United Nations Development Programme

The government of Uganda is planning to create 15 new cities from existing towns by the end of 2023. This will create new opportunities, but it will also put a strain on infrastructure and services. As a result, data and evidence use in decision making at this urban level, together with sound governance of that data and evidence, will be critical to these new cities' success. To prepare for this, three current Hewlett Foundation grantees based in Uganda — Sunbird AI, UN Global Pulse Lab Kampala, and ToroDev — will work together with the new city authorities in Fort Portal and Jinja to identify these cities' core data and evidence needs; train city officials on how to use data and evidence to make decisions; support the institutionalization of data use at the city level; and pilot new data and AI technologies to aid in decision making. This grant is for UN Global Pulse Lab Kampala's portion of the collaboration and plays an important role in ensuring a clear through line between the government of Uganda's national data strategy (which Pulse Lab Kampala is coordinating), and this emergent work at the local (urban) level.

United Nations Global Pulse (UNGP) is as an initiative of the Executive Office of the Secretary General (EOSG) at the UN, currently re-positioning itself as the UN Secretary-General’s Innovation Lab, and expanding its scope beyond AI and Big Data, and into innovation, strategic foresight, and behavioral science. UNGP's lab in Kampala ("Pulse Lab Kampala") is a long-time Evidence-Informed Policymaking (EIP) grantee, for whom the Hewlett Foundation is currently supporting its work developing the national data strategy for Uganda. As UNGP transitions to this new role globally, a key part of this transition is a renewed focus on impact on the ground, and empowering its locally-based labs to become strengthened (and more independent) regional hubs, including in Africa. To this end, this grant will support Pulse Lab Kampala as it scopes and sets itself up to serve as UNGP's regional hub for Africa. The work will include designing an impactful and sustainable organizational setup, a needs assessment, a resource mobilization plan, and a transition implementation plan.

Pulse Lab Kampala is a lab of the UN Global Pulse network. Global Pulse is the United Nations Secretary-General’s cross-pillar hub for digital innovation and experimentation. Its mission is to work at the intersection of digital innovation and the human sciences to inform, inspire, and strengthen the ability of the U.N. family and those it serves to anticipate, respond, and adapt to the challenges of today and tomorrow. To achieve its mission, Global Pulse has established five distinct programs: Rebuilding Trust, Inclusion, Fair Digital Commons, Crisis Prevention and Response, and UN Transformation. With Hewlett’s support and Pulse Lab Kampala, through the UN Global Pulse program on a Fair Digital Commons, this grant seeks to advance Uganda’s inclusion in the global emerging digital economy while fostering safe access to data. More specifically, Pulse Lab Kampala will support the government of Uganda in developing a national data strategy that focuses on enabling data use and reuse, including the development and efficient use of digital public goods. This instrument would serve as an example for the countries in the region seeking to explore how to foster inclusive and thriving national digital economies while minimizing technology risks and harms of data use. (Strategy: Evidence-Informed Policymaking)