Issue 61
Data sovereignty is key

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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Namibia’s data gaps fuel policy blindness

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 sovereignty is key

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.

read more

Africa’s statistical capacity by country

Cameroon’s statistical conundrum

Cameroon’s statistical conundrum

In Cameroon, many people are dissatisfied with the budgetary allocations to different administrative regions and sectors. Under President Paul Biya, 89, who has uninterruptedly ruled Cameroon for close to 40 years, there has been glaring disregard for the use of data – even often unreliable – in...

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BOOK REVIEWS

Book review: The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Recolonisation of Africa

Book review: The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Recolonisation of Africa

Review of The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Recolonisation of Africa, The Coloniality of Data, by Everisto Benyera, Routledge, Oxford, 2021 Effusive predictions have been made about the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), with some commentators seeing it as a panacea for every ill suffered by society. Everisto Benyera disagrees, seeing the harvesting of data at the heart of the “revolution” as a sinister means to recolonise a continent long suffering from the effects of colonial and neo-colonial penetration. Benyera asserts that Africa “will accrue minimum benefits and suffer maximum consequences in the 4IR”. Moreover, “the affluence of the Global North is funded by the poverty of the Global South”, and it is in their interests to keep Africa in the virtual chains of 4IR. He also asks why Africa remains in a state of poverty and underdevelopment even though colonialism officially ended when most states were...

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