This archive report was first published on 5 July 2020.
As we navigate the new normal of the Covid-19 pandemic, it's becoming increasingly clear that our pre-pandemic ways of doing things were not as efficient as we thought.
Take the traffic jams in Kampala, for example. Since cars were allowed back on the road, the traffic has worsened, and the dusk-to-dawn curfew has reduced the time motorists have to drive.
With the curfew in place, motorists now have only half the time to drive than they had before, and the roads are chocked with impatient drivers in the late afternoon.
This has led to a significant underutilization of our expensive infrastructure, with roads lying idle for half the time.
But the Covid-19 lockdown has also brought to light other inefficiencies in our systems, including the way we work.
With many public servants working from home, it's become clear that we don't need to be physically present in the office to be productive.
Take the example of Uganda's National Social Security Fund, which has been operating at full capacity with its staff working from home.
Ageing claimants have been paid, new members have been recruited into NSSF numbers, and the fund has been growing as if there was no Covid-19.
So, must all workers leave home to 'go to work'? Can't they just get up, work, and clock out and go to bed?
Imagine how decongested our roads would be if half the workers didn't have to go to the office.
And it's not just about the roads – it's also about the air quality and our overall health.
With the curfew in place, we have a unique opportunity to rethink the way we use our infrastructure and work systems.
For example, we could allocate road lanes to different modes of locomotion, such as daytime for cars and nighttime for buses, or vice versa.
Or we could divide the day between fuel combustion and electric vehicles, with electric vehicles allowed to move both day and night while fuel cars are limited to day.
And then there's the issue of schools, which are a critical sector that touches everyone.
Already, expert studies have found that too many years are allocated to the school system, and there are four months of vacation every year.
So, why not make the existing number of schools operate in two shifts, with children spending half the day at school?
This would not only allow for social distancing but also remove meals from the school arrangement, with the morning session leaving school before lunch and the afternoon group coming after lunch.
After Covid-19 is tamed, we could use the same facilities to enrol more numbers in double session rather than building more classrooms.
