ISF Connection Quarterly

For the ISF community and friends, all roads led to Boston College on December 15, 2018. The Information Technology and Good Governance in Africa: Communication & Networking Beyond Social Media event took place that day. The conference was attended by a full house, over 80 members of the Boston Community. The honored guest and keynote speaker was the Lord Mayor of the City of Kampala, Mr. Erias Lukwago who was also the main speaker. The Intercontinental Science Foundation Inc. (ISF) and the Lonergan Institute at Boston College jointly sponsored the annual conference. Herbert Kibuuka, director of the Intercontinental Science Foundation, welcomed the attendees and gave the opening remarks.

The conference covered an overview of information and communications technology interact with governance in Africa. The presenters took a critical look at how Africans can best network and communicate with and beyond social media. The following are the spectrum of featured topics and the respective presenters:
· The Rule of Law in Context of Reconciliation, by Prof. Aloysius Lugira
· Communication & Networking as tools for Governance, by Dr. David Nnyanzi
· Good Governance and Democracy, by Dr. Michael Kisembo.
· Grassroots Action:  Challenges & Opportunities, by Ms. Damali O Sserabira.
· Managing Social Media: News vs Fake News, by Mr. Mathias O Ssekanjako
· IT and Decision Making, by Dr. Festo Lugolobi
· Africans in Boston, by Mr. Voury Ignegongba
· The Role of the Diaspora in the Social Economic Transformation of the City of Kampala  Mr. Erias Lukwago Lord Mayor

Conference Highlights:

a) History of Uganda’s Political Independence. The key players in Uganda’s Leadership history and the outline of the still open wounds caused to the Rule of Law in Uganda
b) Good Governance and the major characteristics of Good Governance
c) Difficulty in communication and interpreting the message in todays society
d) Impact on International donations – Encourage training societies to understand productivity
e) Managing Social Media: News vs Fake News
f) Developing a “GPS”- Developing countries need to invest in an information system to begin to collect data that gives them knowledge
A group of current and former international African students and faculty who have graduated from various universities in the United States, and more especially Boston College founded the Intercontinental Science Foundation Inc. in 2008. ISF is a nonprofit organization based in Massachusetts that “seeks to better communities both locally and internationally through knowledge application”.  They “enable participants to initiate, develop, incubate, and eventually use and share original ideas in all fields of learning.”
The conference had all the major ingredients on said subject matter, expertise, business networking, and a story fresh from the Mayor of Kampala and his political viewpoint. It was a great success, a highly recommendable event for all Africans in the diaspora.