Regional Engagement Towards the Establishment of a Data-Science

Platform for Africa

Fatima Parker-Allie GB19

September 2012

Background and contextualisation

• At GBIF 16 the governing board endorsed the recommendation to have a series of regional meetings with the aim of improving the coordination of activities between the country nodes and the secretariat as well as to support collaboration amongst nodes at a regional level.

• A series of meetings and regional engagement opportunities were enabled through the regionalisation strategy and Node Managers from approximately 16 countries and 5 Participant organisations, have shown a continual increase in collaboration and capacity.

GBIF 16

Oct 2009 July 2010 March 2011 Sept 2011

Planning meeting In Kenya

ACM meeting in South Africa

2nd Regional meeting in

South Africa

Identified the need For An action plan

July 2012

3rd Regional meeting, Rwanda

ARCOS

4 th Regional Meeting – April 2013

African Coordinating Mechanism • It was identified that an African Coordinating Mechanism (ACM) is required, which is the

ultimate Vision for a Formal Regional Structure for biodiversity information management on the continent

• The aim of the ACM is to improve collaborative action in data publishing and use.

• Through the ACM, the African Nodes strive to become the data-science interface for this mega-diverse continent, in support of the implementation of the Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action

• The aim of this concept/document is to mobilize resources through the African Ministers Committee on Science and Technology (AMCOST) which is a component of the African Union network, or alternatively through NEPAD

• This concept and the proposed steps towards the establishment of the ACM has been endorsed by the HoD

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2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

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Data available in GBIF about biodiversity in Africa

All data available inGBIF aboutbiodiversity in Africa

Data published bycountry Participantsin Africa aboutbiodiversity in Africa

Trend in data about biodiversity in Africa and Use

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South Africa Kenya Madagascar Nigeria

‘Comparison of Marine Spatial Planning Methods in Madagascar Demonstrates Value of Alternative Approaches’ (Allnutt, T.F. et al., 2012)

Authors of scientific publications using GBIF mediated data Jan-Aug 2012

Highlights of the Regional Strategy

• 3 Priority Areas were Identified and further developed

• A Data Mobilization and Use Strategy is being developed, including the establishment of an African Science Committee, which will address key research questions and priority areas for the African region. This Committee will also provide guidance on a research agenda for biodiversity informatics. A ToR has been developed for this Committee. GBIF – Benin is providing leadership to this area. This concept and steps towards establishing the Science Committee has been endorsed by HoDs

• A regional engagement framework/roadmap has been developed including a log-frame describing milestones, timelines and responsible persons, towards a fully operational GBIF-Africa structure. Nodes have achieved endorsement on these concepts, and this will now be taken forward.

Inception phase Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

Agreement on concept and Modality of Project Dev of workplan, budget,

Baseline for Operatnzt of ACM Needs analysis, data holders survey, inventory of biod initiatives

Transition Organizing and engagement of strategic partners Enabling data holders and users

Mid term

Review

Operationalization

of ACM

Capacity Building

Strategic Regional Engagement

Data publishing

strategy and action plan

Holistic Approach to Capacity Development

Grow relevant skills in BI in networks

University

Develop collaborative research programmes in BI

postgraduate research hubs

Providing bursaries

Facilitation by GBIF s

to identify research areas / scholarships – to support est.

of research hubs

Robust Human Capacity at BIF’s

Network of Node

Managers

Clear development plans

Career-pathing implemented

Examples of Node Structures

Technical training and

Strategic level training to be identified as two

separate entities

Improve data quality and Use

Data providers

Data Users

Node Managers

Fitness for Use of data

Publishing data

Data cleaning

Website Use

Identification of Trainers

Tools identified to improve quality and Use

Targ

et M

arke

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dat

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A

ctiv

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South Africa

National, regional, and thematic species checklists, an inventory of biodiversity data-

holdings especially in Southern Africa and the development of a Southern African Centre of

Excellence in Biodiversity Informatics

Appointment of a regional

coordinator

Ghana

Initiated a project which will contribute to sustainable harvesting of medicinal trees. Will

provide ca. 900 DNA sequence barcodes of useful plants (timber and medicinal trees) and associated

data from West Africa.

post-graduate studies , herbarium techniques, DNA barcoding methods & grant writing skills

Biodiversity Informatics Training

for Africa and the World

Prof. Townsend Peterson & Africa Partners

Here 9 in person training events will take place

South Africa, Nairobi, Egypt and Ghana.

Data creation, improvement, analysis, Institutional Development

Materials will be made available globally – internet

Benin – Costa Rica (INBIO)

To provide a Technological Package for the Implementation of the National Biodiversity

Information System (NBIS) of Benin

Prototype portal

http://lucina.inbio.ac.cr/portalBenin/

Workshop - 26-30 Nov-12, Benin on standards, protocols and tools

Collaborative Engagement

Mentoring Programme: Many GBIF bio-diverse participant countries has made great strides in making data available via the internet. One of the key enabling factors has been through collaborative engagement. The GBIF mentoring Programme has been very valuable, in bringing countries together in support of the N - S and S-S engagement. Countries and International Organisations have all benefitted from this programme which promotes collaboration and capacity development. Outcomes: Many countries have uploaded data to GBIF, some have developed data portals nationally and others are in the process of developing products (checklists).

Recommendation: Many countries globally have benefitted through more collaborative activities, and more data has been made available via GBIF in support of science and policy. We strongly Recommend that this budget allocation be increased rather than reduced, and that this should have a more stable longer term (3-5 year) budget allocation.

BHL-Africa was established, 14-15th June 2012 BIMF – Cape Town, SA

Partnerships

East Africa Biodiversity Project – JRS Capacity development & tools Study grants have enabled capacity dev. of key individuals providing common resource people for the region

Benin – Costa Rica (Example of South-South cooperation) Technology package

South Africa - India & GBIF EIA Data Mobilization

South Africa - integrated approach to data management Species Names, molecular, occurrence and research data Mobilization

Benin, Togo, Madagascar, Guinea, Cameroon, Capacity Development

Burkina Faso – French GBIF Node

SEP2DEC

Products and opportunities

http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/

ARCOS continues to develop its portal with five data centres in each of the five Albertine Rift countries (Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Uganda and Tanzania)

Outcomes of the Regionalization Strategy for Africa

MDG’s IPBES

CBD

2020 Aichi Targets

WCMC – biodiversity indicators

Many nodes are

operational

Bridging the research –

policy-decision

making divide

Regional and international

Partnerships

CEPDEC, SEP-CEPDEC, JRS

GBIF Infrastructure

IPT, standards & tools

Data Mobilization

>14.5 m records

Training activities in

biod. inform