[open-development] Open Data initiatives in Southern Africa

Tue Nov 22 11:05:29 UTC 2011

Hi Adi,

Really good to hear from you. I've been in South Africa this last week
and spoken with a few people about open data in africa and especially
southern Africa.

One thing I'd proposed was booting an African data group on
http://theDatahub.org/ (see http://thedatahub.org/group) with this
then migrating to a standalone CKAN [1] data hub once we reached
critical mass in terms of material and activity (say 50-100 datasets).

Would this be a useful approach?

Rufus

[1]: http://ckan.org/

On 21 November 2011 18:24, Adi Eyal <adi at sarpam.net> wrote:
> Hi All
>
> I am involved in a DFID-funded project called the Southern African
> Regional Programme on Access to Medicines (SARPAM). We are working
> with the SADC secretariat and member states to improve access to
> medicines in the region through strengthening regional institutions as
> well facilitating regional cooperation. One facet of this programme is
> the development of a platform for information sharing across member
> states. My role in the project is to champion the open sharing of data
> across the region so as to encourage inter-state collaboration.
> Already, from the meager data sharing that has taken place, we are
> seeing that procurement agencies in a number of countries are finding
> themselves in a more advantageous position when negotiating with
> pharmaceutical companies.
>
> The process of opening up databases is far from easy however as many
> countries do not have established policies on information sharing and
> it's easier to restrict access than it is to make data available. I am
> reaching out to any other organisations and individuals active in the
> region who may have an interest in this initiative or are involved in
> related programmes of their own and who may want to share insights.
>
> Best Regards
> Adi
>
>
> --
> Adi Eyal
> InfoHub Manager
>
> phone +27 (0)11 880 6993 | fax +27 (0)11 880 6980
> mobile +27 (0)780142469
> skype adieyalcas
> www.sarpam.net
>
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