Attachments
Executive Summary
Uganda has embarked on a pioneering initiative within the World Health Organization African Region (WHO AFRO) by piloting the Global guidance framework for the responsible use of life sciences, aimed at mitigating biorisks and governing dual-use research. Coordinated by the Uganda Office of the Prime Minister in collaboration with the World Health Organization this project signifies Uganda's commitment to enhancing national and regional biosecurity.
Since October 2023, Uganda has undertaken significant actions to pilot the framework, including national stakeholder engagement workshops. Notably, a situation analysis was conducted to document the current status at the time in biosafety, biosecurity and dual-use research governance in October 2023. A national stakeholders’ workshop was then held from 21 to 23 November 2023 gathering over 80 stakeholders from diverse sectors. The stakeholders were sensitized on the framework, they appreciated the need to adopt the framework and collaboratively developed a draft roadmap for domesticating and operationalizing the framework in the country. Subsequently, during a technical stakeholders' workshop held from 6 to 7 March 2024, the draft roadmap was further refined for effective operationalization.
The high-level stakeholders' sensitization meeting held on 15 March 2024 marked a milestone in Uganda's dedication to the framework. Led by Monica Musenero, Minister of Science,
Technology, and Innovation, and attended by over 50 high-level stakeholders, the meeting aimed to advocate for national buy-in and support for the framework's implementation.
The meeting started with several presentations to provide context to the meeting, including an overview of Uganda’s biosafety, biosecurity, and dual-use research governance capacity, the rationale for adopting the framework, and an introduction to the pilot project and an overview of the framework. The roadmap from the previous stakeholder engagements was also presented at this meeting. Vibrant discussions followed each presentation, leading to concrete ways forward.
As a meeting outcome, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation made a very strong commitment by taking the overall lead to advance the domestication and operationalization of the framework in Uganda and assigned the government chief scientist in collaboration with Uganda National Council of Science and Technology (UNCST) to ensure the technical lead in the process of domesticating and operationalizing the framework in Uganda under the general coordination of the office of the Prime Minister.
Key next steps agreed upon at the meeting included; sensitizing relevant ministries to adopt the ministerial statement and commitment, and start discussing the mobilization of domestic funding, a harmonizing meeting on project implementation with UNCST, specifying roles and responsibilities in the final roadmap, continued engagement with other stakeholders, and documentation of Uganda’s experience.
In summary, Uganda is proactively advancing responsible life sciences use, effective governance of dual-use research, and global health advancement through concrete actions outlined by the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation. This initiative reflects Uganda's commitment to biosecurity and sustainable development.