The 15th Uganda Internet Governance Forum (UIGF 2025) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

The 15th Uganda IGF ran 28-30 April 2025 in Kampala — the national edition of the global IGF's Oslo theme, 'Building Digital Governance Together', with the main forum on 30 April.
The official programme featured a keynote by ICT Minister Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, a main session spanning the prosecution service, NITA-U, the Makerere AI Lab and research network RENU, panels on education and technology (with vocational colleges and refugee-support groups) and on platform workers' rights, plus an invitation-only parliamentary session.
Putting AI, data governance and digital inclusion before MPs in a dedicated session marked the year's signature: at its 15th edition, the dialogue running since 2006 formally drew in the legislature.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on The 15th Uganda Internet Governance Forum (UIGF 2025) 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 15th Uganda Internet Governance Forum (UIGF 2025)
Edition	15th edition
Dates	28-30 April 2025
Venue	Kampala, Uganda (main forum on 30 April per the official past-events list)
Theme	Building Uganda's Digital Governance Together
Keynote	Keynote by Hon. Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, Minister of ICT and National Guidance (per the official programme)
Host	The UIGF (convenor Lillian Nalwoga), sponsored by CIPESA, Enabel, the Internet Society Foundation, CADE, the EU, Pollicy, IGFSA and the ISOC Uganda Chapter

(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. The 15th Edition's Design — From Prosecutors to the AI Lab

Sessions: The official programme's opening ceremony and main session

The opening billed ICT Minister Chris Baryomunsi for the keynote, while the main session assembled a DPP commissioner, NITA-U's Julian Rweju, Makerere AI Lab's Dr. Joyce Nakatumba-Nabende and RENU's Ben Kyemba — law enforcement, government, AI research and network infrastructure in one frame [2]
An education-and-technology panel drew vocational colleges, a teacher-training college and refugee-youth group YARID, while a platform-workers'-rights session seated Barefoot Law and worker representatives [2]

2. Drawing In Parliament — The Invitation-Only MPs' Session

Sessions: The parliamentary session (invitation-only, per the official programme)

The programme carved out an invitation-only parliamentary session on AI, data governance and digital inclusion, bringing lawmakers together with civil society, regulators and the private sector — reported as the launch of Uganda's first Parliamentary Internet Governance Forum [2][1]
It parallels Rwanda's 2025 launch of a parliamentarian IGF track — part of a regional turn toward institutionally embedding legislatures in national IGFs [2][1]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What did the meeting decide?

A. Nothing binding — the 15th annual round. Its signature was a dedicated session for MPs on AI, data governance and inclusion, and it debated the Oslo global-IGF theme domestically two months ahead.

Q. Did it actually happen?

A. Yes. Though catalogued from advance listings, the official UIGF past-events page records it post hoc as the 15th edition, and the detailed programme — ministerial keynote, sessions, speakers — is public.

Q. Why should I care?

A. Platform workers' rights as a formal national-IGF session is novel, echoing gig-economy debates everywhere, and folding parliament into the IGF offers a comparator for legislative engagement with Internet governance.

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 2025 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.