Addis Ababa, 04 November 2013 (ECA) - The Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Economic
Commission for Africa made a call for Africa to fully harness the opportunities found in spatially-enabled information to build on its remarkable achievements. Speaking at the Global Geospatial Conference 2013 that opened in Addis Ababa this week on the theme: Spatial Enablement in Support of Economic
Development and Poverty Reduction, Mr. Abdalla Hamdok said there should be no excuses for not using appropriate geoinformation for policy making, planning, development due to expense or the time it takes.
“With the development in space and digital technologies in the past two decades, the time for making spatially-enabled information and maps available for development and management purposes has been greatly reduced,” he said.
He told the global gathering that the geospatial technology industry is an emerging sector of the African economy that is expected to see tremendous growth in the coming years. In an example of the economic value of geospatial applications and services, he said that in 2011, India recorded a boost in revenues to business from geoservices in the range of US$40 to 45 billion with an estimated US$ 70-75 billion cost saving accrued by businesses. “It can also be a very lucrative one,” he said.
With the emergence of a community of robust geospatial experts, such as those attending the conference, geospatial technologies are gradually becoming the driving force of many applications and services. He cited Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda and South Africa as among countries that are applying these technologies in land administration, natural resource management and agriculture.
He noted that while Africa’s demographic trends, including rapid urbanization represent economic opportunities, they also represent real challenges with regard to human welfare and infrastructure needs.
“Key development information and indicators are at risk of quickly becoming outdated and of limited value to understanding the scale, speed and locations of newly developing urban areas and informal settlements,” said Hamdok, and added that information with a geospatial component needs to inform the continents sustainable planning and development.
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In addition, he stressed, “Spatial development infrastructure needs to be tackled together, through regional, continental and international efforts.”
The Deputy Head called on policymakers to appreciate and adapt to the changing landscape. He said using good quality data, processing it, and asking the right kind of questions to get the right answers can help with decision-making processes.
With opportunities found in fast growth of internet traffic, he said that Africa should make use of its institutions, structures and systems to support gathering credible data to measure the continent’s developmental growth in a credible manner and also pointed out the use of crowd sourcing, which has been useful in the contexts of natural disasters.
“With protocols for data collection, management, sharing and dissemination, communities’ participation can be leveraged and strengthened,” he said.
Mr. Hamdok also pointed out the need for skilled human resources and an enabling infrastructure to fully leverage the potential of geospatial information technology.
“The world is more connected, clouded and the web more integrated with distributed data and services, the challenge is how to make sure that geo information resources are made accessible anywhere, anytime,”
he said and added the need for careful consideration of legal and policy implications in areas such as privacy, national security, liability and intellectual property.
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Africa must use geoinformation technologies for development - ECA http://www.uneca.org/print/3939
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