The 13th Uganda Internet Governance Forum (UIGF 2023) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

The 13th Uganda IGF met at Kampala's Sheraton Hotel on 24 August 2023, with 123 participants debating 'The Internet We Want — Empowering Ugandans', a day after the Youth IGF.
Minister of State Kabbyanga Baluku called for an accessible, inclusive and secure Internet; the ICT ministry reported the sector contributing over 9% of GDP and 2.3 million jobs; and an AI-and-creative-economy session put filmmakers and musicians on stage to weigh selling African stories to the world with AI against gaping copyright holes.
As a first-generative-AI-year dialogue, it treated AI from the creator's side — from regulation and jobs to a musician's hands-on ChatGPT workflow — while launching a digital-rights project for women and girls as a concrete outcome.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on The 13th Uganda Internet Governance Forum (UIGF 2023) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

Item	Detail
Official name	The 13th Uganda Internet Governance Forum (UIGF 2023)
Edition	13th edition
Dates	24 August 2023
Venue	Sheraton Hotel, Kampala, Uganda
Theme	The Internet We Want — Empowering Ugandans
Participants	123 participants (44 female, 79 male)
Host	The UIGF (convener Lillian Nalwoga), sponsored by the Internet Society Foundation, IGFSA, Enabel Uganda, Pollicy and the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance
Outcome	Launched Enabel's Digital Rights for Girls and Women project and Pollicy's 'Where is my Data' card game; preceded by the Youth IGF 2023 on 23 August at the National ICT Hub, Nakawa

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. 'Accessibility Is the Cornerstone' — The Minister on an Empowering Internet

Sessions: Keynote by Hon. Kabbyanga Godfrey Baluku, Minister of State for National Guidance, and ministry remarks

"An Internet that fully empowers Ugandans is one that is accessible, inclusive and secure — an Internet that bridges the digital divide so that anyone, regardless of location or background, can harness the benefits of the digital age. Accessibility is the cornerstone of the Internet. We must work tirelessly to provide affordable, reliable Internet access"
— Hon. Kabbyanga Godfrey Baluku (Minister of State for National Guidance) [1]

Senior ICT officer Shirley Gladys Nakyejwe, for the Permanent Secretary, reported ICT contributing over 9% of GDP, 2.3 million jobs and 14.8% average growth in information and communications services, presenting the five-pillar Digital Transformation Roadmap [1]
'Technology is a means to an end, not an end in itself — the true measure of our success will be the positive impact we create in the lives of Ugandans,' she said; the national fibre backbone spanned 1,466 sites over 4,296 km with public Wi-Fi in major cities [1]

2. AI and the Creative Economy — 'We Have Stories That Have Never Been Tapped'

Sessions: Session on AI and the creative economy with an MP, an advocate, a writer, musicians, a film director and a Pollicy researcher, moderated by NBS TV's Canary Mugume

"The rest of the world is saturated with their stories. But we as Africans have something new to offer, and that's where the content we can generate using AI comes in. We have infinite possibilities. We have stories that have never been tapped… If we can use AI to harness all of these stories and create productions, we will be able to catch up with the rest of the world by leveraging that intellectual property and selling it or licensing it"
— Loukman Ali (cinematographer and film director) [1]

"When it comes to using AI in creativity, it's a very symbiotic relationship… AI cannot generate material on its own, so it uses things that creatives have already made and gives you options that spark your imagination. I've been using ChatGPT with programs like Midjourney and VideoLeap to enhance my creativity, but also to make data-driven decisions about where to find funds"
— GNL Zamba (musician and CEO of Baboon Forest Entertainment) [1]

AI was seen to boost creativity and efficiency while threatening job security and authenticity; the record calls on government to foster AI models tailored to local languages, counter illegal AI use, bias and data-sourcing problems, and adopt policy frameworks protecting creative industries [1]
MP Racheal Magoola — herself a famous singer — testified to the copyright enforcement gap: creative works are easily accessible, yet without proper monitoring of radio and TV stations, creators 'cannot really earn what we could have earned' [1]

3. The High-Level Panel — AI Regulation, Jobs and the Divide

Sessions: High-level panel with Enabel, Uganda Christian University, NITA-U, the ICT ministry and ISOC Africa, moderated by ISOC Uganda president Joshua Mpairwe

The panel agreed AI has both positive and negative effects and needs regulation for the safety of individuals and countries; government said it was studying AI and had measures under way so Uganda is not left behind, with academia offering to draft supporting policy ideas [1]
With job automation creating employment gaps, harmonising human work with AI was set as a task, and awareness so people see technology as opportunity rather than threat was framed as the precondition for bridging the divide [1]
Enabel's Tom Vanneste called AI 'a co-pilot ready to move with you' and lamented that schools are becoming 'computer museums', hurting the quality of ICT education [1]

4. Digital Rights for Women and Girls — A Project Launch and the Hub Session

Sessions: Project launch and session on innovation hubs with WOUGNET, Hive Colab, Enabel and the Uganda Police, moderated by Enabel's Moses Owiny

Enabel's country representative and the ministry formally launched the Digital Rights for Girls and Women project, while Pollicy unveiled its 'Where is my Data' card game for learning about online risks [1]
The hub session urged tackling structural and social barriers, designing digital spaces safe for women and girls, and building legal-literacy capacity — much online crime persists because victims do not know their legal options; 'digital rights are human rights in the digital realm', with freedom of expression to be upheld [1]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What did the meeting decide?

A. Two concrete launches: the Digital Rights for Girls and Women project (Enabel and the ministry) and a data-risk education card game — plus recorded demands for locally tailored AI models and policy frameworks protecting creative industries.

Q. The most interesting session?

A. AI and the creative economy: a film director pitched harnessing Africa's untapped stories with AI and licensing them to the world, while an MP who is also a famous singer testified to lost royalties from unmonitored broadcasters — ambition and plumbing in one panel.

Q. Why should I care?

A. It is an early national dialogue treating generative AI from the creator's seat — a musician's ChatGPT-plus-Midjourney workflow, demands for local-language AI — mirroring creator-economy and AI-copyright debates elsewhere.

What Is Uganda IGF? (for first-time readers)

Uganda IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2023 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.