allAfrica.com: Africa: Online Platform to Boost Access to African Stats

"Twenty African countries are set to benefit from a data platform on developmental issues such as the Millennium Development Goals aimed at improving access to quality information. The Open Data for African platform, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), seeks to improve evidence-based decision-making, policy formulation and overall good governance in Africa. It will also provide members of the public with easy access to official statistics online. Charles Lufumpa Leyeka, director of the statistics department of the AfDB, tells SciDev.Net that the initiative provides a unique opportunity for African countries to implement international statistical standards for greater comparability of data at regional and international levels, as the countries will now all be linked to each other via a common platform. The initiative will also address the challenge of submitting data from national statistical officers to international development partners and organisations. 'Officers will only need to upload data and [make it] available to the various development partners and users [thus], significantly reducing the data reporting burden,' says Leyeka. He adds that the platform offers a unique opportunity to various users such as policymakers and partners around the world to gain access to reliable and timely data on Africa. 'Users can perform comprehensive analysis at country and regional levels, and share their views thereby creating an informed community.' 'These diverse groups can now contribute effectively to decision making thus leading to more transparency, accountability and improved governance.' One of the challenges to this initiative, according to Leyeka, is poor Internet connectivity in some African countries. However, the AfDB has made plans to assist those countries with limited information technology (IT) capacity. 'The Bank will host platforms for countries that cannot do their own for a period of at least two years, during which they will be supported to strengthen their IT infrastructure and technical staffing.' ..."