Presented at the Fourth Spatial Data Infrastructure Conference Cape Town South Africa March 13-15 2000.

There is general agreement that spatial data is crucial for environmental protection and sustainable development therefore the development of the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) ensures accessibility of information for decision-making.  The basic attributes for an SDI are well defined and agreed yet the achievement of this ambitious concept will not be easy especially in the developing world.  The question is whether African countries are making the necessary provisions to adapt the concept thus ensuring that they are not left out in the information age.

Using examples from selected African countries this paper reviews the state of the components of SDI in Africa and assesses the countries’ readiness to adapt the concept.  This is done by first defining the SDI concept and its components analysing the likely problems related with the introduction of some SDI components and the status of the countries in adapting the concept. It concludes that much of Africa is still not ready for a full on-line spatial data infrastructure and recommends steps to be taken to ensure full participation when other communications and physical infrastructures become available.

The Bathurst Declaration defines spatial data as “data/information relating to the land sea or air that can be referenced to a position on the earth’s surface” (Bathurst Declaration 1999).  It further explains that it is “the key to planning sustainable management and development of our natural resources at local national regional and global levels”. Much of these spatial data have been collected on an ad hoc basis. However Phillips et al (1999) point out that much of the data are transient and cannot always be collected when needed:

Such data could not be collected impromptu as needed.  For such transient datas they are collected and stored for use and re-use usually by many users. Thus a data or information resource is created in the form of databases.  Such resources need coordination and cooperation usually within an organisation or a governmentting.  As more organisational units (government and non-government) become involved the cooperation becomes more complex and the particular datas start acquiring an “infrastructure” status.

The Bathurst Declaration defines spatial data infrastructure (SDI) as a term:

… that describes the fundamental spatial datas the standards that enable them to be integrated the distribution network to provide access to them the policies and administrative principles that ensure compatibility between jurisdictions and agencies and the people including user provider and value adder who are interested at a certain level of area that starts at a local level and proceeds through state national and regional levels to global level.

The whole concept of an infrastructure SDIs included is that certain services cannot be provided to users as and when needed. Rather these services are best provided as a foundation and fabric of all other activities of the society or community. Ezigbalike and Nkwae (1999) explain that infrastructures are taken for granted. Users are not conscious of their “ownership” and expect them to always be available even if they have to pay for the right to use them for example vehicle registration in the case of the highway infrastructure. The general user essentially does not care how they work or who makes them work as long as they work. Spatial data infrastructures are just like other forms of better-known physical and tangible infrastructures such as roads power lines and railways. It is made up of several components.

This paper reviews the components of SDI and evaluates the status of these components in Africa in an attempt to answer the question posed in its title: Is Africa Ready? The 1998 edition of the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary defines being ready as “(of a person) fully prepared for something or to do something …” A thing is ready if it is “completed and available for use.” Is Africa fully prepared for SDI? Or put differently is the SDI completed and ready for use in Africa? The answer is either “yes” or “no” depending on how lenient or strict one is with the evaluation of the available components and the definition of preparedness. The paper concludes with recommendations on steps towards preparing for SDI in Africa.

The paper does not present an exhaustive country by country review of the components; rather general observations are presented. It should also be noted that several coordinated data harmonisation projects and programs especially at (sub) regional levels have not been considered in our evaluation because the SDI concept is much more than data sharing. It is about providing data as an infrastructure a foundation or fabric of the society on which other activities are based. It implies that spatial data should be provided in a standard and transparent manner so that the community at large not just a specialist segment can simply use them.

 

It is obvious that spatial data are necessary for the SDI. However the Mapping Sciences Committee (1993 17) stresses that:

… they are not sufficient. Of equal importance are the individuals institutions and technological and value systems that make it a functional entity one that serves as a basis for much of the business of a nation.

They list the various components as:

§  Data databases and metadata:s of organized spatial data and information about thoses (e.g. directories) such as where it is located how it was collected and is maintained by whom how it can be accessed and what the characteristics are (e.g. coverage);

§  Data networks: the communication highways in various forms (e.g. telephone lines local area networks and broadband integrated service networks or BISDNs) linking databases sources and users;

§  Technology: the data conduits and other equipment and procedure for optimising the management of the databases at the source and maximizing the potential application of the data by the user;

§  Institutional arrangements: the co-ordination of the many organizations involved in the SDI development and maintenance;

§  Policies and standards: the data communication rules common conventions and protocols in addition to the broader and very critical policies addressing social and economic issues such as privacy and pricing;

§  Users: the individuals and organizations that access and use the infrastructure to acquire data to meet their requirements and add value by developing new information services and products.

While there are several initiatives in Africa that can be regarded as rudiments of a holistic SDI many of these initiatives have not really been conceptualised as SDIs as described above. Different countries have focussed on different fragments of SDI. Therefore the level of development or introduction of these components varies from country to country.

Spatial Data

This is the aspect in which the most advance has been made because we did not have to start from scratch. Spatial data have always been available in various forms in all countries especially in map form. The biggest source of spatial data is the national mapping agencies e.g. the Department of the Surveyor-General in Zimbabwe and the Department of Surveying and Mapping (DSM) in Botswana Directorate of Surveying and Mapping in Namibia Federal Surveys Department in Nigeria and Surveys and Physical Planning in Lesotho.

Many municipal authorities have also gathered spatial data mainly cadastral records. Some have also been involved in mapping for example in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe other thematic datas are available from agencies like the Forestry Commission Natural Resources Board Department of National Parks and Wild Life Management the Department of Agricultural and Extension Services (AGRITEX) the Environment and Remote Sensing Institute (ERSI) the Central Statistics Office (which provides socio-economic data) and the Research Council of Zimbabwe.

Similar organisations also maintain thematic data in other countries. In Botswana the Department of Lands maintains records of all allocated plots in urban centres and the land boards maintain textual inventories of allocation in non-urban jurisdictions.

Many of these datas are maintained to support administrative responsibilities of the organisations. The base maps for these datas are usually sourced from the national mapping agencies. These agencies have statutory mandates to oversee mapping in the countries and provide topographic cadastral and other thematic map products in the respective countries.

Databases and Metadata

Much of the available data are in the forms of maps and paper records. However there has been a realisation that the use of computers in spatial data management necessitates availability of such data in digital format. Efforts are therefore underway to create digital databases through conversion of existing maps into digital format and new production of digital information products.  In Tunisia projects are on going to implement geographical databases (GDB) especially in national organisations such as Agriculture and Environment.  These specific GDB are very important and serve real preoccupations of users. Also as part of the National Director Diagram (see below under Institutional Arrangements) a Geographical Repository and Spatial Data Warehouse are planned. This will provide the framework for a Federated Research Project called SIG-ATM (global information system relative to the air the earth and the sea). The principal objective of this project is to offer the participants access to data information and knowledge in the most appropriate manner (Geographical Repository) to analyse to understand to make complex decisions of global nature. This project will coalesce the various existent systems into a meta-system of information (a Spatial Data Warehouse) that will have to be constantly maintained relevant and of high quality (Federated Research Project 2000).

In Botswana DSM has an on-going project to produce digital cadastral and topographic databases. The Department of Town and Regional Planning (DTRP) have digital databases to support among other functions land use compliance monitoring in Gaborone. Computerised land inventory projects have been going on since 1992 and the Department of Lands maintains a comprehensive database of allocated plots in urban areas (Ezigbalike and Nkwae 1999; Manisa and Maphale 1999). In Lesotho the Mapping Agency has recently introduced production of large-scale (1:2500) digital mapping for urban areas and there is also a project to digitise the 1:50000 map series.

There is however lack of capacity to effectively utilise the vast amounts of data generated in these processes. The main problem is the lack of coordination in the efforts discussed below. Data s produced by different departments are not always compatible even though they relate to the same territory. This lack of coordination causes duplication of data as well as in the distribution and limits strongly their exchange consequently producing huge costs to the public (Ministère de lEnvironnement et de lAménagement du Territoire 1999).

Metadata systems are still in rudimentary stages making it difficult for potential users to know what datas really exist and if they could satisfy their needs.

Data Networks and Technology

The most effective data conduits of our time are computer networks and the Internet. These unfortunately are not yet well developed within the African continent. The information infrastructure also depends on other utility infrastructures such as electricity and telecommunications. In many countries electricity is only available in the urban centres leaving large portions of the country without service. These rural areas are also the subjects of the data in the proposed spatial data infrastructure. In fact much of the environmental and natural resources data would be about these rural areas. Access to the infrastructure should therefore eventually be provided from these centres.

In some countries even when electricity is available the supply is not constant and the frequent power outages and associated surges result in damages to sensitive computer and other equipment. The cost of computerisation therefore usually includes costs of ancillary equipment for stabilising and standby generators costs that are not incurred in developed countries.

Telecommunications infrastructure is also poorly developed. In many countries majority of the citizens still do not have access to telephones and the waiting lists for phone services are long. Telecommunications agencies which are still mainly government monopolies are still struggling to provide voice lines to more people. The provision of data-enabled high bandwidth lines is therefore not yet a priority. Spatial data s are usually large in volume especially if they include images and graphics.

General computer literacy is still low and the value of electronic mail communication and the World Wide Web is only beginning to be appreciated. Other relevant aspects of the Internet like File Transfer Protocols and remote computing are still regarded with awe.

However there is hope for some countries in this regard in the form of the Leland Initiative (USAID Bureau for Africa). This is a United States Government effort to extend full Internet connectivity to approximately twenty African countries in order to promote sustainable development. This Africa Global Information Infrastructure (GII) project has three strategic objectives:

§  Create an enabling policy environment by promoting policy reform to reduce barriers to open connectivity.  This is expected to result in affordable prices conducive to broad expansion of the user base delivery of Internet services by private sector providers and free and open access to information.

§  Create a sustainable supply of Internet services by identifying appropriate hardware and assisting with Internet connectivity.  The expected results include indigenous ISPs trained to offer full internet service and better communication between counterparts in Africa and the world; country-wide access with special attention to extension to (rural) issues; and Internet Society chapters serving as advocacy and support organizations.

§  Enhance Internet use for sustainable development by increasing he ability of African societies to use the communication and information tools of the Internet.  This is expected to result in local and international partnerships sharing information related to sustainable development in all sectors; indigenous partnerships to create and maintain new information resources based in African experience which feed the GII; increased African capacity to use information in decision-making and in managing scarce resources; broadened user base for information systems and telematics services; and indigenous training capacity for users and ISPs.

The project is currently limited to the following countries: Benin Botswana Cote d’Ivoire Eritrea Ethiopia Ghana Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Conakry Kenya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mozambique Namibia Rwanda Senegal South Africa Tanzania Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe.  Lesotho is currently in the process of developing the Memorandum of Understating (MOU) in order to take part in the project.

Institutional Arrangements

Most African governments recognise the need to manage their land as a resource or to optimise land use. They also recognise the importance of having relevant spatial data in order to achieve this objective. However government departments are the major sources of spatial data. There are two main reasons for this. First is the undeveloped nature of the geo-information industry in particular and the information economy in general. Second are laws and administrative regulations that give exclusive mandates to government departments even when they lack the capacity to satisfy the needs of the expanding user community. Government departments are not usually very responsive to the needs of the private users. The onus is on the user to adapt to the available data rather than on the data producers to develop new products in response to the needs of the users.

Even within the government data management is still a fragmented process with little co-operation between different agencies. The flow of information between government ministries and departments is poor. This is mainly because many countries are still living in the ‘mapping era’ with emphasis on map management. With this emphasis the national mapping agency would chair a ‘cartographic committee’ or other such body of map users.

In the digital age emphasis has shifted from the map to information. The map is only a graphical presentation of the information and mapping is only an information collection exercise. The focus should now shift to information management. Information management requires a dedicated function charged primarily with managing the corporate information resource for the good of all. This management mandate should not be given to one of the major producers or consumers of the information resource. When this is done the system over time would evolve to the cater more for the needs of this agency or person. The recommended practice is for the dedicated management function to be independent of the users and also be high enough in the organisational structure to participate in policymaking and be able to enforce rules and standards. This information management paradigm can be compared with financial management arrangements. The major creators of wealth in many countries are departments responsible for mineral resources tourism and agriculture. The major spending departments are defence education health and welfare. Yet none of these creators and spenders is given the mandate to manage the funds of the country. Usually a very independent and very powerful Department of Finance is the funds manager.

However there seems to be tentative steps towards establishing appropriate spatial data management organs in African countries and developing relevant indicators. In Tunisia the adopted steps consists of the elaboration of a National Director Diagram in Geomatics.  This Diagram will identify general orientations that will be concretised by a of plans and geomatics programs and actions in the short to medium term.  This is part of the process of implementing an information infrastructure in Tunisia with the objective of making the geomatics industry an important economic basis and registering it as an activity which participates in the durable development of the country (Ministère de lEnvironnement et de lAménagement du Territoire 1999).

Another example of efforts to establish some sort of dedicated information coordination is in Lesotho where an inter-sectoral body the Committee on Environmental Data Management (CEDAMA) has been established. The terms of reference of CEDAMA include:

§  To promote a culture of environmental data exchange

§  To advise National Environmental Secretariat (NES) on issues of environmental database management

§  To establish data quality standards

§  To advise NES on the formulation of relevant policies on management data

§  To advise NES on measurable environmental quality indicators for different sectors of the economy

§  To assist with the analysis of trends in the environmental quality indicators and recommend mitigation measures.

Policies and Standards

The availability and accessibility of data through the relevant SDI components is not necessarily the end. There should be policies and standards with enforceable legal status for addressing technical social and economic issues as follows:

§  Policies should be developed for technical issues including data formats and standards communication rules protocols and conventions for combining diverse information resources.

§  Social values should be respected and the policy should ensure privacy of information relating to individuals and protection from commercial misuse.

§  Economic issues include availability of copyright protection value additions on data use rights custodianship versus ownership transparent pricing and distribution mechanisms confidentiality of commercially sensitive information and liability on errors.

This is the most crucial component which requires participation of all stake holders and the strong political support for enforcement. The required policies are not so much on collection but mostly on dissemination standards for data quality and rules for sharing and exchange. The reality in African countries is that these issues have not yet been addressed formally. Where they have been addressed they are not usually adhered to. The value of information has not yet been realised and it will not be if policies and standards are not in place. National efforts to date have been undertaken by the national mapping agencies sometimes with assistance from the donor community and regional agencies.

At SADC regional level SADC-ELMS has produced a background report for the development of a SADC Environment Information Systems data policy within a broad regional policy and strategy for Environmental and sustainable development.  A data Policy in the context of SADC is an agreement between parties to collaborate on issues relating to data with a view of developing SADC Environmental Information System (EIS).

Users

The SDI will be of no value if there are no users. This is therefore an important component of the SDI. The user component is not limited to natural persons. Users include organisations. Also included in the user component are individuals groups and organisations that produced the datas in the system and maintain various aspects of it. There are also the group of users who add value to the original datas to produce new data and information products which then become part of the data and information infrastructure.

It is not enough to have individuals and organisations classified as users. They should possess appropriate knowledge and skills to perform their roles in the infrastructure effectively be it providing data transforming data managing data or exploiting the resource.

Africa is not short of individuals and organisations with assigned or assumed roles as described above. However the skill base is still very low. Computer permeation is still low in organisations and homes and so is computer literacy.  The result is that operations that should be computerised are still being performed manually. These include operations on/with spatial data. The ability to participate fully in the operations of the infrastructure and realise the full potential of the data resources is therefore limited.

Associated with this is the state of our educational institutions. Some institutions have not been able to keep up to date with advances in concepts and technology in this area. They are therefore unable to perform their role in the operation of the SDI which is to produce the skill and knowledge base for the relevant activities. This is due mainly to scarce financial resources and the fact that benefits from investments in spatial data projects are long term rather than immediate. Politicians and administrators would rather commit the scarce resources to projects that will yield results in time to affect their electoral fortunes and performance appraisal targets.

So Are We Ready for SDI?

The answer to the central question of this paper depends on the semantic emphasis of the evaluation. Table 1 summarises the state of readiness for the various components based on two versions of the question. If the emphasis were placed on our state of willingness the answer would be a qualified “yes”. We are willing to make some of the required changes but reluctant to give up other ‘tried and tested’ ways of doing things. On the other hand if the emphasis is on components of the SDI itself being complete and available to use then the overall assessment will be “no”. The overall state of Africa’s readiness for SDI is therefore a reluctant “no”.

Table 1: Evaluation of Africa’s readiness for SDI
Component	Readiness Question 1: Is the component complete and available for use?	Readiness Question 2: Is Africa fully prepared to develop the component?
Data	No.	Yes.
Databases and metadata.	No.	Not fully the concept is still not fully understood and appreciated.
Data networks and technology.	Still rudimentary.	Willing but not able.
Institutional arrangements.	Fragmented arrangements.	Reluctant to change existing structures.
Policies and standards.	No.	Declared intentions but little action.

Overall Evaluation

This paper has evaluated Africa’s readiness for spatial data infrastructures and found that we are still not fully prepared for its introduction. The three main reasons for our poor state of preparedness are:

§  the overall poor state of information and communication technologies

§  lack of full appreciation of the advantages of SDI and

§  reluctance of the key actors to move from the ‘mapping era’ to the ‘geo-information era’.

SDI cannot be introduced in a vacuum. It depends on other technologies to work notably information communications and knowledge (ICK) technologies. These technologies are still at rudimentary stages in much of Africa and the spatial data management community do not have direct control over them.

While our policy makers know about maps the concept of spatial data that is different from and subsumes maps is not yet understood. In the mapping era there were cartographic committees or similar bodies of map users who priorities and oversee mapping in the country. While mapping provides the base data for the spatial data infrastructure there are other core datas in an infrastructure environment and we have to restructure the information management arrangements to include them.

Immediate Action

The shortcomings in our preparedness can be regrouped into external factors outside our control and internal inadequacies completely within our control. Our preparations for SDI should therefore emphasise this internal component. This will ensure that when the external components are in place we can start implementing the SDI proper. Concrete and immediate actions in this regard should include the following:

§  We members of the spatial data management community especially the surveying and mapping community should inform ourselves on the concepts of SDI. We shall find that some of our operations are already in line with SDI even though it has not been described in that language.

§  While we do not necessarily have to change our terminology to use SDI terms we should ensure that all spatial data collection projects (including surveying and mapping) are henceforth planned for an SDI environment. However since we do not yet have the SDI in place we should then translate the plans into ‘transitional’ arrangements.

§  We should spearhead the restructure of cartographic committees or mapping councils. The surveying and mapping community usually chair these committees and councils. It may be necessary to restructure their compositions and it may be strategic to voluntarily relinquish the chair if the need arises.

§  It is our duty to educate our colleagues to new developments in the spatial data management industry. A guest speaker could be invited to make a presentation to the meetings of these committees. The academic community can assist in this aspect.

§  Similar to the above point heads of national mapping agencies (NMA) are usually highly regarded in government and would normally be members of high-level consultative councils or similar advisory bodies of the government. The next request for mapping products at such forums should be gently corrected to spatial information presented as maps at some times. Also special briefings of such bodies should be arranged through the NMA presence.

§  Metadata and information flow projects should be initiated. We do not need full networks to start documenting descriptive data about our datas. Manual metadata forms can be designed to collect the information where there are no computers. The metadata projects should include entries about producers and known users of the datas thereby creating a data flow document.

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