The African Development Bank (AfDB), as the premier developmental organization in the continent, supports its 54 regional member countries to reduce levels of poverty and boost economic and social progress. Reliable and timely data are vital not only for formulating the AfDB’s own strategies, and for monitoring the outcomes of its programs and projects, but also for all those who wish to ensure the continent’s future positive growth trajectory. This includes key policymakers in African countries, central banks and non-governmental organizations, subregional and regional organizations, UN agencies, multinational organizations, as well as external donors and investors.
Reaping the Benefits of Greater AfDB/IMF Collaboration
June 2014
The paramount objective of the Africa Information Highway (AIH) is to facilitate open access to relevant, timely, and accurate African data supplied by not only regional countries themselves but also other authoritative sources, including international development agencies. Each country/site is provided with a Data Portal (DP) and an Open Data Portal (ODP). Among its many functionalities, the ODP incorporates a Data Submission Tool that facilitates direct reporting of country data to the AfDB using common international standards; thereby ensuring harmonization and comparability.
Since the launch of the AIH, a number of international agencies have asked to collaborate with the Bank on this ground-breaking initiative. Among these agencies is the Statistics Department of the IMF. In view of the high level of cooperation that already exists between the two institutions, and the reliance of AfDB’s programming and operational activities on IMF data, it was a logical first step for the Bank to partner with her. For the past year, staff from the AfDB’s and IMF’s Statistics Departments have been undertaking joint missions to several African countries. The objective of these missions has been to train/assist these countries how to use the Bank’s ODP as a tool for the submission of country data to the AIH system.
The ODP supports the dissemination of data using the Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) standards. SDMX is an initiative sponsored by a number of international organizations to foster common standards for the exchange of statistical information and is a key component in the provision of open data access. Over time, this system will be used by all agencies seeking data from regional member countries (RMCs). This will greatly lessen the burden imposed on national statistical offices and other official sources (e.g. line ministries) of responding to numerous data requests from multiple organizations. Depending on arrangements, RMCs can now submit country data just once to the ODP, as a one-stop center from which all requesters can access the data they require. To date, fourteen RMCs have had the system installed.
In addition to lessening the burden of data requests, this method of data submission will speed RMCs’ subscription to the IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), which is a benchmark used by many investors operating in emerging economies. Subscription to the IMF’s SDDS through the AfDB’s Africa Information Highway initiative will therefore benefit a number of African countries that wish to gain access to capital markets. Currently only five African countries (Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa, and Tunisia) subscribe to the SDDS.
