UbuntuNet Alliance is the RREN for Eastern and Western Africa. Its 16 member NRENs are in very different stages of development - some operating on par with European NRENs, while others are still very much in an embryonic state. I will be talking a bit about the political and regulatory environment in Eastern Africa, some cultural differences, but will mainly focus on some of the technical solutions we have come up to address some of the issues faced in our region: lack of infrastructure and capacity in institutions favouring centralised approaches; limited bandwidth preventing the rollout of eduroam; diverse user directories solutions demanding creative solutions.