UCT Extends Footprint into Sub-Saharan Africa

Next month a small, dedicated unit in the University of Cape Town’s Commerce Faculty will join a project enabling African countries to leapfrog to world-class standards of data access.

DataFirst, a young offshoot in the Faculty of Commerce, recently signed a contract with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to provide technical assistance, support and training in the installation and maintenance of an online survey data catalogue system for the National Statistics Offices of Liberia, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Nigeria, Mozambique and Ghana. This will revolutionise the way national survey data is stored and retrieved in these countries.

The new web-based cataloguing tool, called the National Data Archive, was developed by the International Household Survey Network, a World Bank and OECD funded initiative, and will bring data management in Africa up to speed with global norms.

In an information-driven economy, whoever brings information brings life and excitement, and the visits to these countries by the Director of DataFirst, Matthew Welch, to install software and provide back-up support will be a significant step. DataFirst will provide support to ensure survey data from these countries are preserved and, importantly, made accessible to decision-makers and researchers.

Winds of change blowing across Africa, have led decision-makers to yearn to craft policies based on hard fact, enabling this transfrontier exercise to take shape.

This will empower the continent to leapfrog to international standards in archiving and disseminating official statistics.

The Faculty has recently installed the National Data Archive software for its own searchable Data Archive to catalogue surveys to global standards.

DataFirst, which is a world-class archive and training facility, is home to datasets from all major South African and African social science surveys, access to which are free to students and researchers at the University.

DataFirst's Matthew Welch and Lynn Woolfrey