From 27-29 March 2015, Ministers, organizations, technology and Data pioneers from different African countries gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the High-Level Conference on the Data Revolution in Africa, which was hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission, and UNDP.
The conference followed the UN Secretary-General’s Independent Expert Advisory Group report on the data revolution with the goal to reach an African Data Consensus.
The conference agenda covered various key issues including:
- Data initiatives in Africa
- Open Data
- Development Data
- Official Statistics
During this important meeting, new African country profiles produced by ECA Sub regional Offices in collaboration with African Centre for Macroeconomic Policy Division and other substantive divisions have been launched presenting a new data and forecasting tool aimed at helping African countries to refocus their energies on macroeconomic and social policies, with a view to achieving structural transformation across the continent.
The High-level conference on the Data revolution in Africa was also an occasion for the book launch on The Emerging Data Revolution written by Prof Ben Kiregyera. Furthermore, the various African Technology and Data pioneers attending the conference gathered in more than 20 different working data communities to make contributions to the drafting of the Africa Data Consensus. Following various discussions and inputs from experts the Africa Data Consensus was finalized and adopted with a vision of partnership of all data communities that upholds the principles of official statistics as well as openness across the data value chain, which creates a vibrant data ecosystem providing real-time user- driven disaggregated information for public good and inclusive development.
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