IASSIST Report of the African Regional Secretary
By
Kitzito Kasozi
Director Information Technology
Uganda Bureau of Statistics
2009
This report is centered on the Africa Association of Statistical Data Archivists (AASDA), a Community of Practice (CoP) that was formed to enhance the potentials of preserving and mining of micro data in Africa. AASDA is an affiliate of IASSIST. The activities that are reported on are part of the planned activities.
A website for the association was developed thanks to IHSN support and launched in 2008. A call for membership was made to relevant institutions. Since then the association has registered more members raising from the founder 26 to 60 registered members. These include 20 persons from the academia and 40 professionals in the area of data management. More membership will be realized as the drive for open data access continues. A few members have taken advantage of different opportunities to advocate for the association and its objectives.
National Data Archives (NADA)
A number of member countries have advanced in developing their NADA. The progress is varied with Ethiopia topping at 65 surveys fully documented and uploaded on their NADA. The rest include:
- Nigeria (20)
- Niger (15)
- Uganda (12)
- Gambia (10)
- Liberia (9)
- Ghana (6)
- University of Cape Town (10)
IHSN has continued to support this activity as well as other areas aimed at improving data quality and accessibility. Links to the NADAs can be found on the AASDA website or individual country websites. Data documentation and archiving is still a big challenge in Africa. The increasing demand for microdata and local capacities being built might help in overcoming the challenges. AASDA remains committed to supporting research through increased access and open sharing of valuable microdata.