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Access to Information is not only a constitutional right according to Article 41 of the 1995 Uganda Constitution but it is also recognized by article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; articles 13(1) and 17 of the Declaration on the rights of the Child; article 15 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people; and the United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 59(1).

For the local governments, such training is extremely imperative since it provided a unique learning opportunity for officials to understand the access to information law and enhance their obligations to provide information as stipulated in the Act.

Similarly, the Ugandan government has taken significant steps to promote the right of access to information like the establishment ICT and National Guidance Ministry, Communication strategy for effective, well-coordinated and proactive communication system, provision of airtime on Radio stations in every district across the country to sensitize the public on service delivery and development issues, formation of Government Citizens Interaction Centre (GCIC) to improve the monitoring of service delivery and provide a channel for feedback and suggestions from Citizens.

Despite all these initiatives, access to vital information by citizens remains a big challenge, including non-compliance by government officials, wide exemptions to accessible information, ignorance of the law and its relevance, bureaucracy, tedious complaints mechanism and limited scope of bodies appreciative to give information.

During the group discussion sessions of day one, the Chief administrative officers (CAOs) and the District information officers (DIOs) discussed challenges they face in regards to the access to information Act (ATIA) which includes among others language barrier, misinterpretation of information, and access to information and lack of essential logistics for the local government administration in relation to access of information.

Batuli Yafesi, the District Information Officer for Buyende added that Ignorance about the law, poor records keeping by most local government departments, too much responsibilities and fear among government employees to disclose information in general is a significant challenge towards the effectiveness of the law. In addition, the oath of confidentiality and poor coordination to information sharing in the various departments of the government complicates and create delay in giving out information leading to under-utilization of the information officers as well as lack of accountability and transparency within the local government.

Furthermore the participants also came up with solutions to rectify the above challenges which includes seeking and understanding information, training district information officers (DIOs) and CAOs, clear description of responsibility and proper coordination on how to store information both in softcopies (online) and hard copies (offline) using the social media and sharing information as top managers through creation of WhatsApp groups and group emailing platforms within the local government administrative units.

Generally, the officials who participated in the training workshop got a wider understanding of the Access to Information Act (ATIA) 2005, regulations 2011 on the Knowledge, Application and Usage and identified of common challenges and major barriers in the implementation of the law as well to develop practical solutions to overcome the above challenges.