By Mary Mwendwa
The first ever Global Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) partner networking meeting was convened in Kenya at the Regional Centre for Mapping Resources for Development (RCMRD) in Kasarani.
The networking event which was organized by the Association of Freelance Journalists Kenya (AFJ) brought together partners who are keen on open data usage.
The event saw developers, researchers, mapping experts, agricultural experts, and organizations share knowledge and contacts in regard to open data usage.
During a presentation on behalf of RCMRD’s Director General, Dr. Emmanuel Nkurunziza, Byron Okubasu Anangwe, Business Development, and Marketing officer, emphasized the need for partnerships in data usage.
He noted that his organization had over 300 terabytes of GIS data that would be useful to many users in the data world. “We have a lot of data that is very relevant to people’s livelihood on GIS, satellite, and mapping data and therefore we work closely with governments and other institutions on the same.”
Anangwe further said that there was a difference between information and data and therefore they work with clients depending on their needs.”We are open to discussions and questions on specific types of data one needs and therefore anyone of you is interested is welcome to get in touch with
us.” He urged.
On the same note, Dr. Kiringai Kamau, Executive Director for Programme for Agriculture Capacity Development in Africa ( P4ACAD ) said that open data was critical for development especially in the area of Agriculture.
“Many governments have not put some of their data open to the public and
this is a barrier to the users.”
He further urged the participant to embrace the use of social media to make their products known ” The more you put your information out there the more people get to know about you.”
Kiringai also called upon the participants to make use of GODAN initiatives that were providing capacity building through the online courses being offered on GODAN Action in the agriculture sector.
Irene Kimani the CODATA ATG Secretary and also an ICT Specialist at the Kenya Agriculture Livestock and Research Organization (KALRO) told the meeting how their institution had created over 200 Apps which are free on Google Play store “We have many applications including one on gooseberries showing the nutritious value of the berries and many recipes that one can use to make juices and cakes out of them and we have many more apps” she said as she demonstrated using her phone
Students from different institutions were also in attendance and were keen on developing software applications that will see the usage of the readily available open data being embraced.
Many of them were happy to meet experts and other people in the forum.
Journalist were also in attendance and they were keen on being trained on data issues.
It became clear that many journalists out there did not have knowledge on how RCMRD works and therefore there was a need to conduct some training to help them familiarize with the GIS data.
Winnie Kamau, President of AFJ also noted the importance of open data for journalists in telling their stories. She urged participants to tell their stories so that other people get to know their work
“There’s a need for people to tell their stories on how they have leveraged on data in making their products and we can work together and publish stories on our online platform Talk Africa,” said Winnie.
She thanked the attendees for their continued commitment towards open data agenda and reminded them to keep the momentum.
Participants agreed that such meeting was important and they wanted similar regular meetings to share their ideas.
