An overview of Spatial Data Infrastructure in Africa

1
An overview of Spatial Data Infrastructure in
Africa

• Liz Gavin
• National Spatial Information Framework,
  Department of Land Affairs, South Africa
• Presented on behalf of Interim SDI Africa Task
  Team
• GSDI 4, Cape Town
• 15 March 2000

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Preface Contextual Observations

• Africa does not act or live in isolation from the
  rest of the globe e.g.
• signatory to agreements on Desertification,
  Biodiversity...
• participation by many African countries in Global
  Map
• Africa made up of a large number of countries
• the history of the continent makes acting in
  unison difficult
• there is great unevenness with respect to
  technology and knowledge bases
• Well developed regional organisations e.g. SADC,
  IGAD

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Preface Contextual Observations

• There is an awareness of need to be part of the
  Information Society, and SDI is seen as part of
  that e.g. AISI, relation between CODI CODI-GEO
• Entry to the Information Society presents both
• challenges infrastructure needs to be built
• opportunities technological leap frogging

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An overview

• The thing about overviews is
• there are so many overviews to choose from!
• This one is based on a recent/currently in
  progress survey
• questionnaire developed by Interim Task Team for
  SDI Africa
• questionnaires distributed 1999/2000 through
  UN/ECA and informal networks

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Approach

• Document projects which may be creating a legacy
  of SDI components, not only formal SDI programmes
  
• Questionnaire based on GSDI survey
• Attempt to probes components of SDI without (with
  less) possibly alienating jargon
• Explicitly include non-digital forms of spatial
  information

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Responses received (so far) (1 of 3)

• More than one country involved
• The Southern African Development Community (SADC)
  Food Security Programme, based at the Regional
  Remote Sensing Unit (RRSU) in Harare, Zimbabwe
• Regional Tsetse and Trypanosomosis Control
  Programme (RTTCP) covering the SADC countries of
  Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi, with the
  Ministry of Agriculture, Zimbabwe, as lead agency
  
• CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products, Australia a
  global programme on tree cultivation, with some
  (limited) activity in Africa

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Responses received (so far) (2 of 3)

• Algeria, Institut National de Cartographie et de
  Teledetection
• Morocco, Centre Royal de Teledetection Spatiale
  (CRTS)
• Ethiopia, Environmental Support Project
• Seychelles, The Seychelles GIS Centre
• Kenya, Kenya wetlands conservation and training
  programme
• Uganda, The Biomass Programme of Uganda

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Responses received (so far) (3 of 3)

• Swaziland, Surveyor Generals Department
• Botswana, Department of Surveys and Mapping
• Namibia, Surveyor-General
• Namibia, National Remote Sensing Centre (Ministry
  of Environment and Tourism)
• Lesotho, Committee for Environmental Data
  Management
• Lesotho, Chief Surveyors Office
• South Africa, National Spatial Information
  Framework

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Typical SDI components

• Creation of base / framework / fundamental data
  sets
• all respondents quote work in this area
• several cite more than one agency developing
  digital data set
• Metadata collection and availability
• range of responses
• two digital catalogues reported (SA-NSIF,
  Ethiopia)

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Typical SDI components (contd)

• Standards development and alignment
• range of responses
• Framing of policy pertaining to dissemination and
  access
• range of responses
• Capacity building
• mentioned explicitly in 3 responses

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Dissemination of spatial data

• Data producer or custodian generally responsible
  for dissemination would-be users make direct
  contact with producers
• Digital data provided on CD-ROM
• Hard copy mentioned in most responses

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Technology Aspects

• Most respondents indicate that they intend (8) or
  are already using a web-site (4) for
  disseminating information and/or spatial data
• Survey meta-information
• 3 responses faxed
• 1 response posted (from near by!)
• the remaining responses received by e-mail

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Technology Aspects

• Telephone main lines per 100 inhabitants in
  sub-Saharan Africa
• 0.4 in 1990
• 0.5 in 1995
• (derived from ITU database, quoted by Mansell and
  Wehn in Knowledge Societies, Information
  Technology for Sustainable Development )

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Liaison / linkages

• Botswana is involved in Global Map
• RRSU in Harare has linkages with GSDI (TWG) and
  SA-NSIF
• Lesothos CEDAMA and Seychelles have links with
  SA-NSIF
• The RTTCP works with the RRSU
• Ethiopian project links to organisations in the
  Netherlands and ANZLIC
• Seychelles has links with Middle East initiatives

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Challenges to the building SDI identified by
respondents

• Lack of resources
• Financial
• Human
• Lack of clear policy framework
• Lack of standardization
• Constraints due to technology infrastructure

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Challenges to the building SDI identified by
respondents (contd)

• Soft (i.e. harder to deal with) issues
• lack of (culture of) co-operation between
  institutions
• attitudes towards data and information access
• lack of understanding of need for SDI by decision
  makers
• insufficient support of SDI building by senior
  managers in government

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Concluding remarks

• This survey is incomplete!
• There is SDI building activity in Africa, and
  there is room for more