The inaugural edition of the Africa Data Revolution Report (ADRR 2016) will be launched on 19 July in Accra, Ghana, as part of activities marking the 2nd Africa Open Data Conference, which will take place from July 17 – 21, 2017.

Jointly published by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Wide Web Foundation and the Open Data for Development Network (OD4D), ADRR is a biennial report that maps the data ecosystem in Africa with reference to the production, distribution and use of data by public, private and civil society actors, as they relate to the 17 SDGs.

Commenting on the importance of the report, Oliver Chinganya, Director of the Africa Centre for Statistics at ECA said, “there is need for us as Africa to boost the capacity of national data ecosystems fairly early in the implementation cycle of the sustainable development goals, that is why the ECA and its partners have produced this report and will continue to do so.”

ADRR is expected to enhance the success of Agendas 2030 and 2063 in Africa, as explained by Mansour Ndiaye, Team Leader for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development at UNDP’s Regional Service Center for Africa.

He said, “ADRR will enable us to strengthen open, inclusive and participatory national statistical systems with contributions from all stakeholders to improve the availability and use of data to help make the SDGs and Agenda 2063 a reality in African countries.”

For Fernand Perini, Coordinator of the OD4D, the report “builds on our commitment to support and strengthen regional and global networks, developing global benchmarking tools for country performance, and supporting rigorous research on the impact of data in people’s lives.”

A senior policy manager at the Web Foundation, Nnenna Nwakanma, said Africa is the first region to produce a Data Consensus and a Data Revolution Report, but that there’s need for more.

Nnenna Nwakanma, “More than data, what people want are solutions to their problems and that means translating these reports into action. The Web Foundation is looking forward to helping make this data revolution an open data revolution.”

The launch will be marked by a panel discussion with focus on the report’s findings and ways of translating them into actions; assess the status of data revolution in Africa; identify challenges; and how to leverage open data for Africa data revolution. 

The Africa Open Data Conference provides a platform for stakeholders to dialogue openly and take concrete action on common challenges and shared solutions for communities and partners across Africa. The conference will also feature a side event on The Role of Open Data in the Africa Data Revolution.