ODIN Africa: Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
Hosted by the IOC Project Office for IODE
Website: http://www.odinafrica.net
Mr Mika Odido, ODINAFRICA Project Manager, m.odido@unesco.org
Description
The Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa (ODINAFRICA) brings together marine institutions from twenty-five Member States of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO from Africa (Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Togo, and Tunisia).
In October 2003, a broad spectrum of African marine and coastal experts met in Brussels, Belgium, to plan the ODINAFRICA 3 Framework, including a number of projects and deliverables building on the successes of earlier capacity-building efforts. Although the principal focus of ODINAFRICA 3 was the establishment of “a Pan African Network of in situ coastal observing Stations providing data to the African Ocean Data Information Network,” a significant portion of the efforts were also concerned with gathering, analyzing and synthesizing existing data into a carefully defined suite of data products for African decision-makers, particularly geospatial atlases.
The goal of the current phase of ODINAFRICA is to improve the management of coastal and marine resources and the environment in participating countries by: enhancing data flows into the national oceanographic data and information centres in the participating countries, strengthening the capacity of these centres to analyse and interpret the data so as to develop products required for integrated management of the coastal areas of Africa, and increase the delivery of services to end users.
Each member state participating in the project designates a National Coordinator to ensure that the projects activities are implemented in the country as planned. The member states have been divided into two groups based on the IOC Regional Subsidiary bodies (IOCEA and IOCWIO). South Africa, which is a member of both bodies, has been grouped with IOCWIO while Tunisia, which is a member of neither has been, grouped with IOCEA.
The government of Flanders, Belgium, has provided US$2.5 million to support the implementation of ODINAFRICA-III. Additional support was provided by Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (US$395,554); Participating institutions (US$1,489,213); Experts for capacity building provided by marine science institutions in Belgium, India, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
Track Record
The Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa (ODINAFRICA) brings together marine related institutions from twenty five (25) Member States of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO from Africa. The earlier phases of development of ODINAFRICA aimed at enabling member states from Africa to get access to data available in other data centres, develop skills for manipulation of data and preparation of data and information products, and develop infrastructure for archival, analysis and dissemination of the data and information products. The goal of the current phase of ODINAFRICA is to improve data flows into the national oceanographic data and information centres in the participating countries, develop data and information products required for integrated management of the coastal areas of Africa, and increase the delivery of services to end users.
The network has assisted the Member States to establish and operate National Oceanographic Data and Information centres, and in particular: to get access to data available in other data centres, develop skills for manipulation of data and preparation of data and information products, and develop infrastructure for archival, analysis and dissemination of the data and information products. Each of the participating institutions has developed a suite of data and information products that have been quality controlled, merged and availed through project website (http://www.odinafrica.org). These include: Directories of marine and freshwater professionals, Catalogues of marine related data sets, Marine Species data bases, library catalogues, catalogue of marine related publications from/about Africa.
Through this project, selected data for the Africa continent and surrounding waters will be consolidated into one digital library, with links to additional institutional and online data sources. A team of 15 data managers from 12 coastal African states are working together to produce the atlas by the end of 2006. The development of marine biodiversity databases commenced with work on databases for molluscs and sponges. Other taxa that will be considered include decapods.
The African Marine Atlas was initiated in 2006 to synthesize geospatial data products for the African continent (emphasizing especially the marine and coastal environment). The Atlas incorporates existing geo-referenced datasets available in the public domain (but tailored to meet specific scope requirements), and also data products created from national and international marine data collections by scientists participating in the ODINAFRICA program of capacity building projects. The atlas can be accessed at http://www.africanmarineatlas.net.
The three thematic work packages being implemented in the current phase of ODINAFRICA are: (i) Coastal Ocean Observing System, focusing on upgrading and expanding African network of sea-level stations, provision of near real-time observations of ocean variables, and building adequate capacity for analysis and management of sea-state variables. New tide gauges have been installed in Pointe Noire (Congo), Djibouti (Djibouti), Takoradi (Ghana), and Nouakchott (Mauritania) within the framework of ODINAFRICA. Additional stations have been upgraded at Port Louis and Rodrigues (Mauritius), Mombasa and Lamu (Kenya), Inhambane and Pemba (Mozambique) though the Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System and the Global Sea Level Observing System. Data from these stations is available online through the ODINAFRICA Sea Level Data Facility that has been established at the IODE Project Office in Ostende, Belgium. Other stations that will be installed by ODINAFRICA include: Limbe (Cameroon), Alexandria (Egypt), Nosy Be (Madagascar), Casablanca (Morocco), and Dakar (Senegal). Locations in Cote d’Iovoire, Tanzania and Tunisia will also be considered. A training course on sea level measurements and interpretation was organized jointly by ODINAFRICA and GLOSS at the IODE Project office from 13-23 November 2006 and attended by 15 participants from countries participating in ODINAFRICA.
Data and Information Management, focusing on further development and strengthening of National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODC) to manage data streams from the coastal ocean observing network, and Integrating biogeographic and hydrological data steams into NODC systems. Ten new National Oceanographic Data and Information Centres (NODCs) have been established in Benin, Cameroon, Comoros, Gabon, Ghana, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia during the current phase of ODINAFRICA, bringing the total number of NODCs in Africa to 22.
In order to ensure standardization of software, formats methodology as well as training curricula, and to enable students to undertake self-study subsequent to group training courses, the Ocean Teacher system was developed. It is based on an extensive collation of international public documents on marine data, formats, software, program and data management procedures, manuals, protocols, and associated tutorials. The main collection, entitled the IODE Ocean Teacher system, is a 600-megabyte CD-ROM that has been under development by the IOC training staff since 1997. It is accompanied by data CDs, that contain data sets relevant to the two regions covered by ODINAFRICA, i.e. IOCWIO and IOCEA. The CD-ROMs are the principal training resource used during data management courses. The Ocean Teacher is also available through the Internet: http://www.oceanteacher.org.
ODINAFRICA is also playing a key role in the implementation of the “Cross Cutting” project on development of UNESCO Knowledge portals by coordinating the development and maintenance of the “African Ocean Portal” which is part of the UNESCO/IOC OceanPortal. The portal will provide access to information and data on all aspects of ocean/coastal research and management for the benefit of various communities such as decision makers, the private sector, the research and education community and the general public.
Challenges
The training and follow-up support has equipped the data and information managers with the tools to effectively manage their centres and develop relevant data and information products for their users. However wide disparities in knowledge, capability and background of the trainees as well as the difference in sizes and focus of the libraries and data centres is a challenge to the resource persons.
The delays in the transfer of funds that occurred in 2002 and 2003, caused serious delays in implementation of the project activities at the national level. These delays were caused in part by the introduction of the new UNESCO financial management system (FABS), incomplete submission of payment requests by the participating institutions or delays in completion of contracts for the previous years.
The implementation of ODINAFRICA activities in Comoros faced three major challenges (i) both the data and information managers were not fluent in English and therefore had problems catching up during the training sessions, (ii) delays in processing of contracts and also in submitting financial statements and reports, and (iii) frequent power blackouts at the institution, sometime lasting several weeks. Remedial training for the information manager was provided by her counterpart from Seychelles, Mrs Josette Confait in Moroni in xxx, 2003. The data manager attended a training session organized in Tulear, Madagascar in July 2003 where, his counterpart from Madagascar, Mr John Bemiasa, assisted him.
The Directorate of Marine and Coastal Management (MCM), which host the ODINAFRICA data and information centre in South Africa was not allowed to directly receive funding from foreign organizations by the accounting regulations governing state institutions in the country. They were able to receive equipment, and some local experts were contracted to assist their library and data centre in developing catalogues and metadabases. MCM was able to implement a number of activities with its own resources. However it is unfortunate that the data manager was able to attend only one of the training sessions.
Opportunities
There are several regional or international programs and other initiatives that address coastal and marine environmental issues in Africa. Their effectiveness depends on their ability to share information across national, sectoral and disciplinary boundaries. ODINAFRICA should play an active role in the development of the data management plans for such programs and also provide the mechanism for an exchange of information between individuals and organizations through its wide network.
There is considerable merit in funding complementary small-scale activities using the accrued interest on unexpended moneys.
The participating countries in sub-Saharan Africa are not at the same level of capability or capacity and training courses need to take these differences into account. As more countries join, the problem will be accentuated and future plans may need to be amended to allow for multi-tier training approaches. More use could be made of indigenous expertise for initial training purposes.
