E Africa Data Revolution Report 2016 - Highlighting developments in African data ecosystems - United Nations ...

Page created by Ellen Garza
 
CONTINUE READING
E Africa Data Revolution Report 2016 - Highlighting developments in African data ecosystems - United Nations ...
The Africa Data
         Revolution Report
               2016
Highlighting developments in African data ecosystems
E Africa Data Revolution Report 2016 - Highlighting developments in African data ecosystems - United Nations ...
E Africa Data Revolution Report 2016 - Highlighting developments in African data ecosystems - United Nations ...
The Africa Data
        Revolution Report
              2016
Highlighting developments in African data ecosystems
E Africa Data Revolution Report 2016 - Highlighting developments in African data ecosystems - United Nations ...
E Africa Data Revolution Report 2016 - Highlighting developments in African data ecosystems - United Nations ...
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

Contents

Foreword                                                                                             v
Acknowledgements                                                                                   vii
Acronyms                                                                                          viii
Executive Summary                                                                                   ix
1. Introduction: The African data revolution and sustainable development                             1
    1.1   Defining the data revolution in Africa                                                     2
    1.2   What is revolutionary about the African data revolution?                                   4
    1.3   Purpose of this report                                                                     7
    1.4   Methodology                                                                                8
    1.5   Outline                                                                                    8

2. Data ecosystems in Africa                                                                         9
    2.1 Transformations in African national data ecosystems in recent decades                      10
    2.2 Key data communities within national data ecosystems in Africa                             15

3. Data innovation in Africa: Selected case studies                                                42
    3.1 Rwanda: Innovations within the official statistics system                                  42
    3.2 United Republic of Tanzania: Innovations in technology, systems and tools in the
        national statistics system                                                                 44
    3.3 Kenya: Citizen-generated data: Ma3Route                                                    45
    3.4 South Africa: The Victims of Crime Survey: An example of a national statistical
        office going beyond its traditional domain                                                 48

4. Conclusions and recommendations                                                                 52
    4.1 Conclusions                                                                                52
    4.2 Recommendations                                                                            55

References                                                                                         57

                                                                                                    iii
E Africa Data Revolution Report 2016 - Highlighting developments in African data ecosystems - United Nations ...
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

Foreword

African countries pledged to achieve sustain-        ficient. Infrastructure would be useless if it is
able development and inclusive growth for all        not adapted to local context, and if communi-
following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for        ties cannot access or afford it. Data communities
Sustainable Development and the Agenda 2063.         would not fully grow and prosper if they are not
The need for timely and quality data to inform       empowered to voice their particular needs and
the two agendas exerts pressure on the national      capacitated to engage in partnerships and design
statistical systems more than ever before. While     their own innovative solutions.
much progress has been made in past decades to
strengthen national statistical systems for evi-     To fully harness the data revolution, a holistic
dence-based decision making, countries still face    strategic approach is therefore required. Each and
challenges in many areas. The data required for      every component of the data ecosystem should
monitoring progress toward the ambitious and         be steered toward the shared goal of establishing
aspirational global and continental development      a conducive environment for leveraging data and
agendas is unprecedented both in scope and gran-     partnerships to respond to development priori-
ularity with which the data should be collected.     ties while leaving no one behind.

Technological advancement, growing recogni-          This first edition of the biennial Africa Data
tion of individual rights for information and        Revolution Report aims to address issues on the
knowledge, the spread of open data initiatives,      process of transforming data ecosystems, from
and increasing involvement of various non-tra-       the status quo to an aspirational state where data
ditional data stakeholders offer opportunities       from both conventional and new sources are be-
to meet data challenges for the implementation       ing harnessed to better inform decision-making
and monitoring of the development priorities at      and enable sustainable development with contri-
global, regional and national levels.                butions from diverse data communities. The re-
                                                     port is envisioned to assist countries on the con-
Indeed, the potential of data goes beyond report-    tinent in charting their way towards strengthened
ing of development progress. Empirical evidence      national data ecosystems by identifying common
is mounting that data enables citizens to make       problems, sharing home-grown examples and
more effective decisions in their daily lives, en-   lessons learned and coming up with actionable
trepreneurs to create new business opportunities,    recommendations applicable in the regional,
and institutions to make the governing process       national and local contexts. Further, it reviews
more efficient, responsive, inclusive and trans-     the current state of data ecosystems in Africa in
parent. Nevertheless, data alone cannot unlock       terms of the diversity of data actors and their ca-
the above-mentioned opportunities if laws and        pacity needs, legislative and policy frameworks,
policies allowing people free access, use and re-    technological infrastructure, tools and platforms,
use of data are not in place. And such laws and      and the dynamic interactions between them.
policies mean little if technical capacity and in-
frastructure to make use of the data are not suf-

                                                                                                         v
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

We hope that this inaugural report will serve as         nize African-led regional efforts and feed into the
a baseline from which countries will assess their        discourse on data for sustainable development in
progress toward harnessing the data revolution at        global fora.
the service of their development priorities, galva-

 Oliver J.M. Chinganya               Mansour Ndiaye        Fernando Perini             Anne Jellema

        Director,                      Team Leader,          Coordinator,         Chief Executive Officer,
   African Centre for                Inclusive Growth       Open Data for           World Wide Web
         Statistics                   and Sustainable    Development Network            Foundation
    United Nations                     Development           International
 Economic Commission                 Regional Service    Development Research
        for Africa                   Center for Africa          Centre
                                      United Nations
                                       Development
                                        Programme

vi
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

Acknowledgements

This report is the joint product of four collaborating   nana Eric (Independent Consultant, Madagascar);
institutions: the United Nations Economic Com-           Suwadu Sakho-Jimbira (Initiative Prospective Ag-
mission for Africa (ECA), the United Nations De-         ricole et Rurale, Senegal); and Charles Doukouré
velopment Programme (UNDP), the International            Fe (Independent Consultant, Côte d’Ivoire). The
Development Research Centre of Canada and the            country researchers produced 10 background papers
World Wide Web Foundation. These institutions            for this report. They received support from national
were represented by a Steering Committee com-            statistical offices and UNDP country offices includ-
posed of Chukwudozie Ezigbalike and Inkyung              ing those in Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Madagascar,
Choi (ECA), Serge Kapto and Alessandra Casazza           Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and the United Re-
(UNDP), Fernando Perini (International Devel-            public of Tanzania. The country research in Nigeria
opment Research Centre of Canada) and Nnen-              was supplemented by a report on “Unpacking the
na Nwakanma (World Wide Web Foundation),                 data revolution in Nigeria” prepared by the Feder-
together with the lead author of the report, Cos-        al Public Administration Reform Programme, with
mas Ochieng of the African Centre for Technolo-          permission from the United Kingdom Department
gy Studies. The contribution made by UNDP was            for International Development. Country research in
made possible thanks to the generous support of the      Senegal and Swaziland was reused from the UNDP
Government of the Republic of Korea. The Open            Ecosystems Mapping Project. Solicited contribu-
Data for Development is funded by the Internation-       tions were also received from Davis Adieno (Civi-
al Development Research Centre, the Government           cus, the World Alliance for Citizen Participation),
of Canada and the World Bank, all of which were          Danielle Doughman and Donatien Beguy (African
indispensable for the production of this report.         Population and Health Research Center), Paula
                                                         Hidalgo–Sanchis (United Nations Global Pulse,
Under the supervision of the Steering Committee,         Uganda) and Nnenna Nwakanma (World Wide
the report was put together by a team of country re-     Web Foundation).
searchers headed by the lead author and comprising
Jean-Paul van Belle (University of Cape Town, South      This report benefited from an earlier consultative
Africa); Canisius Nzayisenga (Independent Con-           workshop in Nairobi, Kenya in August, 2016. Pe-
sultant, Rwanda); Olusegun Akanbi (Independent           ter da Costa (Kenya), Inkyung Choi (ECA), Serge
Consultant, Nigeria); Solomon Selassie (Independ-        Kapto and Bouazza Bouchkhar (UNDP), Yosr Ab-
ent Consultant, Ethiopia); Kenneth Mdadila (Unit-        del Faatah Ahmed Ibrahim (CAPMAS, Egypt) and
ed Republic of Tanzania); Paul Mungai (University        Steve Kenei (Development Initiatives) provided
of Cape Town, South Africa); Godwin Hlatshwayo,          comments on an early draft of the report.
(Independent Consultant, Swaziland); Rakotoma-

                                                                                                            vii
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

Acronyms

AfDB 		           African Development Bank

ECA 		            United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

ICT 		            Information and communication technologies

STEM 		           Science, technology, engineering and mathematics

UNDP 		           United Nations Development Programme

UNESCO            United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

viii
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

Executive Summary

The data revolution can be harnessed to catalyse            the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in
positive social, economic and environmental trans-          Africa. A data ecosystem which is capable of har-
formation in Africa. Considerable innovation and            nessing the full transformative potential of the data
experimentation is currently under way within mul-          revolution also requires appropriate technological
tiple data communities and ecosystems in many Af-           infrastructure and architecture and human and fi-
rican countries. However, for the most part, these          nancial resources. The rise of information, commu-
are small-scale, pilot, isolated or ad hoc initiatives.     nication and geospatial technologies, among others,
If Africa is to benefit from the full transformative        together with demographic changes, Africa’s recent
potential of the data revolution, more systematic,          economic growth rates and increasing democratiza-
large-scale, integrated and sustainable efforts are go-     tion provide foundational structures for data ecosys-
ing to be needed.                                           tems capable of harnessing the data revolution.

African governments and other stakeholders recog-           In spite of this, significant deficits, gaps and weak-
nize the importance of the data revolution for the          nesses remain within the current data ecosystems
continent’s development. At the continental level,          in many African countries. If Africa is to harness
this recognition is embodied in the Africa Data             the full transformative power of the data revolution,
Consensus1 and other statistical and development            significant investment will need to made in hu-
initiatives, including the African Charter on Statis-       man resources, technological capabilities, platforms
tics and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. At the            and tools, and in establishing effective governance
national level, this can be seen in long-term national      frameworks related to the production, processing,
development plans and numerous legal, legislative           protection, ownership, quality, openness, timeli-
and policy reforms aimed at improving the quality,          ness, relevance, accessibility, harmonization, inter-
timeliness, relevance, availability and accessibility of    operability and use of different types of data, regard-
data. In many countries, these national and conti-          less of who produces or owns them.
nental development goals are in the process of be-
ing aligned with the global development priorities          This report examines the current state of the data
to which most African countries have subscribed,            ecosystem in Africa, its desired end state, and the
including most notably the United Nations Sustain-          gaps in between. It also provides recommendations
able Development Goals. This alignment entails ef-          on how to bridge these gaps. It maps the current
forts to harmonize, coordinate or integrate data re-        data ecosystem in Africa in terms of purpose, actors,
quirements for the Sustainable Development Goals            principles and protocols; legal, legislative and policy
and national development priorities.                        frameworks; technological infrastructure, tools and
                                                            platforms; and the dynamic interactions between
The building blocks for a data ecosystem which is           purposes, actors, frameworks, technologies and sys-
capable of harnessing the data revolution for acceler-      tems.
ated sustainable development already exist in Africa.
These include multiple dynamic and growing data             This report conceptualizes the “African data revolu-
communities which range from official statistics            tion” and identifies what is revolutionary about it –
and private-sector, civil society and citizen-based         notably (a) the exponential increase in the volume,
data groups to scientific, open and big data com-           types and speed of data available in African coun-
munities. They also include legal, legislative and          tries; (b) the increased availability and use of new
policy frameworks aimed at creating enabling envi-          types of data as well as new uses of old or conven-
ronments and governance frameworks for harness-             tional types of data; (c) new principles of data gov-
ing the data revolution at the national and regional        ernance, including the principles of inclusion and
levels, such as the African Charter on Statistics and       openness; and (d) new data-related rights and free-

1   United Nations, Economic Commission for Africa, 2015.

                                                                                                                 ix
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

doms. The report argues that underlying the con-          data ecosystems which are capable of harnessing the
cept of the African data revolution is a fundamental      data revolution, it would be helpful if policymak-
conceptual and paradigmatic shift on the question         ers and other decision makers had a clear sense of
of who and what officially counts, is counted, how,       the full range of impacts of different types of data,
by whom, for whom and for what purposes.                  data platforms, technologies and tools. The scientif-
                                                          ic community and the international and continen-
The question of what and who officially counts and        tal development bodies such as ECA, the African
is counted, by whom, how and for whom is more             Development Bank (AfDB) and UNDP can help
than simply a question of available or feasible sta-      in commissioning, financing or undertaking these
tistical techniques and methodologies. At its core,       scenario studies and impact studies. If data, includ-
this question embodies political economy and ideo-        ing new and novel types of data, are to be used in
logical considerations of what and who constitutes a      decision-making, the case for many of the claims
national priority, and is worthy of counting, and by      made on behalf of such data must be backed up by
extension, planning public, social, development and       solid evidence. This is likely to enhance public in-
other services for. Official statistics can be and have   vestment in national data ecosystems, but also the
been used as tools for social, economic and political     use of data produced by such systems. Africa must
exclusion and segregation in Africa, especially under     create a virtuous cycle of good-quality data, good
colonial and apartheid rule. However, statistics and      decision-making, good policy outcomes and suffi-
data in general can also be used as tools for pro-        cient investment in national data ecosystems if it is
moting social, economic and political inclusion and       to harness the data revolution on a large scale and
integration, for example by including marginalized        sustainably.
communities, regions and peoples in national cen-
suses, household surveys and administrative, civil        The importance of capacity needs
and other vital data registration exercises. The report   assessments early in the cycles covered by
concludes that the African data revolution embraces
                                                          the Sustainable Development Goals and
a broader concept of who and what officially counts,
is counted, by whom and for whom. This derives in         Agenda 2063
part from the broader development goals for which
African countries seek to harness the data revolu-        It is almost taken for granted that every African
tion: the Sustainable Development Goals adopted           country is ready for different types of data, technol-
by the United Nations and the African Union’s             ogies, tools and platforms. Yet there is widespread
Agenda 2063.                                              recognition that despite recent improvements, the
                                                          national statistical system in many African countries
The report makes the following recommendations:           is capacity-constrained. Different data communi-
                                                          ties might have arisen in different African coun-
Proof of premise: What is the full range of social,       tries, but the assumption that every African country
economic, environmental and other impacts – pos-          is ready to harness different types of data ignores
itive and negative – of the data revolution? What         fundamental differences in political economies and
might African countries do to maximize the positive       institutional, technological, financial and human
and mitigate the potentially negative impacts of the      resource capabilities. Whether a country is in a po-
data revolution?                                          sition to effectively harness geospatial and big data,
                                                          for example, depends on a whole range of factors
The full range of socioeconomic and other impacts         that cannot be taken for granted. If African coun-
of the data revolution and the various types of data      tries are going to establish data ecosystems which are
such as big data and open data remains largely un-        capable of harnessing the data revolution, national
known. Without this knowledge, what interven-             assessments of readiness to handle different types
tions governments and other stakeholders might            and sources of data, technologies and platforms are
undertake to maximize the benefits of the data rev-       going to be critical in helping them to identify gaps
olution and minimize its negative potential remains       or areas where key interventions might be directed.
limited. In order to accelerate the establishment of

x
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

Legal, legislative and policy reforms to                 in Africa. These include private-sector, civil society
anticipate and allow for the harnessing                  and citizen-based data communities and scientific,
of the data revolution for accelerated                   open and big data communities. Greater collabora-
sustainable development in Africa                        tion, coordination, harmonization and integration
                                                         of data initiatives among these communities have
A number of reforms have been initiated in many          the potential to significantly reduce the costs of data
African countries, but in many cases they are either     collection and to fill key gaps in national official sta-
incomplete or insufficient. The right legal, legisla-    tistics. They also have the potential to enhance data
tive and policy environments will create conditions      accessibility, dissemination and use. Public-private
that are conducive to harnessing the data revolution     and other partnerships, and other business models
for sustainable development in Africa.                   for facilitating collaboration in data collection, pro-
                                                         cessing, analysis, dissemination and storage, need to
Significant investment in data                           be explored.
technologies, platforms and tools and
human and financial resources is going                   The importance of strengthening
to be needed if Africa is to benefit from                investment in administrative data
the full transformative potential of the                 collection and use
data revolution
                                                         Administrative data, including civil registration
This includes general investment in information and      data, are critical in national development and plan-
communication technologies (ICT) and infrastruc-         ning. Civil registration is the means by which coun-
ture, including most notably Internet, mobile and        tries keep continuous and complete records of births
digital technologies. It also includes investment in     and deaths. The issue and possession of birth and
data science, computing, STEM (science, technol-         death certificates dictate several civic, professional,
ogy, engineering and mathematics), statistics, social    business and personal activities and transactions. In
sciences and economics skills at a broader tertiary      many countries, it is through civil registration docu-
level and with specific reference to the national data   ments that individuals are admitted into schools and
ecosystem.                                               hospitals, gain nationality and formal employment,
                                                         vote or present themselves for electoral offices, buy
Greater collaboration and coordination                   and transfer properties and access financial and le-
                                                         gal services. To be excluded from civil registration,
between data communities can
                                                         then, is almost tantamount to being excluded from
significantly reduce the costs of data                   public services. In spite of this, 46 African countries
collection for use in pursuing the                       do not have complete civil registration systems to
Sustainable Development Goals,                           register births. If the continent is going to harness
Agenda 2063 and long-term national                       the data revolution to accelerate sustainable devel-
                                                         opment, a majority of African countries are going
development plans by helping fill
                                                         to need to strengthen their capacities to collect and
gaps in official statistics and enhance                  use high-quality administrative data.
data quality, timeliness, relevance,
accessibility, dissemination and use.                    National statistical offices are and will
                                                         remain the cornerstone of national data
Data collection is costly. National statistical offic-
                                                         ecosystems
es are unlikely to have the necessary and sufficient
technological, financial and human resource capac-       In spite of - in fact because of - the rise of multiple
ities to collect, process and disseminate the data       data communities, the national statistical system
required for the pursuit of the Sustainable Devel-       will continue to play a central role in national data
opment Goals, Agenda 2063 and national develop-          ecosystems in many African countries. It can be a
ment plans. However, significant capabilities and re-    key facilitator and leader in fostering collaboration,
sources are available within other data communities      harmonization and coordination within national

                                                                                                                xi
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

data ecosystems. The other data communities will           data actors and communities. To be sure, many con-
continue to complement rather than supplant the            straints to participation by non-State actors in na-
national statistical system. How the official statistics   tional data ecosystems remain. However, the policy,
community relates to the other data communities            legislative and legal openings are there. Non-State-
will to a large extent determine the degree to which       based data communities can seize these opportu-
African countries harness the data revolution.             nities not only to hold governments accountable
                                                           through the open data movement, but also to share
Functional autonomy for the national                       data, improve data quality and use, and proactively
statistical system                                         seek collaboration with the official statistics com-
                                                           munity.
Owing to its continuing centrality within the na-
tional data ecosystem, the national statistical system     Learning from experimentation and
requires functional autonomy, or a lack of politi-         innovation
cization of its work, coupled with sufficient finan-
cial and human resources. It cannot be expected to         Realizing an effective, responsible, coordinated, har-
collaborate with the other data communities or to          monized and integrated national data ecosystem will
facilitate collaboration, harmonization and coordi-        require significant experimentation and innovation,
nation if its technical and technological capabilities     and efforts to learn from them. There is nothing au-
are substantially weaker than those of the other data      tomatic about the data revolution. It is the result
communities, or if it does not have sufficient finan-      of deliberate legal, policy and technological choices
cial resources to undertake its core mandate, which        and actions. Successes or failures of experimentation
would form the basis of any collaboration, harmo-          and innovation will be constrained by these choices
nization and coordination.                                 and structural and external factors, among others.
                                                           The ability to identify the reasons behind success-
Non-State-based data communities have                      es and failures within different data communities,
a responsibility to act proactively and                    and to apply these lessons in future interventions,
responsibly to contribute to the creation                  will determine the type of data communities and
                                                           ecosystems that emerge in Africa in the future, and
of functional, vibrant, harmonized and
                                                           the degree to which the continent harnesses the full
integrated national data ecosystems                        transformative power of the data revolution. The re-
                                                           ality of experimentation and innovation will need to
Legal, legislative and policy reforms coupled with         be appreciated especially by the public sector, where
advances in ICT have opened up and or are opening          failure is not always tolerated. Innovative models for
up the data ecosystem in many African countries to         conducting experimentation and innovation such
non-State-based data communities. The opportuni-           as incubator labs or pilot projects may need to be
ty to seize this growing policy, legal and legislative     explored before large-scale projects are rolled out.
space is increasingly available to non-State-based

xii
1. Introduction: The African data revolution
   and sustainable development

The data revolution can be harnessed to acceler-               number of recent scholarly, policy and commercial
ate sustainable development in Africa. Data are                reports reinforce this characterization. Goldman
available ever faster, in greater volume and scope.            Sachs observes that while economic productivity
Globally, the quantity and quality of data on social,          doubled in 150-200 years during the industrial rev-
economic, political and ecological activities are ex-          olution, it “skyrocketed in the computer revolution,
panding exponentially. This is driven by growth in             with a three-fold gain in the half-century starting in
the numbers and analytical power of computers,                 the 1960s”. The firm believes that with the “fourth
machines and mobile devices; the spread of the In-             revolution” (i.e. the data revolution), the world may
ternet; the falling cost of data storage; and the surge        have entered a period of even more rapid productiv-
in remote sensing, satellite and other technologies            ity gains.3 Reports by the World Economic Forum,
that are creating new data and tools on an unprece-            the McKinsey Global Institute, the EMC Corpo-
dented scale. It is also driven by a surge in demand           ration4 and a number of academics describe huge
for data from the public and private sectors and civil         potential benefits of the data revolution for entire
society, and by greater experimentation, innovation            economies and sectors such as health, agriculture,
and adaptation in data production, dissemination               industry, transport, retail and public services. There
and governance across multiple data communities.               is growing consensus that while the data revolution
                                                               does not constitute the first time that technology
In its Data Manifesto,2 the Royal Statistical Society          has promised to transform the world, this process
in the United Kingdom argues that what steam was               might be the fastest.
to the nineteenth century, and oil to the twentieth,
data are to the twenty-first. According to the So-             Big data has been variously described as the oil of
ciety, data are the “driver of prosperity, the revolu-         the digital economy, the next big thing in medical
tionary resource that is transforming the nature of            care and an integral tool for smart city planning and
social and economic activity, the capability that dif-         development.5 The global open data community
ferentiates successful from unsuccessful societies”. A         makes similarly strong arguments for the potential

2   Royal Statistical Society, 2014.
3   Goldman Sachs Asset Management, 2015.
4   EMC Corporation, 2014. See also Connelly and others, 2016; Einav and Levin, 2013; Einav and Levin, 2014.
5   de Montjoye, Y.-A., 2014.

                                                                                                                   1
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

applications of open data in enabling innovations          to develop new insights and innovations that can
that are catalysing social, economic and political         improve the lives of others and help to improve the
transformations by changing sectors as diverse as          flow of information, spur development, promote
health, education, urban development and fiscal            transparency and build capacities”. Similar argu-
governance. Openness is seen as foundational in            ments for the potential benefits of the data revo-
harnessing the opportunities for data innovation           lution for sustainable development in Africa have
that are unlocked when data cross geographical,            been made by various African governments in their
territorial, sectoral, disciplinary, social and other      national development strategies and by African
boundaries.6 Data generated by citizen groups have         scholars and development agencies in various books
also been shown to hold great promise, while the           and papers, including Ben Kiregyera’s The Emerging
power of high-quality official statistics and scientific   Data Revolution in Africa; the Mo Ibrahim Founda-
data in helping inform policymaking has long been          tion’s Strength in Numbers: Africa’s Data Revolution;
recognized.                                                and Johan Fourie’s The data revolution in African
                                                           economic history.
African governments, civil societies, academics
and private-sector organizations have recognized           1.1 Defining the data
the potential applications of the data revolution to           revolution in Africa
the continent’s sustainable development efforts. Ja-
kaya Kikwete, the former President of the United           The United Nations Independent Expert Advisory
Republic of Tanzania, spoke for many African gov-          Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable De-
ernments when he opened the first ever Open Data           velopment defines the data revolution as an “explo-
Conference in Africa in Dar es Salaam on 4 Septem-         sion in the volume of data, the speed with which
ber 2015: “I totally subscribe to the idea that data       data are produced, the number of producers of data,
is an important tool for development. No successful        the dissemination of data, and the range of things on
and meaningful development will take place with-           which there is data, coming from new technologies
out the use of data … We cannot honestly speak             such as mobile phones and the ‘Internet of things’,
of developing Africa today without improving on            and from other sources, such as qualitative data,
ways we source, process and make use of data. More         citizen-generated data and perceptions data”.8 The
importantly, we must transform ways we manage              Group considers that the data revolution includes a
data by increasingly making public data open and           “growing demand for data from all parts of society”.
shared. In that way we will enable decision makers         The data revolution for sustainable development, in
to make informed decisions. We will also empower           the Group’s view, involves “the integration of … new
the public to use data to hold the public officials        data with traditional data to produce high-quality
accountable. In that way we will enhance good gov-         information that is more detailed, timely and rel-
ernance and take Africa to the next level.”7               evant for many purposes and users, especially to
                                                           foster and monitor sustainable development; the
In its Data Revolution Policy and SMART Rwanda             increase in the usefulness of data through a much
Master Plan 2015~2020, the Government of Rwan-             greater degree of openness and transparency, avoid-
da makes the case that the explosion in the world          ing invasion of privacy and abuse of human rights
of data has “enormous potential to spur innovation         from misuse of data on individuals and groups, and
and creativity, increase the proliferation of highly       minimising inequality in production, access to and
skilled jobs, contribute to economic growth, enable        use of data; … more empowered people, better pol-
better decision-making and create a more accounta-         icies, better decisions and greater participation and
ble, efficient, responsive and effective government”.      accountability, leading to better outcomes for peo-
The master plan commits the Government to devel-           ple and the planet”.
op a policy on Open Data, on the basis that “easy
access to data allows individuals and organizations

6   Third International Open Data Conference, 2015.
7   United Republic of Tanzania, 2015.
8   United Nations, 2014.

2
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

The Africa Data Consensus, developed at the High                    providing timely, user-driven and disaggregated
Level Conference on Data Revolution, held in Ad-                    data for public good and inclusive development”.9
dis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 27 to 29 March 2015,
builds on the Group’s definition. It defines the Afri-              The Consensus is a strategy for nurturing the data
can data revolution as: “A profound shift in the way                revolution in Africa. It aims to create a new data
that data is harnessed to impact on development de-                 landscape or ecosystem by opening up the field of
cision-making, with a particular emphasis on build-                 data production and dissemination to State and
ing a culture of usage. The process of embracing a                  non-State actors. It was developed in response to
wide range of data communities and diverse range                    calls for a framework on the data revolution in Af-
of data sources, tools, and innovative technologies,                rica and its implications for the African Union’s
to provide disaggregated data for decision-making,                  Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development
service delivery and citizen engagement; and infor-                 Goals. The plan of action for the application of the
mation for Africa to own its narrative”. The Con-                   Consensus is being spearheaded by ECA, the Afri-
sensus views the data revolution as a “partnership of               can Union Commission and AfDB, with support
all data communities that upholds the principles of                 from UNDP and the United Nations Population
official statistics as well as openness across the data             Fund, and in collaboration with partner institutions
value chain, which creates a vibrant data ecosystem                 from the public and private sectors as well as civil
                                                                    society organizations.

The core principles of the Consensus include:

    Box 1. Principles of the Africa data revolution
    Data must be disaggregated to the lowest levels of administration by gender, age, income, disability and other
    categories.
    People must be counted to make them count. Civil registration should be accessible and provided at no cost.

    Official data belong to the people and should be open to all. They should be open by default.
    The data community should embrace the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics as a starting
    point.
    There is a need for governance and coordination of the data ecosystem.
    African governments should acknowledge open data provided by credentialled data communities as acceptable
    sources of country statistical information.
    Technology, new forms of data and other innovations should be actively embraced.

    Data communities should promote a demand-driven data user culture spanning the entire ecosystem.

    Privacy and intellectual property rights should be respected.
    Data should be translated into information that is simple, understandable and relevant. Information must be timely,
    accurate, relevant and accessible.
    Data must be driven by needs rather than for their own sake.

    The data revolution in all its facets should be gender-sensitive.

    Source: United Nations, Economic Commission for Africa, 2015.

Analysis of continental and national policy, legal                  •   The considerable changes already under way
and legislative frameworks, principles and protocols                    within data ecosystems in Africa: the explosion
shows that the African data revolution can be un-                       in the volume, velocity and variety of data pro-
derstood in a two-dimensional sense:

9     United Nations, Economic Commission for Africa, 2015.

                                                                                                                          3
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

    duced within the continent, their dissemina-             statistical offices and other public agencies, but also
    tion, accessibility and use                              from non-public-sector actors such as academic in-
•   The data ecosystems to which the continent as-           stitutions, private-sector companies, development
    pires: inclusive data ecosystems involving gov-          agencies, civil society organizations and citizen
    ernment, private sector, academia, civil society,        groups. For example, almost 9 out of 10 people in
    local communities and development partners               Africa now live in a country which has conducted a
    that tackle the informational aspects of devel-          population census in the last 10 years. A third of all
    opment decision-making in coordinated ways;              Africans live in a country where a census has been
    ones in which data are produced and used by a            conducted since 2010, and almost all Africans (99
    wide range of data communities and harnessed             per cent) live in a country which has conducted a
    to impact development policymaking; and ones             household survey in the last 10 years. Since 2005,
    which embrace the core principles highlighted            80 per cent of African countries have published a
    above. For example, the Government of Rwan-              household survey which includes a health compo-
    da, which is one of the few African countries            nent.10 At least 12 African countries have signed up
    with an explicit Data Revolution Policy, follows         to the Open Government Partnership, and at least
    the United Nations Expert Advisory Group and             10 have established open data portals. In a number
    defines the data revolution as the “transforma-          of countries, citizen groups and civil society actors
    tive actions needed to respond to the demands            are not only producing data that sometimes com-
    of a complex development agenda and pri-                 plement those produced by national statistical of-
    vate-sector needs, improvements in how data is           fices or fill in the gaps left by such data, but many
    produced and used; closing data gaps to prevent          of them are also promoting data-sharing and use
    discrimination; building capacity and data liter-        among different stakeholder groups.
    acy in “small data” and big data analytics; mod-
    ernizing systems of data collection; liberating          A number of data communities in Africa have ei-
    data to promote transparency and accountabili-           ther piloted or are experimenting with new sources
    ty; and developing new targets and indicators”.          of data collection or platforms for data accessibili-
                                                             ty and sharing. By tracking population movements
From the foregoing, it is apparent that the “African         through mobile phone data and by running ana-
data revolution” implies something revolutionary             lytics on social media, opt-in services such as the
both in what is already taking place within African          Kenya-based Ushahidi have made it possible for hu-
data ecosystems and in what is aspired for or desired        manitarian organizations to better understand and
in ideal African data ecosystems.                            respond more quickly and effectively to human-
                                                             itarian crises and natural disasters. By looking at
1.2 What is revolutionary about                              population flows and conducting real-time CCTV
    the African data revolution?                             analytics to better understand traffic issues, some
                                                             African cities, including Abidjan, Cape Town and
From the general definitions of the data revolution          Nairobi, seek to better plan for and accommodate
to definitions that are specific to the African data         their growing urban populations by building “smart
revolution, the revolutionary aspect centres on at           cities” that have adequate health, water, electricity,
least five key factors:                                      education and public transport infrastructure. For
                                                             example, Harvard University’s Engineering Social
(a) The exponential increase in the volume,                  Systems programme is overlapping mobile phone
    types and speed of data available in                     data with census data in Kenya to model the growth
    African countries                                        of slums, enabling city planners to better plan for
                                                             and build public services such as water pumps and
While there are significant variations among them,           public toilets.11 Through the Outthink Urban Plan-
many African countries are producing more, reg-              ning Initiative, the city of Nairobi has partnered
ular, and better-quality data, both from national

10 Mo Ibrahim Foundation, 2016.
11 https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ess/. Accessed 13 November 2016.

4
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

with IBM’s Smarter Cities project to transform                 and sources of data as well as new applications of
waste management.12                                            old or conventional types of data. Data are increas-
                                                               ingly available on novel types of variables and on
Work to harness the substantial increase in the vol-           new activities, peoples or regions that were previ-
ume, types and speed of data available is beginning            ously excluded from many conventional types and
to yield significant social, economic and scientific           sources of data. Some of the new types or sources
results. Over the last few years, a number of African          of data have already been highlighted (such as cit-
countries have revised the methods and base year               izen-generated data and satellite or remote sensing
data used to calculate gross domestic product in or-           data). Others include “big data” or large quanti-
der to reflect the structure and size of their econo-          ties of complex data (sets) which can be curated and
mies more accurately. This has entailed accounting             analysed to derive insights and meaning. In popu-
for economic activities previously omitted from na-            lar balance, big data is often associated with either
tional income accounting either because they were              social media or business data, or both. However,
performed in the informal sector or because they oc-           this is misleading, since not only are there a range
curred in sectors that were previously non-existent or         of different types of big data, but different types of
underdeveloped such as information and communi-                big data sometimes require different analytical ap-
cations technologies. The results of these exercises           proaches. For example, administrative data or data
have been dramatic, and reflect the importance of              collected by government agencies for the purpos-
high-quality data to national development. Nigeria’s           es of registration, transactions and record-keeping
gross domestic product nearly doubled from $270                (such as data for the administration of tax systems,
billion to $510 billion between 2013 and 2014,                 social programmes and regulations) can be a type
making it the largest economy in Africa. Kenya was             of big data. Especially in developed countries, some
catapulted from a low-income to lower-middle-in-               of these administrative data now come in large data
come country, while Zambia’s economy turned out                sets with tens of millions of distinct observations
to be 25 per cent larger than previously thought.13            and huge numbers of covariates. The increased scale,
The rebased or updated figures not only provided               dimensionality and lack of structure in some of the
better assessments of the size of the economy and              administrative data in developed countries have led
the composition of and sectoral contributions to               some scholars to conclude that administrative data
gross domestic product in a number of countries;               not only constitute a distinctive form of big data
the more accurate measures of these countries’ econ-           but are significantly underutilized because, among
omies provide an opportunity for policymakers and              other things, they are not easily shared (among State
citizens to assess their fiscal circumstances better           and federal authorities, for example, or ministries
and prioritize their national development initiatives          and national statistical offices).14 While the issues
better. Besides the improved quality of official sta-          of scale, multidimensionality, lack of integration
tistics, non-traditional sources of data collection,           and coordination, and inadequate sharing and un-
processing, dissemination and sharing such as opt-             derutilization are all relevant to administrative data
in and mobile surveys and open data platforms are              in many African countries, a general lack of admin-
generating constructive debates about data quality,            istrative data is a bigger and more urgent problem
timeliness and governance frameworks across the                on the continent.
continent.
                                                               The growing availability of large data sets that cap-
(b) Increased availability and use of new                      ture the behaviour of millions of individuals, or
    types of data as well as new uses of old                   even the complexities of the galaxy, has yielded ex-
    or conventional types of data                              traordinary scientific results, including in Africa.
                                                               As Johan Fourie has argued, the applicability of the
The “revolution” in the African data revolution also           data revolution to the past is especially valuable in
centres on the increased availability of new types             areas with limited written records such as sub-Sa-

12 IBM, 2016.
13 Mo Ibrahim Foundation, 2016.
14 Connelly and others, 2016.; Einay and Levin, 2013; Einay and Levin, 2014.

                                                                                                                    5
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

haran Africa. Fourie documents how a new gener-            (c) Principles of data governance,
ation of economists, geographers and historians are            especially the principle of inclusion or
rewriting African history using not only thousands             “Leaving no one behind”
of individual archival records but also geographical,
climatic and demographic projections into the dis-         What is “revolutionary” in the African data revo-
tant past. A new African economic history has come         lution also centres on the fundamental principles
of age, in large part thanks to the data revolution.       for governance of the production, dissemination,
                                                           use and ownership of data. Many of these have
Scholars such as Fourie have used analysis of the          been highlighted in box 1 above, and they include
height of African military recruits during colonial        the principles of inclusion and openness. One of
rule (as a proxy for living conditions) to document        the most “revolutionary” principles of the African
the evolution of living standards of African peoples       data revolution is the principle of inclusion or of
during an era of unreliable data. These data have          leaving no one behind. At the heart of the princi-
turned out to be useful not only as a tool to meas-        ple is the idea that everyone matters or counts and
ure the level of living standards over time, but also      that people must be counted or captured in formal
to test the effects of different colonial policies on      data processes such as civil registration to allow the
African populations. “The data revolution has not          government to plan for their basic social, economic
only offered new variables to measure past events,         and other needs. In the context of the Sustainable
but it has been especially useful as a contemporary        Development Goals, this principle amounts to the
outcome variable. In the absence of data on region-        idea that no goal, target or indicator should be con-
al African economies, for example, Michalopoulos           sidered met unless it has been met for every person
and Papaioannou use light density at night ob-             around the globe.
tained from satellite imaging to test the impact of
precolonial ethnic institutions and the impact of the      Civil registration is particularly important as far
borders drawn during the Scramble for Africa on            this principle is concerned. Civil registration is the
current economic performance”.15 In this case, the         means by which countries keep continuous and
data revolution is not only helping to solve a fun-        complete records of births and deaths and the issue
damental problem in the study of African history           of birth and death certificates, which then dictate
and economics (i.e. a lack of data); it is also leading    several formal civic, personal, professional, business
to innovative uses for old or conventional types of        and political activities and transactions. In many
data. The decision by a growing number of African          countries, it is through civil registration that indi-
governments to make their traditional data (i.e. data      viduals are admitted into schools and hospitals, gain
produced by national statistical offices) open by de-      nationality and formal employment, vote or pres-
fault or accessible through open data portals is also      ent themselves for electoral office, buy and transfer
leading to increasing accessibility of this type of data   properties and access financial and legal services. To
and in some cases, new uses of it by various stake-        be excluded from civil registration is in many cases
holder groups.                                             synonymous with exclusion from public services. In
                                                           spite of this, 46 African countries do not have com-
                                                           plete civil registration systems to register births. By
                                                           one estimate, 83 per cent of Africans live in a coun-

15 Fourie, 2015.

6
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

try without a complete and well-functioning birth        ness, timeliness, relevance and ownership all stand
registration system. Less than one in five births oc-    in contrast to the principles and paradigms that
cur in a country with a complete birth registration      have governed the production, dissemination and
system, while 87 per cent of deaths occur in coun-       usage of official statistics at some points in the Afri-
tries without complete death registration systems.16     can past, notably during the colonial period. What
                                                         and who counts and is counted, by whom, how and
(d) Data-related rights and freedoms                     for whom is more than just a matter of technical
                                                         considerations or the applicability and utility of var-
What is “revolutionary” in the African data revolu-      ious statistical methods and techniques. At its heart,
tion also centres on data rights and freedoms. The       this question embodies political economy and ide-
Consensus is not explicit on this point, but underly-    ological considerations of what are considered na-
ing its many fundamental principles are data-related     tional priorities by governments in power or dom-
rights and freedoms. A number of African govern-         inant interest groups in society. Accordingly, in the
ments have policy, legal and legislative frameworks      past official statistics in Africa have been used either
that either explicitly or implicitly provide for da-     as tools for social, economic and political exclusion
ta-related rights and freedoms. These include:           and exploitation or in order to further inclusion,
                                                         conflict resolution and integration, depending on
•    The right to be counted, as an integral part of     prevailing dominant ideologies, political economies
     the principle of leaving no one behind              and development paradigms. The broader defini-
•    The right of access to information (for example,    tions of development and the principles of inclu-
     information held by the State – a right embod-      sion, participation and empowerment embedded in
     ied in article 35 of the Constitution of Kenya      both the Sustainable Development Goals and the
     and article 34 of the Constitution of Rwanda,       African Union’s Agenda 2063 mark a fundamental
     as well as Rwanda’s Access to Information Act)      shift in the conception of what and who counts and
•    The right to participation (for example in data     is counted, by whom and for whom. This report
     production, dissemination and use)                  emphasizes that the question of who and what offi-
•    The right to non-discrimination and equality        cially counts and or is counted, how, by whom and
•    The right to privacy and to ownership of per-       for whom is determined not just by technical con-
     sonal data                                          siderations but by political, ideological, cultural and
•    The right to freedom of expression (e.g. citi-      historical priorities or factors. That the African data
     zen-generated data)                                 revolution answers this question in fundamentally
                                                         different ways from past behaviour and practices is
The African data revolution, viewed in its aspira-       part of what is revolutionary in the African data rev-
tional dimension, is inclusive of all these rights and   olution.
freedoms.
                                                         1.3      Purpose of this report
(e) A conceptual, ideological and                        This is the inaugural Africa Data Revolution Re-
    developmental paradigmatic shift on                  port, the first in a series of biennial reports that will
    the question of who and what officially              focus on developments in national data ecosystems
    counts, is counted, how, by whom and                 in Africa. It highlights the current state of the Af-
    for whom                                             rican data ecosystem, its desired end state, and the
                                                         gaps in between. It also provides recommendations
Underlying both the generic concept of the data          for creating data ecosystems capable of harnessing
revolution and the more specific notion of the Af-       the full transformative potential of the data revolu-
rican data revolution is a fundamental conceptual,       tion in Africa. The specific objectives of this report
ideological and developmental paradigmatic shift         are threefold:
on the question of who and what officially counts,
is counted, how, by whom, for whom and for what          •   To review and map components of national
purposes. The principles of inclusion, data open-            data ecosystems in Africa, with a view to assess-

16   Mo Ibrahim Foundation, 2016.

                                                                                                                7
Africa Data Revolution Report 2016

    ing their ability to help advance the attainment    •   Review of scholarly, policy and grey literature
    of national and regional development plans, as          on the data revolution globally and the African
    well as the Sustainable Development Goals               data revolution in particular. The literature re-
•   To identify common systematic challenges that           views were conducted by the lead author and
    hamper the full realization of the African data         country researchers, with the latter taking the
    revolution                                              lead on each of their case study countries: Côte
•   To put forward recommendations for accelerat-           d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria,
    ing progress towards the desired end state of the       Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland and
    data ecosystem in Africa, in keeping with the           the United Republic of Tanzania.
    aspirations expressed in the African Data Con-      •   Interviews with key informants from represent-
    sensus.                                                 ative data communities in each case study coun-
                                                            try (such as national statistical offices and other
1.4      Methodology                                        members of official statistics communities, rep-
Data for this report were compiled using a combi-           resentatives of the private sector, civil society,
nation of methods, including the following:                 scientific and citizen-based data communities,
                                                            as well as key players and stakeholders in open
•   In-depth country case studies in 10 African             and big data communities).
    countries, aimed at understanding their nation-
    al data ecosystems: key actors; legal, policy and   1.5      Outline
    legislative frameworks; infrastructure, technol-    The rest of this report is organized as follows. Sec-
    ogies and tools; and the dynamic interactions       tion 2 maps the current data ecosystem in Africa,
    among actors, subject to the limits imposed         highlighting its strengths and limitations with spe-
    by legal, legislative and policy frameworks and     cific reference to the requirements of the Sustaina-
    infrastructural and technological limitations.      ble Development Goals, Agenda 2063 and various
    In a majority of countries, country researchers     national long-term development plans. Section 3
    worked closely with national statistical offices    presents case studies of some innovations within
    and with UNDP country offices.                      various data communities in Africa, while section 4
                                                        concludes the report.

8
2. Data ecosystems in Africa

A data community is a group of people who share                 data communities and citizen-based data communi-
social, economic, political and/or professional inter-          ties. If classified by types of data, in addition to the
ests in data across the entire data value chain – pro-          sectorally based classification, one might have open
duction, analysis, management, dissemination, use               and big data communities. Each African country
and storage. A data ecosystem is the complex system             has a unique national data ecosystem depending on
of relationships between individuals, organizations,            the distinctiveness of its data communities; types of
data sets, standards, resources, platforms and other            data; institutional frameworks; data infrastructure,
elements that define the environment in which each              technologies, platforms and tools; and the dynamic
particular data resource exists.17 A data ecosystem             interactions among the actors, which are subject to
encompasses multiple data communities (e.g. pub-                different technological, infrastructural, legal, soci-
lic, private and civil society actors); different types         opolitical and other constraints. Figure 2 below is
of data (old and new); institutions, laws and policy            a representation of the national data ecosystem in
frameworks; technologies, platforms and tools; and              Swaziland.
the dynamic interactions among the actors within
prevailing technological, infrastructural, legal, pol-          This report focuses on data communities as classi-
icy and other constraints. In this report, the term             fied by sectors and types of data, as follows:
“data ecosystem” in Africa refers to the state of na-
tional data ecosystems in individual African States.            •   Official statistics data communities
The rest of this chapter examines the various data              •   Private-sector data communities
communities, institutions and frameworks, and                   •   Civil society sector data communities
technologies, platforms and tools, that constitute              •   Scientific data communities
national data ecosystems in African countries.                  •   Open data communities
                                                                •   Big data communities
Data communities can be categorized variously - for             •   Citizen-based data communities.
example, by sector, types of data, technological plat-
forms, tools and methods. If classified by sector, for          This classification is also adopted partly for ease of
example, one might have public-sector-based data                presentation. There can be significant overlaps be-
communities such as official statistical systems or             tween data communities. For example, open data
national statistical systems, private-sector data com-          communities can be inclusive of or interact with
munities, civil society data communities, scientific            official statistics communities, citizen-based data

17 This definition draws from both the Open Data Charter (opendatacharter.net) and the Africa Data Consensus.

                                                                                                                      9
You can also read