Fundamental Datasets

A major problem that Africa faces is that many countries do not have the information resources needed for economic and development planning. For coherent planning, it is necessary to develop a well-structured and comprehensive data foundation that would be consistent, comparable and compatible at the local, national, regional, and global levels.  Quick reviews of the African terrain reveal that the geoinformation components of this development data foundation are generally not available, and where they exist are grossly outdated and uncoordinated. To plan remedial activities, it is necessary to identify and reconcile the common and key sets of information for development across the continent. While the thematic data needed by various development sectors may vary, it has been accepted that these key or fundamental datasets must be provided in the context of spatial data infrastructures for the community of users to base their sectoral data products on. However, there is no agreement on what should be included in these fundamental datasets. There is even no consensus on what is meant by the term “fundamental datasets.”

ECA released a publication aims to recommend a consistent definition and specify the contents of fundamental datasets for Africa’s socio-economic development. With the agreed definition and contents, it would now be possible to undertake a status study and perform gap analysis to develop strategies for providing the geoinformation resources needed for socio-economic planning and monitoring at national and regional levels. The material for the publication was collected through a comprehensive survey of African and international institutions involved in the production, management and use of geoinformation products in and related to Africa. The survey sought to establish what datasets are most commonly used as a foundation for other spatial information products and the criteria used in selecting them.