re-election for another four-year period. In pursuit of the above, this year's 37th Assembly of Parties was held in Washington DC and was to conduct elections for the Director General, among other items on the agenda.

In May, the Government nominated Patrick Masambu, a qualified telecommunications professional with immense expertise in regulatory frameworks as Uganda's candidate for the position of Director General.

Electoral process

Firstly, Russia was elected by acclamation/ unopposed as the chair of the Assembly of Parties and the other only electable position was of Director General. As such, Masambu vied for the position of Director General of ITSO and competed against two other equally competent professionals from France and Spain. The electoral rules of the ITSO assembly require that for any candidate to be duly elected he/she must get two thirds of the total votes cast in the first round of voting. This is always difficult and makes the second round of voting inevitable. At the second round, voting takes place only the first and second candidates. The rest are eliminated.

For this particular election of ITSO that took place on October 13, at the American University, College of Law in Washington DC, Uganda's candidate (Masambu) scored 59 votes, France's scored 33 and Spain's candidate scored 23 in the first round of voting. Despite this clear lead by our candidate, a re-run became inevitable because of the two thirds requirement. Masambu now faced the French candidate as per the assembly electoral rules. Finally on tallying, our candidate won with a landslide victory.

Masambu polled 72 votes against 43 votes of Yvon Henri of France and was thus declared the next Director General of ITSO effective July 2017 when the term of the current leadership expires. 

Universal Postal Union

In the same vein, Uganda won elections to retain her seat on the 40-Member Council of Administration of the UPU.

The voting took place on October 5, at the 26th sitting of the UPU Congress in Istanbul, Turkey. Out of 192-member countries, only 151 had voting rights at the Congress and Uganda was voted fifth from the African region that had 16 contenders. Only 11 had to be picked. The 26th UPU congress also discussed the role of the post in the changing global digital environment. It was agreed that pPost operators allover enjoy huge networks of physical infrastructure and if integrated with e-commerce, posts can become a far much better, efficient and cheaper actor in the provision of e-commerce services compared to banks and telecoms. Member countries, therefore, were tasked with reviewing their domestic policies to make sure the work of Posta copes up with the digitally changing environment and position it to respond ably to the needs of its clients majority of which are  the rural under-served.

What do these election victories mean for Uganda? And what are the benefits of being part of and leading these bodies?

 Political leadership: Elections to these international bodies take into consideration a number of factors such as diplomatic ties, a country's foreign policy,  its leadership and  how strategically important it is in the region, continental and international system, among others.

These elections also are by and large a measure of how the international system perceives a country. Normally, the lobbying is intense and involving. I, however, had at these meetings competent teams of campaigners that smartly helped me to execute a subtle and well-conceived campaign strategy. One major factor that helped our campaign in Istanbul and Washington was the influence of President Yoweri Museveni on the continent, which helped to unite Africa and also on the international scene.

It gave us enormous good will.  While the proverbial African saying of a prophet has no respect at home; meaning that quite often people do not appreciate as much as it would be the golden value of their own and take it  as ordinary, may be true even here in Uganda, those outside see it and appreciate it most. The influence of President Museveni was the most enabling goodwill to ride on, among other factors.

President Museveni's correct foreign policy of the Pan Africanist formation, his clarity and articulation of Africa's bottlenecks, his consistent advocacy for trade not aid as well as his role in stabilising troubled Somalia that many saw as a failed state and had surrendered in the hands of terror networks, all continue to stand out prominently at the international scene and thus helped a great deal to brand Uganda correctly, the works and efforts of spoilers from within and without Uganda notwithstanding.

Every minister or head of delegation we spoke to while soliciting support for our country and candidate pledged support for Uganda. Each of those that pledged support had a thing or two to speak about in praise of the leadership of President Museveni. By and large, Uganda enjoys good relations with most counties of the world and hence some were giving reciprocal support.

 Of particular importance also was the technical competence of our candidate, Masambu. A telecommunications engineer, by profession. He has more than 30 years of experience at senior and international levels that have included positions in both the public and private sector.

He has actively led and participated in the design, development and implementation of various works and initiatives at regional and international level in institutions such as ITU, ATU, World Bank and other institutions.

Proof of Correct ICT policy frameworks:

These international bodies were formed majorly as global sector specific professional institutions for setting standards of the various actors to follow and thus fit in the international system.

It is usually countries that have demonstrable good track record of ICT policy framework at home that get elected to the high organs of such bodies. Uganda being elected, therefore, is validation of our success story in the ICT sector built on a sound policy, legal, regulatory and framework. It means our policies are correct.

The benefits for Uganda's active participation at these bodies are enormous:

 First, they provide us an opportunity to benchmark and quality assure our ICT policy instruments and be able to review them periodically to match the changing demands of technological advancements.

When our own individual and/or our country as an entity gets elected to positions of leadership of these international bodies  to be able to participate at the highest decision making level of these organisation, the advantages of knowledge transfer, resource mobilisation etc. become more evident.

We also get the opportunity to share our experience and also learn from the others. One of the big policy agenda, for example, Uganda left at the table of ITSO, which Masambu will champion was the question of making satellite universal and affordable, especially by the geographically least empowered regions like Africa and Small Island States. Satellite communication is the future and master of all communications. Yes alternatives such as optic fibre cables are there and indeed offer cheaper solutions compared to satellite, but they are limited in many respects. They are not as disaster-proof as satellite is.

The other benefit derived from our country's participation in these international bodies is visibility and its associated advantages. Participation at global level creates visibility for the country.

As The Pearl of Africa, Uganda has a high profile as a stable and investment-worth destination. Over the years, especially since the hosting of CHOGM in 2007, Uganda has hosted a number of high profile events, including ICT-related ones. For example, the other factor that enabled our #VoteMasambuLobby was the fact that Uganda in 2012 hosted the 35th Assembly of Parties here in Kampala. This made Uganda not just an active member. The more visible we are as a country, the more we sell our country with its natural heritage as a suitable tourist destination.

In fact, one of the quick take-aways/lessons learnt from these international meetings is the need to always equip our different delegations of officers and leaders that go to different sectorial meetings and events to represent Uganda with a minimum package of information about Uganda and how it should be presented.

Correct messaging and branding are key for any countries' drive to promote tourism and investment. My ministry will soon issue guidelines to all embassies and desk officers in charge of these international partnerships for every sector/ministry, with key descriptive facts about Uganda's stability, its unique geography, people, places and delicacies. It is important that every Ugandan official that moves out in an official representative capacity ably presents a good image of our country. It has always to be the best.

Gratitude

 I would like to acknowledge the contribution of the following personalities that made it possible for Uganda to attain these victories;

My predecessors in the Ministry of ICT; Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, John Nasasira, Aggrey Awori and Ham Mukasa- Mulira for having laid a solid foundation and built the good relations among nations in the ICT fraternity.

Sam Kutesa for providing the enormous diplomatic network that our campaign was able to leverage on in garnering the required support.

The Executive Director, UCC for the support and active participation at all these meetings that enabled us gain good reputation.

 In addition, I am particularly grateful to our staff and government officers from Uganda Commissions Commission, Uganda Posts, Ministry of ICT and Foreign Affairs that ably backed me to execute the campaign.

 I also thank our Ambassadors Johnson Agara Olwa of Turkey, Oliver Wonekha of Washington DC. Richard Nduhura and Ambassador Duncan Muhumuza from our Permanent Mission in NewYork and Ambassador Rosette Nyirikindi from Ministry of Foreign Affairs for  diplomatic frantic efforts in promoting these campaigns.

I also thank our other Ambassadors generally in other countries for having responded positively to the tasks we gave them in dealing with the delegations of their respective receiving countries.

 Finally, I congratulate all Ugandans for these important victories. Beyond the individual candidates like Masambu that get direct benefits coming with their jobs, the broader benefits to our country are bigger. Let us always celebrate our own identity as Ugandans and be disciplined enough to know that every country or society has got its own internal social and political contradictions. These, however, should always remain within us and should never go out to define us. When we all become spin doctors for Uganda we all become winners irrespective of our different alliances and oppositions to each other's opinions.

 For God and My Country.

 The writer is the Minister of ICT and National Guidance