Policymaking without data – a rudderless ship
In recent years, it has become commonplace to draw analogies between data and natural resources....
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Category: AIF Issue 61
Policy, legal and regulatory issues in Africa’s digital sphere
African countries have leapfrogged into the global digital economy, with data as the enabler for transactions. But what are the policy, legal and regulatory implications of the rise of digital data as the “currency” and “oil” in Africa?
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Cloud-based ‘data ecosystems’ the answer to Africa’s data desert?
Accurate, accessible, and intelligible data is critical to inclusive development and governance in Africa, but the continent has long been riddled with “data deserts” where no sound, evidence-based policies can take root.
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Data sovereignty is key
Africa’s huge infrastructure deficit is well documented. With connectivity across the continent growing exponentially, digital infrastructure has become a key area that requires the urgent attention of investors and policymakers alike.
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Democracies die in data darkness
US news organisation The Washington Post has “democracy dies in darkness” emblazoned on its masthead, and this is true of all forms of government, and all forms of democracy.
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Africa’s data revolution: East Africa’s hidden potential
As the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), founded on data, data ecosystems and the data economy gains global momentum, there is a crucial need for African governments to harness the opportunities this revolution presents.
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Harnessing the data revolution for sustainable development in Africa
Africa must boost the capacity of national data ecosystems in the implementation cycle of the sustainable development goals, embracing revolutionary changes in data collection, management, curation, analysis and use.
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Why data is vital for policy-making and development
Good, reliable statistics are essential for measuring progress in reaching development goals and providing essential information about the effectiveness of policies and programmes, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
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Namibia’s data gaps fuel policy blindness
The fact that Namibia will not be conducting a census in 2022 – which would have collected data on more than 80 indicators for everything from population size, location and migration, to housing, health and education demographics – exacerbates perennial concerns about the usefulness and credibility of official data.
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Data sharing is vital for transparency and good governance
The pressure is on across Africa for governments to implement policies that will enable them to achieve their sustainable development goals (SDGs).
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Nigerian secrecy laws impede information transparency
At the Abuja-based Centre for Journalism, Innovation, and Development in Nigeria, Ijeoma Okereke,...
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Cameroon’s statistical conundrum
Cameroon, like other sub-Saharan African countries, has a problem with the production of reliable data. The situation is so precarious that Shantayanan Devarajan, the one-time chief economist for Africa at the World Bank, described it as “Africa’s statistical tragedy”.
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