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Advances In SDI Development In Africa
Dozie Ezigbalike
Senior Geographic Information Systems Office
Development Information Services Division (DISD)
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Abstract
This paper will discuss efforts towards developing spatial data infrastructures at the national level in Africa. The presentation will highlight the activities of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and in particular, of its Committee on Development Information (CODI). The activities of ECA in this area have been in collaboration with several partners. The presentation will discuss the benefits to the region of working in such partnership. The presentation will conclude by focusing on an SDI implementation guide being developed by ECA and its major partners.
Introduction
The diversity of African countries seems to be reflected in the advances made towards developing spatial data infrastructures. The countries are at various stages. Most of the developments have been in response to identified needs for information, but the majority have been in response to the needs of managing the environment.
The paper first looks at the developments of data sharing and management systems resulting from the EIS activities. Then the experiences of countries that have started the initiative to improve land information management are exemplified. The paper highlights efforts at continental coordination, the work of ECA and CODI-Geo.
Prelude to Spatial Data Infrastructures in Africa
Efforts to manage spatial information for the benefit of the wider community of users have been going on before the concept of SDI was formally introduced or adopted at the national levels, especially in the surveying and mapping and environmental management communities. Governments have long recognized the need for relevant spatial data in order to manage land resources. This recognition grew out of the land information management programmes of the 1980s. Those programmes were seen as extensions of the mandates of cadastral offices, which were usually associated with national mapping agencies or ministries/departments of land affairs. By the time the multipurpose cadastre concept evolved from land information systems, African governments were still grappling with implementing computerized land information systems. However, they embraced the MPC concept and started thinking of multi-user information resources. Great effort was applied to determining “user needs” in order to be more responsive to them. The Internet was not yet invented. So dissemination was conceived in the form data dumps being sent to user departments on portable storage media, such as magnetic tapes. No operational system was ever completed, especially given the poor access to computer resources in Africa, which only improved in the late 90s.
Towards Cross-Institutional National Coordination
The environmental management community has long recognised the role of compatible information resources for their work. In Africa, a program of Environmental Information Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (EIS-SSA) was established to support a “continent wide series of National Environmental Action Plans (NEAPs)” which started in the late 1980s to early 1990s in response to the challenges of striking a balance between economic development and sustainable:
The aim was to help Sub-Saharan Africa countries create operational Environmental Information Systems which meet priority demands of resources users, planners, and decision makers for a better renewable resources management (Bassolé 2000 qtd in ECA 2001).
The original context of the EIS programme focussed mainly on using GIS technology to provide adequate data for the NEAPs. However, early experience in implementing them brought out the importance of “establishing An appropriate institutional framework to facilitate the generation of environmental data sets.” The strategic orientation document of EIS-Africa therefore defines EIS as:
… a coordination of actions aiming at allowing for a spread use of environmental information in decision making in the framework of sustainable development. It entails an institutional framework, a network of spatial data management facilities, and data/information policies for making environmental data and information accessible and easily used by individuals and decision/policy makers for national, sub-regional, continental or global needs (Bassolé 2000). The procedure adopted by the EIS programme included seeking out and harmonising available data sets and developing capacity to use them in environmental decision-making. It also included developing partnerships with organisations having similar objectives.
Even though the term SDI was not used, the programme applied SDI principles and attempted to provide a broad range of spatial data services, not just to the environment community, but also to other potential users of the products and services. The EIS programme became a precursor to formal SDI initiatives, like the National Framework for Geo-Spatial Information Management (NAFGIM).
From EIS to SDI – NAFGIM
The National Environment Action Plan of Ghana was to be implemented by the Ghana Environmental Resource Management Project (GERMP). It soon became evident, as was the case in several African countries, that adequate data products were not available in digital form for the project. It therefore led to the development of the Environmental Information System Development project (EISD). This became a major initiative and it was realised at the onset that some of the data sets needed already exists, and that what is needed is to strengthen the institutions involved in the collection, processing and analysis of the required land-related information. The Government of Ghana, World Bank and the Danish International Development Agency funded the project, which developed capacity in the application of GIS and related technologies to the management of land-related information in five institutions namely, Remote sensing Applications Unit, University of Ghana Legon, Survey Department, Lands Commission, Soil Research Institute, and the Meteorological Services Department.
As the project proceeded, the participating institutions discussed the establishment of formal mechanisms to coordinate the production and harmonisation of their spatial data products. The result was the establishment of NAFGIM. In order to ensure the compatibility of the data sets, the work of NAFGIM includes standardisation, and to enhance the exchange and sharing of data, the need for metadata was also emphasised and included in their work.
The implementation of NAFGIM started in April 2000 with secretariat at the Environment Protection Agency. The Secretariat comprises a secretary, technical staff and a Coordinator. A Steering Committee constitutes the policy-making body, while an Inter-Agency Forum provides professional watchdog functions. NAFGIM works through technical workgroups that deal with broad thematic areas. The implementation approach envisages sensitization of the institutions, consensus building, capacity development and operationalization.
NAFGIM has evolved to become the de facto SDI of Ghana with objectives to co-ordinate the development of the necessary conditions for:
ECA, CODI and CODI-Geo
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) is the regional arm of the UN Secretariat in Africa with mandate to undertake activities to develop the social and economic sectors in Africa. These activities are divided into programmatic areas, with several legislative and subsidiary organs overseeing and advising on them. The highest legislative body is the Conference of African Ministers responsible for Economic and Social Development and Planning, referred to as the Commission. The subsidiary bodies included the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Africa (UNRCCA). The UNRCCA was established pursuant to a resolution of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, which recommends that regional commissions could consider the establishment of cartographic committees if they deem it desirable. It provided a forum for the exchange of experience, transfer of technology and review of the development trends of national cartographic institutions. The majority of elements in the program of work of ECA in the field of cartography and remote sensing emanated from the conferences. Despite the accepted importance of these meetings, attendance was dwindling, and by the fifth session in1983, questions were raised about the future of the meetings, but it was decided to continue, nevertheless.
Similar conferences advised ECA on other programmatic areas and by 1979, there were 32 such legislative and subsidiary bodies. Eventually, a reform process was initiated to re-focus the activities of ECA, avoid duplication and overlap in the legislative bodies, and promote greater efficiency and effectiveness. The revision of the intergovernmental machinery began in 1993 and the renewal process of ECA to serve Africa better started in 1995. These reforms resulted in five programmes, one of which is “harnessing information for development.”
The main objective of the harnessing information sub-programme is to assist African member States in developing information and communication infrastructure plans as key to expediting and enhancing data sharing and electronic connectivity in Africa; and to support member States’ efforts in improving the quality of statistics through technical assistance in areas of collection, processing, analysis and standardization of methods and concepts. The cartographic and other related activities fell under this sub-programme. The associated legislative body for this sub-programme is the Committee on Development Information (CODI), which combined the regional conferences that dealt with cartography, statistics, population issues and information technology.
The activities and issues involved in the production, management and dissemination of development information are very diverse and CODI has grouped them into three discipline areas, with three corresponding sub committees. These are the subcommittees for Information and Communications Technologies, Statistics and Geoinformation (CODI-Geo). CODI-Geo subsumes the activities of the old UNRCCA, but with emphasis on the information society. It therefore treats mapping and related activities data collection and processing activities in the overall information management continuum.
The original terms of reference of CODI include provisions to: • Review and advise on the implementation of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI): An action framework for national information and communication infrastructure with a view to suggesting measures to accelerate its implementation; • … • Identify and suggest techniques for the application of geographic information for natural resource exploitation and management; • … • Advise on the establishment of arrangements for the improvement of all aspects of methodology and practice in the areas of statistics, information science and geographic information system (remote sensing and cartography); and • Coordinate the training for African personnel in the areas of statistics, information science and geographic information systems.
Each sub-committee provided more specific terms of reference for its work, and those for CODI-Geo provided for coordinating activities and developing capacities for national and regional spatial data infrastructures. In 2000, ECA convened an experts’ group meeting to propose the future orientation of geoinformation activities in Africa, in light of the new paradigm of positioning our cartographic activities in the context of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), being the main initiative through which the sub-programme is being implemented. The group of experts recommended that all activities for the production, processing, management, dissemination and utilisation of geoinformation in Africa should be designed around the SDI concept. This recommendation was endorsed by CODI II in 2001 and became the basis for ECA work on geoinformation.
Specific Activities of ECA
The position paper noted that one of the problems with developing SDIs in Africa was the lack of awareness by decision makers. ECA has therefore been assisting member states in organising awareness and stakeholder workshops. ECA assisted the Survey of Kenya with planning and facilitating the first workshop in 2001. It also assisted with the planning and facilitation of the two Ethiopian workshops. ECA was involved in the review of the NRM/NGIS proposal for Nigeria and supporting the recommendation to reformulate the project and move towards an NSDI, and eventually advised on the programme of the workshop and participated as facilitator. It was also involved in the Botswana workshop.
The position paper noted the importance of metadata and clearinghouse services in implementing SDIs, and the poor level of overall ICT infrastructure in Africa. In response to that, ECA is implementing a clearinghouse system at ECA. The main objectives of the metadata and clearinghouse project are to: • Facilitate the integration of geoinformation into ECA’s policy analysis by providing easy and transparent access to geoinformation tools, techniques and data products; • Facilitate the search and discovery of spatial data collections in and about Africa for use by all decision makers working on issues related to Africa; • Facilitate the dissemination of spatially related knowledge and information products by ECA in appropriate formats.
Specific services for member States are to: • Provide “country spaces” on ECA’s server for countries that do not have the capability to serve their metadata collections. ECA will provide general system maintenance, but the country will own and administer their metadata as a separate database. In cases where it is not possible for the country to log in remotely to update the records in the database, arrangements will be made for updates to be sent to ECA on removable to be applied by ECA. The Ethiopian Natural Resources and Environmental Metadatabase (ENRAEMED) is being maintained as a “country space” on our server. • Provide advice on metadata tools and techniques and assist in organizing training and awareness workshops at regional, sub-regional and national (on request) levels. The first of a series of sub-regional workshops is planned for June 2004 in Yaoundé for countries in the Central African sub-region.
Where is the Permanent Committee?
The 1999 workshop in Pretoria, South Africa, recommended the need for a permanent committee to coordinate SDI activities in Africa, and noted the role of CODI in establishing such a committee. A request was duly made to CODI II in 2001 and a resolution was passed, urging the Secretariat (the Development Information Services Division [DISD] of ECA) to initiate action to establish the permanent committee. In accordance with this resolution, a pre-CODI.3 symposium was convened to adopt the charter for the permanent committee and eventually have it endorsed by CODI.3. The draft charter drawn by the secretariat was adapted from equivalent committees for Latin America, and for Asia and the Pacific.
After reviewing the proposed draft statutes and terms of reference for the committee, it was observed that establishing such a committee would not add any value to the current situation. Moreover, there is no structure for it. It should be recalled that there is no longer a UN Regional Cartographic Conference, since it has been replaced by CODI-Geo – with a new focus. An examination of the terms of reference of CODI-Geo, vis-à-vis the proposed body, found that most of the proposed activities of the body are already included in CODI-Geo’s terms of reference. It was therefore recommended that rather than form yet another body, with additional overheads, the terms of reference of CODI-Geo should be revised and strengthened if need be, to strengthen the SDI coordination and other related activities. The revised TOR for CODI-Geo was approved by CODI.3, including the establishment of an Executive Working Group to provide feedback and oversight in between the biannual CODI meetings.
The SDI Implementation Guide
From the work with member States on raising awareness, and associated advisory services, a need was identified for how-to guide, with best practice lessons. In response to the identified need, an experts’ group meeting was convened to review the status of SDI development in Africa and propose the way forward. During the preparatory consultations for the workshop, it was agreed that it will be more useful to African decision makers, and others involved in all aspects of developing SDIs, and using associated products, will be better served by a targeted guide than a “report”. Other partners working to develop geoinformation and SDI development in Africa indicated interest in collaborating with ECA in producing the guide. The objective of the expert group meeting was therefore re-formulated to emphasise reviewing the first draft of the guide provided by various background/chapter writers. The instruction to the authors and reviewers described the expected output as:
A document, in the form of guidelines on concrete steps to implement SDIs in Africa. The document will be targeted to all those that have a key role to play in promoting, adopting, developing or implementing spatial information infrastructure in their home countries. These include administrators and managers of topographic and resource mapping departments and agencies, legislators and policy-makers, and major users of geo-information products
The partners that participated in producing the document are: • GSDI, who had produced SDI Cookbook and has been supporting projects in Africa; • EIS Africa – has been working on EIS since the 90s; • USGS – has been facilitating SDI projects in Africa; • ITC Netherlands – has long standing experience in capacity building in Africa and has been organising a series of refresher courses for ITC alumni in different parts of Africa; • Regional Centres and organisations involved in geoinformation and SDI issues, especially the Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS), the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) and the African Organisation for Cartography and Remote Sensing; and • Several practitioners at national level in Africa.
It was also agreed that the guide will be a “living document”. The idea of the living document is that SDI concepts are still evolving and by the time a book or printed report is ready, some of the intended contents could develop further. It was therefore decided that the current version of the guide would be continuously maintained on the Internet, with stable snapshots produced on portable media (print or CD-ROM) when the need arises.
The principal authors are:
• Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Gavin (South Africa), Executive Director, EIS Africa; • André Bassolé (Burkina Faso), Chairman of the Board of Directors, EIS Africa; • Kate Lance (USA), Senior Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey/EROS Data Center and Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Secretariat; • Dr. Yola Georgiadou (the Netherlands), Department of Planning and Geoinformation Management, ITC; • Garfield A. Giff (Jamaica/Canada), PhD Candidate, Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. The outline of the chapters of the guide is:
Two other chapters – Communicating SDI and Reaching Out to Global and Regional SDI Communities – are still pending.
Conclusion
Spatial data infrastructures are being developed in Africa, with different countries being at different stages. The work of ECA and its partners tries to ensure that all countries have the same understanding of the key SDI context. During the work of ECA in assisting member states with awareness and/or stakeholder workshops, the need for a guide was identified. An SDI implementation guide has been produced, with collaborative input from several partners, while another group of partners reviewed the draft document and produced. Being a “living document” the authentic version will be on the Internet.
References and Notes
Most of the materials in this paper are drawn from SDI Africa: An Implementation Guide, and supporting materials, all available at http://www.uneca.org/disd/geoinfo/SDIAfrica.
Advances In SDI Development In Africa
Dozie Ezigbalike
Senior Geographic Information Systems Office
Development Information Services Division (DISD)
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Abstract
This paper will discuss efforts towards developing spatial data infrastructures at the national level in Africa. The presentation will highlight the activities of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and in particular, of its Committee on Development Information (CODI). The activities of ECA in this area have been in collaboration with several partners. The presentation will discuss the benefits to the region of working in such partnership. The presentation will conclude by focusing on an SDI implementation guide being developed by ECA and its major partners.
Introduction
The diversity of African countries seems to be reflected in the advances made towards developing spatial data infrastructures. The countries are at various stages. Most of the developments have been in response to identified needs for information, but the majority have been in response to the needs of managing the environment.
The paper first looks at the developments of data sharing and management systems resulting from the EIS activities. Then the experiences of countries that have started the initiative to improve land information management are exemplified. The paper highlights efforts at continental coordination, the work of ECA and CODI-Geo.
Prelude to Spatial Data Infrastructures in Africa
Efforts to manage spatial information for the benefit of the wider community of users have been going on before the concept of SDI was formally introduced or adopted at the national levels, especially in the surveying and mapping and environmental management communities. Governments have long recognized the need for relevant spatial data in order to manage land resources. This recognition grew out of the land information management programmes of the 1980s. Those programmes were seen as extensions of the mandates of cadastral offices, which were usually associated with national mapping agencies or ministries/departments of land affairs. By the time the multipurpose cadastre concept evolved from land information systems, African governments were still grappling with implementing computerized land information systems. However, they embraced the MPC concept and started thinking of multi-user information resources. Great effort was applied to determining “user needs” in order to be more responsive to them. The Internet was not yet invented. So dissemination was conceived in the form data dumps being sent to user departments on portable storage media, such as magnetic tapes. No operational system was ever completed, especially given the poor access to computer resources in Africa, which only improved in the late 90s.
Towards Cross-Institutional National Coordination
The environmental management community has long recognised the role of compatible information resources for their work. In Africa, a program of Environmental Information Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (EIS-SSA) was established to support a “continent wide series of National Environmental Action Plans (NEAPs)” which started in the late 1980s to early 1990s in response to the challenges of striking a balance between economic development and sustainable:
The aim was to help Sub-Saharan Africa countries create operational Environmental Information Systems which meet priority demands of resources users, planners, and decision makers for a better renewable resources management (Bassolé 2000 qtd in ECA 2001).
The original context of the EIS programme focussed mainly on using GIS technology to provide adequate data for the NEAPs. However, early experience in implementing them brought out the importance of “establishing An appropriate institutional framework to facilitate the generation of environmental data sets.” The strategic orientation document of EIS-Africa therefore defines EIS as:
… a coordination of actions aiming at allowing for a spread use of environmental information in decision making in the framework of sustainable development. It entails an institutional framework, a network of spatial data management facilities, and data/information policies for making environmental data and information accessible and easily used by individuals and decision/policy makers for national, sub-regional, continental or global needs (Bassolé 2000). The procedure adopted by the EIS programme included seeking out and harmonising available data sets and developing capacity to use them in environmental decision-making. It also included developing partnerships with organisations having similar objectives.
Even though the term SDI was not used, the programme applied SDI principles and attempted to provide a broad range of spatial data services, not just to the environment community, but also to other potential users of the products and services. The EIS programme became a precursor to formal SDI initiatives, like the National Framework for Geo-Spatial Information Management (NAFGIM).
From EIS to SDI – NAFGIM
The National Environment Action Plan of Ghana was to be implemented by the Ghana Environmental Resource Management Project (GERMP). It soon became evident, as was the case in several African countries, that adequate data products were not available in digital form for the project. It therefore led to the development of the Environmental Information System Development project (EISD). This became a major initiative and it was realised at the onset that some of the data sets needed already exists, and that what is needed is to strengthen the institutions involved in the collection, processing and analysis of the required land-related information. The Government of Ghana, World Bank and the Danish International Development Agency funded the project, which developed capacity in the application of GIS and related technologies to the management of land-related information in five institutions namely, Remote sensing Applications Unit, University of Ghana Legon, Survey Department, Lands Commission, Soil Research Institute, and the Meteorological Services Department.
As the project proceeded, the participating institutions discussed the establishment of formal mechanisms to coordinate the production and harmonisation of their spatial data products. The result was the establishment of NAFGIM. In order to ensure the compatibility of the data sets, the work of NAFGIM includes standardisation, and to enhance the exchange and sharing of data, the need for metadata was also emphasised and included in their work.
The implementation of NAFGIM started in April 2000 with secretariat at the Environment Protection Agency. The Secretariat comprises a secretary, technical staff and a Coordinator. A Steering Committee constitutes the policy-making body, while an Inter-Agency Forum provides professional watchdog functions. NAFGIM works through technical workgroups that deal with broad thematic areas. The implementation approach envisages sensitization of the institutions, consensus building, capacity development and operationalization.
NAFGIM has evolved to become the de facto SDI of Ghana with objectives to co-ordinate the development of the necessary conditions for:
- The electronic networking of the spatial data and information producing and using organisations in Ghana and elsewhere.
- The avoidance of duplication in the production of spatial information and the assurance of increased value and quality of the information that is available to government and the development community.
- Increased sharing and exchange of data and information.
- Easy discovery, access and the wider use and re-use of spatial information through the development of:
- standardised description of data and information
- common policy for data and information access and use
- framework data and information comprising themes that are continually needed and used by managers for the integration of their own data.
- 37 governmental institutions including EPA, ministries, universities, Army, etc.
- 10 Commissions including Land, Energy, Electoral, Minerals, etc.)
- Six association and private companies.
- Zambia. Environment Information Network and Monitoring System (EINMS) was established in 1997 with a mandate to establish (five) environmental information systems based on the environmental and natural resource management needs. EINMS was also mandated to develop a “ forum” to reach agreements on mechanisms for sharing information among data centres and users, fostering consensus among stakeholders, and facilitating data and environmental information exchange. The forum was eventually established in 2000 with the stated objectives:
- To support decision making processes for sustainable environmental management at community, national, regional and global scales, by acquiring, collating, analyzing, storing and disseminating information and data.
- To promote easy access by users to environmental information and data irrespective of where it is actually stored, regardless of the format used.
- To facilitate and support networking between environmental and among institutions and individual members.
- Burkina Faso. Programme National de Gestion de L’information sur le Milieu (PNGIM). [National Program on Environmental Information Management]. The mandates of PNGIM are:
- To set up an efficient system allowing easy access to environmental information ;
- To improve the relevance, quality and availability of environmental information;
- To contribute to the strengthening of national institutions’ operational capacity to collect, process, and disseminate information
- To serve as a platform for consultation on cartographic and thematic standards, spatial and non spatial databases;
- To strengthen and promote the integration of GIS and new information and communication technologies into environmental management
- To facilitate full involvement of Burkina Faso in all international initiatives concerned with data collection and analysis for environmental management purposes;
- To promote the national expertise and capacity building in Environmental information systems ;
- To sensitize the decision makers on the importance of Environmental Information Systems for NRM and environment protection;
- To ensure national NRM-related policies monitoring and evaluation;
- To develop for the decision makers integrated decision support tools applicable for addressing environment-related issues;
- To define guiding principles and policy orientations for a better management of environmental information;
- To ensure quality control on data provided by the members;
- To assess for approval the report and workplan of the PNGIM’s Coordinating Unit;
- To raise funds for financing the activities in the scope of its mandate
- Benin. Système d’Information et de Suivi Environnemental (SISE) [Environmental Information and Monitoring System]. The mandate of SISE was to facilitate accessibility to environmental data and information for strategic planning and appropriate decision making for sustainable development. Its main objectives are:
- To produce (produce, collect, store, transform) basic environmental data
- To develop the legal framework for environmental information management
- To harmonize methodologies and standards of data collection and storage
- To promote the setting up of national data and information network
- To promote national expertise on environmental information production and management
- To develop tradable metadabases and information on regions for Environmental assessment needs, and for Programs and Projects development and management needs
- To develop user needs oriented tradable products
- To elaborate adequate indicators for environmental and social impacts assessment
- To publish specific reports and books on national environment
- To share national information through internet
- To sensitize decision makers and all other data user on the importance of liable data costs and usage
- Environmental Protection Agency (mandated lead Agency)
- National Mapping Institute (IGN)
- Remote Sensing Centre (CENATEL)
- National Institute for Statistics and Economic Analysis (INSAE)
- Meteorological Bureau (ASECNA)
- National Bureau for Mines and Geological Researches
- Laboratories of Climate, Biogeography, soil science (University)
- Benin Centre for Scientific Research and Techniques (CBRST)
- National Oceanographic Committee (CNO)
- National Centre for Natural Reserve Management (CENAGREF)
- National Institute for Agronomic Research
- Central Directorates of Ministries
- Three National NGOs
- One Sub regional NGO (CREPA-Benin)
- Two private organisations ( National Chamber for Trade and Industry, SERHAU-SA).
While several SDI (by whatever name) developed in many countries out of the need for spatial data to manage the environment, others are being implemented with the now emerging consensus of the meaning and components of SDI as the new approach to managing spatially referenced data for the community at large. In South Africa, the National Spatial Information Framework (NSIF) was specifically developed to facilitate data sharing and develop the South African spatial data infrastructure. It was based on the realization that the use of information for land management and decision making should include spatially-referenced information and that there was need to coordinate the various initiatives going on at the time. The NSIF initiative included implementing a spatial data discovery facility (SDDF), spatial data standards to facilitate data interchange, identification of core datasets, and developing appropriate policies on spatial data management and dissemination. It was established in 1997 as a directorate within the Chief Surveyor General’s office and the evolving SDI was also referred to as NSIF. Eventually, the SDI has been renamed to South African Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI) and a Spatial Information Bill has been proposed (in May 2003) to formally establish SASDI and the associated Committee on Spatial Information (CSI). The draft bill sets out the objectives of SASDI as to:- Facilitate the capture of spatial information through co-operation among organs of state;
- Promote effective management and maintenance of spatial information;
- Promote the utilisation and sharing of spatial information in support of spatial planning, socio-economic development and related activities;
- Create an environment which facilitates co-ordination and co-operation among all stakeholders regarding access to spatial information;
- Eliminate duplication in the capturing of spatial information; and
- Promote universal access to such information.
Other countries that are implementing specific SDI initiatives include:- Kenya. As part of its mandates to provide the mapping and land information needs of the country, the Survey of Kenya (SOK) adopted the SDI concept as the mechanism for efficient production, management and dissemination of mapping and land information products. Since the SDI concept is centred on partnerships, it set out to identify the key organizations that should be involved in the national SDI, and to make them aware of the advantages of the SDI approach. An awareness and consensus-building workshop was organised in November 2001. The workshop, which was attended by 55 participants from 30 organizations, agreed on the need for a concerted effort to establish the NSDI and endorsed the lead role of SOK, mandating it to host the secretariat and convene subsequent forums to further develop the SDI. A second workshop was organised in April 2002, which approved a management structure based on a steering committee, and executive committee and working groups, with their respective terms of reference. A third workshop was organised in September 2002, specifically to agree on the use of the results of a proposed Large Scale Framework/Spatial Data Infrastructure (LSF/SDI) Project for the City of Nairobi under the Sponsorship of JICA.
- Nigeria. The Nigerian National Geo-Spatial Data Infrastructure (NGDI) initiative developed from a project proposed by a private company to develop a Nigerian “Integrated Resource Management System/National Geographic Information System (IRM/NAGIS)”. The original proposal, under the auspices of the National Planning Commission, was to develop a central database facility for ALL geographic data, including remote sensing and cartographic products, and for users nationwide to access the facility for all geographic information products and services. With the establishment of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), the mandate for such activities was transferred to NASRDA. NASRDA reviewed the proposal and recommended against continuing with a centralized database facility. Instead an NGDI should be established, following internationally accepted guidelines. A committee was set up to produce a draft National Geoinformation Policy, and organize a stakeholders’ workshop. The workshop reviewed and edited the draft policy document, including proposals for the management committee structure for the NGDI. The revised document, dated September 2003, has since been submitted to government for approval and implementation.
- Botswana. Like the Survey of Kenya, the Botswana Division of Surveys and Mapping saw its mandate for the provision of land information and mapping products and services to include introducing new approaches to managing the information. It had just completed an ambitious project to create a comprehensive national atlas using GIS technology. It was also completing the complete coverage of the country by aerial photography to support new digital cadastral and topographic databases. The Department of Town and Country Planning (DTRP) has several digital databases to support its activities and the District Land Boards maintains computerised land inventories, though they contain only text. It needed to ensure that all these information products are put to maximum use in decision making, and the SDI concept offered the best approach. Together with the Government Computer Bureau, which had commissioned studies on a master plan for a national GIS strategy, the DSM therefore championed the establishment of a steering committee to propose the structure of a management committee for the SDI, and identify the core data products. The national committee, together with its working groups, was inaugurated in February 2003, on the occasion of the launch of the digital version of the national atlas.
- Ethiopia. Again, under the leadership of the Ethiopian Mapping Authority (EMA), an awareness workshop was organised, targeting institutions identified by EMA as key stakeholders. This workshop formally endorsed EMA as lead agency for the NSDI in Ethiopia and charged it to organise subsequent forums to further the initiative. A second workshop was organised as a side event of the third meeting of ECA’s Committee on Development Information (CODI), endorsing an initial management committee with mandate to prepare relevant submissions to the Federal Government to formally constitute the SDI.
Even though each country is developing its own SDI according to its local laws and politics, the need for continental coordination of the activities has always been recognised. The first initiative towards coordinating SDI activities on the continental level was taken in 1999 by the South African NSIF and the World Bank programme on Environmental Information Systems for Sub-Saharan Africa (EIS-SSA), which has seen evolved into EIS Africa. On the occasion of the conference on Earth Data Information Systems (EDIS) in July 1999, EIS and NSIF convened a workshop to:- Establish what Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) initiatives were going on in Africa at that time;
- Examine similarities and differences between them, and establish a framework for the mutual support of those endeavours and ensure their alignment; and
- Develop a position on Africa's participation in global initiatives concerning SDI, especially GSID, the fourth meeting of which was to take place in Cape Town in 2000.
ECA, CODI and CODI-Geo
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) is the regional arm of the UN Secretariat in Africa with mandate to undertake activities to develop the social and economic sectors in Africa. These activities are divided into programmatic areas, with several legislative and subsidiary organs overseeing and advising on them. The highest legislative body is the Conference of African Ministers responsible for Economic and Social Development and Planning, referred to as the Commission. The subsidiary bodies included the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Africa (UNRCCA). The UNRCCA was established pursuant to a resolution of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, which recommends that regional commissions could consider the establishment of cartographic committees if they deem it desirable. It provided a forum for the exchange of experience, transfer of technology and review of the development trends of national cartographic institutions. The majority of elements in the program of work of ECA in the field of cartography and remote sensing emanated from the conferences. Despite the accepted importance of these meetings, attendance was dwindling, and by the fifth session in1983, questions were raised about the future of the meetings, but it was decided to continue, nevertheless.
Similar conferences advised ECA on other programmatic areas and by 1979, there were 32 such legislative and subsidiary bodies. Eventually, a reform process was initiated to re-focus the activities of ECA, avoid duplication and overlap in the legislative bodies, and promote greater efficiency and effectiveness. The revision of the intergovernmental machinery began in 1993 and the renewal process of ECA to serve Africa better started in 1995. These reforms resulted in five programmes, one of which is “harnessing information for development.”
The main objective of the harnessing information sub-programme is to assist African member States in developing information and communication infrastructure plans as key to expediting and enhancing data sharing and electronic connectivity in Africa; and to support member States’ efforts in improving the quality of statistics through technical assistance in areas of collection, processing, analysis and standardization of methods and concepts. The cartographic and other related activities fell under this sub-programme. The associated legislative body for this sub-programme is the Committee on Development Information (CODI), which combined the regional conferences that dealt with cartography, statistics, population issues and information technology.
The activities and issues involved in the production, management and dissemination of development information are very diverse and CODI has grouped them into three discipline areas, with three corresponding sub committees. These are the subcommittees for Information and Communications Technologies, Statistics and Geoinformation (CODI-Geo). CODI-Geo subsumes the activities of the old UNRCCA, but with emphasis on the information society. It therefore treats mapping and related activities data collection and processing activities in the overall information management continuum.
The original terms of reference of CODI include provisions to: • Review and advise on the implementation of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI): An action framework for national information and communication infrastructure with a view to suggesting measures to accelerate its implementation; • … • Identify and suggest techniques for the application of geographic information for natural resource exploitation and management; • … • Advise on the establishment of arrangements for the improvement of all aspects of methodology and practice in the areas of statistics, information science and geographic information system (remote sensing and cartography); and • Coordinate the training for African personnel in the areas of statistics, information science and geographic information systems.
Each sub-committee provided more specific terms of reference for its work, and those for CODI-Geo provided for coordinating activities and developing capacities for national and regional spatial data infrastructures. In 2000, ECA convened an experts’ group meeting to propose the future orientation of geoinformation activities in Africa, in light of the new paradigm of positioning our cartographic activities in the context of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), being the main initiative through which the sub-programme is being implemented. The group of experts recommended that all activities for the production, processing, management, dissemination and utilisation of geoinformation in Africa should be designed around the SDI concept. This recommendation was endorsed by CODI II in 2001 and became the basis for ECA work on geoinformation.
Specific Activities of ECA
The position paper noted that one of the problems with developing SDIs in Africa was the lack of awareness by decision makers. ECA has therefore been assisting member states in organising awareness and stakeholder workshops. ECA assisted the Survey of Kenya with planning and facilitating the first workshop in 2001. It also assisted with the planning and facilitation of the two Ethiopian workshops. ECA was involved in the review of the NRM/NGIS proposal for Nigeria and supporting the recommendation to reformulate the project and move towards an NSDI, and eventually advised on the programme of the workshop and participated as facilitator. It was also involved in the Botswana workshop.
The position paper noted the importance of metadata and clearinghouse services in implementing SDIs, and the poor level of overall ICT infrastructure in Africa. In response to that, ECA is implementing a clearinghouse system at ECA. The main objectives of the metadata and clearinghouse project are to: • Facilitate the integration of geoinformation into ECA’s policy analysis by providing easy and transparent access to geoinformation tools, techniques and data products; • Facilitate the search and discovery of spatial data collections in and about Africa for use by all decision makers working on issues related to Africa; • Facilitate the dissemination of spatially related knowledge and information products by ECA in appropriate formats.
Specific services for member States are to: • Provide “country spaces” on ECA’s server for countries that do not have the capability to serve their metadata collections. ECA will provide general system maintenance, but the country will own and administer their metadata as a separate database. In cases where it is not possible for the country to log in remotely to update the records in the database, arrangements will be made for updates to be sent to ECA on removable to be applied by ECA. The Ethiopian Natural Resources and Environmental Metadatabase (ENRAEMED) is being maintained as a “country space” on our server. • Provide advice on metadata tools and techniques and assist in organizing training and awareness workshops at regional, sub-regional and national (on request) levels. The first of a series of sub-regional workshops is planned for June 2004 in Yaoundé for countries in the Central African sub-region.
Where is the Permanent Committee?
The 1999 workshop in Pretoria, South Africa, recommended the need for a permanent committee to coordinate SDI activities in Africa, and noted the role of CODI in establishing such a committee. A request was duly made to CODI II in 2001 and a resolution was passed, urging the Secretariat (the Development Information Services Division [DISD] of ECA) to initiate action to establish the permanent committee. In accordance with this resolution, a pre-CODI.3 symposium was convened to adopt the charter for the permanent committee and eventually have it endorsed by CODI.3. The draft charter drawn by the secretariat was adapted from equivalent committees for Latin America, and for Asia and the Pacific.
After reviewing the proposed draft statutes and terms of reference for the committee, it was observed that establishing such a committee would not add any value to the current situation. Moreover, there is no structure for it. It should be recalled that there is no longer a UN Regional Cartographic Conference, since it has been replaced by CODI-Geo – with a new focus. An examination of the terms of reference of CODI-Geo, vis-à-vis the proposed body, found that most of the proposed activities of the body are already included in CODI-Geo’s terms of reference. It was therefore recommended that rather than form yet another body, with additional overheads, the terms of reference of CODI-Geo should be revised and strengthened if need be, to strengthen the SDI coordination and other related activities. The revised TOR for CODI-Geo was approved by CODI.3, including the establishment of an Executive Working Group to provide feedback and oversight in between the biannual CODI meetings.
The SDI Implementation Guide
From the work with member States on raising awareness, and associated advisory services, a need was identified for how-to guide, with best practice lessons. In response to the identified need, an experts’ group meeting was convened to review the status of SDI development in Africa and propose the way forward. During the preparatory consultations for the workshop, it was agreed that it will be more useful to African decision makers, and others involved in all aspects of developing SDIs, and using associated products, will be better served by a targeted guide than a “report”. Other partners working to develop geoinformation and SDI development in Africa indicated interest in collaborating with ECA in producing the guide. The objective of the expert group meeting was therefore re-formulated to emphasise reviewing the first draft of the guide provided by various background/chapter writers. The instruction to the authors and reviewers described the expected output as:
A document, in the form of guidelines on concrete steps to implement SDIs in Africa. The document will be targeted to all those that have a key role to play in promoting, adopting, developing or implementing spatial information infrastructure in their home countries. These include administrators and managers of topographic and resource mapping departments and agencies, legislators and policy-makers, and major users of geo-information products
The partners that participated in producing the document are: • GSDI, who had produced SDI Cookbook and has been supporting projects in Africa; • EIS Africa – has been working on EIS since the 90s; • USGS – has been facilitating SDI projects in Africa; • ITC Netherlands – has long standing experience in capacity building in Africa and has been organising a series of refresher courses for ITC alumni in different parts of Africa; • Regional Centres and organisations involved in geoinformation and SDI issues, especially the Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS), the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) and the African Organisation for Cartography and Remote Sensing; and • Several practitioners at national level in Africa.
It was also agreed that the guide will be a “living document”. The idea of the living document is that SDI concepts are still evolving and by the time a book or printed report is ready, some of the intended contents could develop further. It was therefore decided that the current version of the guide would be continuously maintained on the Internet, with stable snapshots produced on portable media (print or CD-ROM) when the need arises.
The principal authors are:
• Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Gavin (South Africa), Executive Director, EIS Africa; • André Bassolé (Burkina Faso), Chairman of the Board of Directors, EIS Africa; • Kate Lance (USA), Senior Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey/EROS Data Center and Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Secretariat; • Dr. Yola Georgiadou (the Netherlands), Department of Planning and Geoinformation Management, ITC; • Garfield A. Giff (Jamaica/Canada), PhD Candidate, Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. The outline of the chapters of the guide is:
- Introduction
- Justification, background and overview
- Explaining SDI concepts
- The need to be able to communicate SDI ideas effectively to people who have not had experience in managing digital geographic information was well understood.
- Explanations and analogies used in communicating about SDI within various countries
- Assessing the status and environment of the geospatial sector in a country
- The identification of spatial data producers and users, their current practices and future requirements, has constituted the first step in many African countries towards establishing an SDI strategy.
- Reference material includes several questionnaires used in conducting surveys on current data usage and data needs
- Organisational framework
- The institutional arrangements and organizational frameworks for SDI, which have been adopted by various African countries, are presented in the chapter.
- Policy
- Examples of how various countries have addressed the issues of data custodianship, data discovery and data maintenance in their policies are provided within this chapter
- Getting started
- Guidance on first implementation steps
- Includes examples of how SDI initiatives began in a variety of African countries, highlighting the first steps taken, early successes and lessons learnt
- These country examples demonstrate a variety in the factors that triggered SDI development
- Funding mechanisms for SDI implementation
- Research-based funding models for SDI
- Emphasise that sustainable financing for SDI is vital for long-term SDI development.
- Several experiences of difficulties with initiating SDI programmes through externally funded projects
Two other chapters – Communicating SDI and Reaching Out to Global and Regional SDI Communities – are still pending.
Conclusion
Spatial data infrastructures are being developed in Africa, with different countries being at different stages. The work of ECA and its partners tries to ensure that all countries have the same understanding of the key SDI context. During the work of ECA in assisting member states with awareness and/or stakeholder workshops, the need for a guide was identified. An SDI implementation guide has been produced, with collaborative input from several partners, while another group of partners reviewed the draft document and produced. Being a “living document” the authentic version will be on the Internet.
References and Notes
Most of the materials in this paper are drawn from SDI Africa: An Implementation Guide, and supporting materials, all available at http://www.uneca.org/disd/geoinfo/SDIAfrica.