Africa Information Highway - Enhancing Data Quality, Management, and Dissemination in Africa

Conference on Enhancing the Africa Information Highway: Improving Data Management and Dissemination for Enhanced Development Outcomes

prognoz_admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 11:49:01 +0000

November 16 - 20 2015, Libreville, Gabon, Organized by: AfDB, AUC, IMF and Statistics Gabon

The Bank completed installation of the Data Portals in all the countries and several regional organizations a couple of years ago. This mega network for easy data access, analysis and exchange has now become the African Information Highway. All participating sites have two or more focal points that were selected by their organizations as representatives. The paramount role of the focal points is to ensure that the portals are regularly updated with the most recent data. Given the success of the AIH, several peripheral but important initiatives have been developed around its umbrella position. The overall objective of the workshop is to introduce these important initiatives to the focal points and other key stakeholders as well as discuss strategies for continually increasing the use of the AIH. The workshop aims to do this through a series of presentations and discussions-including breakout sessions- involving all the aforementioned participants. Besides introducing the new initiatives, the workshop will address the following issues:

• Country data portal operations and maintenance. How is it going?
• Challenges faced by countries and how to address them?
• Innovative uses of the portals?
• Role of the Bank going forward?
• Finalization of the Governance mechanism
• Assess the direction of the initiative for the next few years

AIH Workshop documents:

AfDB’s Africa Information Highway selected as one of the most innovative data initiatives in the world

prognoz_admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 10:21:10 +0000

08/13/2015

The Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) at the OECD has selected AfDB’s Africa Information Highway (AIH) as one of the most innovative initiatives around the world to enable and inform the data revolution and post-2015 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda. The announcement is a culmination of a project called “Informing a Data Revolution” ( IDR) which was launched by PARIS21 in 2014 to identify around the world the most innovative data initiatives to enable and inform the data revolution. Besides being an enabler to the data revolution, a selected initiative needed to meet the following criteria: provide the right data, to the right people, at the right time, in the right format. As one of the selected innovative initiatives, the Africa Information Highway has been added to the PARIS21 Innovations Inventory, a collection of innovative approaches in the field of development data that started in 2014 and is now open for public participation. Being featured in the inventory means that the selected initiative will enjoy free visibility among other innovators. It also provides a platform to meet other innovation seekers from private companies, national statistical offices, NGOs and international organizations. The inventory is a participatory tool which can be accessed at: http://innovation.paris21.org/

For more information, contact the Statistics Department (ESTA) at statistics@afdb.org.

Tunisia develops its dissemination strategy around the Bank’s African Information Highway

prognoz_admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 15:08:58 +0000

09/25/2014

Tunisia has developed its dissemination strategy now around the AfDB’s African Information Highway Data Portal system. The Tunisian National Statistical Institute finalized the implementation of the system using the Bank’s Open Data Platform as the primary dissemination medium. The site currently has two databases: one socio-economic database with more than 8000 indicators, and one foreign-trade related database with more than 30000 products. During the next phase the Institute foresees the creation of other multidimensional databases for each statistical theme.

Tunisian new dissemination approach

AIH workshop planned for March 2015

prognoz_admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 15:02:46 +0000

09/25/2014

The AfDB, along with several of its partners including the African Union, the European Union, the IMF, and the ECA, are planning a workshop in March 2015. The exact dates and location are still being finalized. The objective of the workshop is to bring together in a brainstorming session the key stakeholders of the African Information Highway (AIH) over several days to share experiences, exchange best practices and discuss effective strategies for the operations and management of the AIH. A Governance framework document been prepared to guide all stakeholders on the implementation of the AIH, including the Open Data Platform, which will also be discussed during the workshop. Other expected participants will include selected academics, policy makers and the media. The outcome of the workshop will set a roadmap for the operations of the AIH.

AfDB continues its collaboration with the IMF with joint missions to Malawi and Ethiopia

prognoz_admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 15:00:28 +0000

09/25/2014

The Bank continued its collaboration with the IMF on the African Information Highway (AIH) by conducting joint missions to Malawi and Ethiopia. The objective of the missions was to streamline and improve the data reporting practices to the IMF using the AIH’s Open Data Platform (ODP). Among its functionalities, the ODP incorporates a Data Submission Tool (DST) that facilitates direct reporting of country data to the AfDB using common international standards, thereby ensuring harmonization and comparability.

In addition to the existing installation at the National Statistical offices of Malawi, the system will be installed at the Reserve Bank of Malawi and at the Ministry of Finance. Ethiopia is one of the few remaining countries that has not yet fully participated on the AIH. Plans are to have the system installed at the Statistical office, Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance.

With the completion of the Malawi and Ethiopia missions, sixteen countries have now been successfully trained on using the ODP for data submission to the IMF.

Ranking of country performances on the AIH

prognoz_admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 14:41:57 +0000

08/29/2014

Each month, the Bank collects usage statistics by countries and participating regional agencies on the African Information Highway (AIH). The information is then used to rank countries/agencies based on the number of visits to their site and then disseminated back to them. Based on their performance and ranking, countries can better benchmark and perhaps make some decisions about their country’s own system. Below is a summary report from the statistics collected for August 2014.

Since May, Mozambique and Nigeria have consistently ranked first and second respectively in terms of usage. In the month of August, this trend continued with Mozambique receiving 3346 visits from 73 countries and Nigeria receiving 1542 page visits from 58 countries. Rounding out the top five were Guinea Bissau, Rwanda, and Cabo Verde, with 783, 658, and 425 page visits respectively. On the other hand, some countries have had few or no visits to their data portals. Countries with just one visit were Angola, Congo, and Mali. Finally there were ten countries that did not receive any visits at all. These were Benin, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Swaziland.

Data Portal	# of visits	# of countries	# of visits from within the country	% of visits from within the country
Mozambique	3346	73	1875	56%
Nigeria	1542	58	685	44%
Guinea Bissau	783	43	94	12%
Rwanda	658	45	343	52%
Cabo Verde	425	23	272	64%
Senegal	373	33	240	64%
COMESA	372	63	46	12%
Mauritius	315	21	243	77%
Kenya	287	31	152	53%
Cameroon	252	25	112	44%
Namibia	223	16	145	65%
Zambia MF	139	11	110	79%
Tunisia	132	5	128	97%
Lesotho	125	24	42	34%
African Union	83	28	4	5%
Madagascar	81	18	46	57%
Sao Tome & Principe	60	10	33	55%
Seychelles	52	11	30	58%
WAMI	49	16	11	22%
Gambia	48	16	10	21%
Bank of Seychelles	38	17	15	39%
Burundi	33	11	15	45%
Ghana	33	8	0	0%
Botswana	25	7	13	52%
Liberia	20	8	8	40%
Bank of Nigeria	17	3	1	6%
AfriGAP	15	9	3	20%
AFREC	14	9	4	29%
Djibouti	14	4	8	57%
Zambia	14	2	13	93%
Algeria	8	4	2	25%
Zambia ML	8	2	7	88%
Bank of Morocco	7	1	0	0%
South Africa	6	4	2	33%
South Sudan	6	3	3	50%
Tanzania	6	3	0	0%
Togo	6	3	3	50%
Zambia RA	6	2	3	50%
Democratic Republic of the Congo	5	2	0	0%
ECOWAS	5	1	0	0%
Chad	4	4	0	0%
Burkina Faso	3	2	0	0%
MAU	3	2	0	0%
Uganda	3	2	0	0%
WAMA	3	3	0	0%
AFRISTAT	2	1	0	0%
Bank of Botswana	2	2	0	0%
Malawi	2	1	0	0%
Morocco	2	2	1	50%
Zimbabwe	2	1	0	0%
Angola	1	1	0	0%
Congo	1	1	0	0%
EAC	1	1	1	100%
Mali	1	1	0	0%
SADC (Botswana)	1	1	0	0%
Benin
Botswana MDG
CoBAMS
Comoros
Cote d'Ivoire
Djibouti MDG
ECCAS
Gabon
Guinea
INSEA
Mauritania
Niger
PMAESA
Sierra Leone
Sudan
Swaziland

The Bank trains Representatives from Guinea Bissau and Morocco on the AIH

prognoz_admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 13:36:12 +0000

07/31/2014

During the month of July, the Bank conducted training sessions in Morocco (7^th to 9^th of July) and Guinea Bissau (12^th to 14^th of July) for staff at the Central Banks, National Statistics Offices, and line ministries on the use of their Data Portals–thus actively becoming an integral part of the African Information Highway (AIH). In Guinea Bissau, training participants included representatives from the National Institute of Statistics, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Fisheries, and the Ministry of Agriculture. In Morocco, training participants were staff from the Central Bank.

The training introduced participants to a number of innovative features of the Data Portal, including the functionality of the Data Portal’s front-end panel and the managing of the Admin panel. Topics covered during the Admin panel management session included: creation of dashboards, adding new databases, uploading/updating data, and how to manage new users and accounts. The trainings concluded by encouraging participants to practice their new skills and to disseminate these skills to other colleagues.

Performance of the data portals for June 2014

prognoz_admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 11:08:01 +0000

07/01/2014

Data Portals:

Data Portal	Number of visits	Number of countries	Number of visits from within the country	Percent of visits from within the country
Mozambique	2620	69	1548	59%
Nigeria	1938	64	916	47%
Cabo Verde	684	28	437	64%
COMESA	494	64	84	17%
Cote d'Ivoire	482	46	239	50%
Cameroon	375	34	171	46%
Kenya	319	40	53	17%
Zambia MF	193	21	147	76%
Mauritius	192	23	128	67%
Madagascar	105	18	63	60%
African Union	87	31	5	6%
Lesotho	68	18	20	29%
Senegal	64	4	49	77%
Gambia	59	18	14	24%
Zambia	55	13	30	55%
Bank of Seychelles	55	17	32	58%
WAMI	54	20	6	11%
Burundi	32	14	14	44%
Tunisia	27	2	17	63%
Ghana	26	8	0	0%
Seychelles	23	12	6	26%
SADC (Botswana)	22	3	20	91%
Djibouti	19	5	9	47%
ECOWAS	16	8	1	6%
Uganda	14	6	4	29%
WAMA	13	7	0	0%
AFREC	12	8	3	25%
South Africa	9	5	0	0%
Congo	8	2	2	25%
Rwanda	8	2	7	88%
Algeria	7	4	2	29%
Liberia	7	5	0	0%
Chad	6	5	0	0%
EAC	6	2	4	67%
Tanzania	6	3	0	0%
Togo	6	1	6	100%
Guinea Bissau	5	1	0	0%
Zambia RA	5	2	1	20%
Angola	3	3	0	0%
Burkina Faso	3	2	0	0%
ECCAS	3	1	0	0%
Zambia ML	3	2	1	33%
AFRISTAT	2	2	0	0%
CoBAMS	2	2	0	0%
Mauritania	2	1	2	100%
Namibia	2	1	2	100%
South Sudan	2	2	0	0%
Zimbabwe	2	1	0	0%
Botswana	1	1	0	0%
Gabon	1	1	0	0%
Guinea	1	1	0	0%
Mali	1	1	0	0%
Morocco	1	1	0	0%
Niger	1	1	0	0%
Swaziland	1	1	0	0%
AfriGAP
Bank of Botswana
Bank of Morocco
Bank of Nigeria
Benin
Comoros
Democratic Republic of the Congo
INSEA
Malawi
MAU
PMAESA
Sao Tome & Principe
Sierra Leone
Sudan

Open Data:

Open Data Portal	Average number of visits	Number of countries	Average number of visits from within the country	Percent
Nigeria	218	46	60	28%
South Sudan	202	46	22	11%
Ghana	126	33	28	22%
Algeria	124	33	43	35%
Kenya	123	37	27	22%
Burkina Faso	120	30	32	27%
Tunisia	111	27	52	47%
Angola	110	36	5	5%
Tanzania	108	28	27	25%
South Africa	105	24	35	33%
Madagascar	104	27	49	47%
Mozambique	103	27	12	12%
Morocco	102	26	40	39%
Uganda	97	27	20	21%
Cote d'Ivoire	80	29	16	20%
Cameroon	70	32	5	7%
Egypt	69	23	23	33%
Senegal	69	23	14	20%
Ethiopia	67	26	17	25%
Botswana	66	24	10	15%
DR Congo	58	22	5	9%
Zambia	57	22	15	26%
Rwanda	56	21	7	13%
Chad	49	26	1	2%
Malawi	49	19	12	24%
Gabon	42	19	5	12%
Sierra Leone	39	23	2	5%
Togo	38	22	3	8%
Equatorial Guinea	34	17	3	9%
Liberia	34	17	5	15%
Djibouti	33	16	3	9%
Burundi	32	14	6	19%
Somalia	32	13	4	13%
Guinea	31	14	3	10%
Mali	31	17	3	10%
Seychelles	31	22	6	19%
Swaziland	31	18	2	6%
Congo	30	17	2	7%
Eritrea	30	14	0	0%
Benin	28	15	2	7%
Sudan	27	11	8	30%
Lesotho	26	11	1	4%
Libya	26	16	1	4%
Namibia	26	16	3	12%
Mauritius	25	17	3	12%
Niger	25	17	2	8%
Guinea Bissau	23	13	0	0%
AfriGAP	22	11	0	0%
Mauritania	22	14	2	9%
Comoros	13	8	2	15%
Gambia	10	6	0	0%
Sao Tome & Principe	10	6	1	10%
Central African Republic	3	3	0	0%
ECCAS	2	2	0	0%
Zimbabwe	2	2	0	0%
AFREC	1	1	1	100%
AFRISTAT	1	1	0	0%
Cabo Verde	1	1	1	100%
ECOWAS	1	1	0	0%

Training of AIH Users in Namibia and Botswana

prognoz_admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 11:00:13 +0000

June 2014

Namibia: From June 4 to 7, 2014, members of the AfDB’s Statistics Department (ESTA) undertook a mission to train staff at the National Statistical Agency (NSA) in Namibia on the navigational and management aspects of the African Information Highway. The training introduced staff to a number of innovative features, such as how to create dashboards, map design, data analysis, bulk downloading data, and data search. In addition, two focal NSA staff were trained on how to manage the Data Portal (DP). This training involved crucial routine tasks such as uploading new data, updating existing data, and overall maintenance of the country’s DP. A total of seven staff from the NSA were trained by ESTA.

Botswana: From June 18 to June 20, ESTA carried out this same training for 5 staff members at the South African Development Community (SADC) in Botswana. Afterwards, from June 23 to June 25, ESTA trained 20 staff members from the Central Bank of Botswana, the Ministry of Finance in Botswana, and Statistics Botswana. Once these personnel have completed their training, they are encouraged to train other staff members within their respective organizations on how to navigate and manage the AIH.

Reaping the Benefits of Greater AfDB/IMF Collaboration

prognoz_admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 10:56:35 +0000

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.