SIERRA LEONE OPEN DATA TRAINING 4 ENVIRONMENTAL & CLIMATE ACTION
Defining data challenges and information technology processes to bridge gaps, as well as requirments for a successful partnership bewteen collaborating institutions were the focus of yesterday's second technical session of the Sierra Leone Agriculture and Environmental Data Collaboratives held at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and facilitated by Victor Ohuruogu from Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.
Utilizing the open data Africa Regional Data Cube (ARDC) and information communication technology (ICT) solutions will aid our adaptation and resilience to and preparedness for climate change and natural disasters. The session reported good progress in the month since the inaugural meet with:
on-line training tutorials already up and running using urbanization, deforestation and flooding as the case-studies
a technical team established tasked with teasing out the data solution requirements
a committee set up to champion access to the data with reps from all stakeholder institutions
a team identified to plan and coordinate an Agriculture and Environment Hackathon aiming to attract top developers
a late fall slated for the National launch
Today's training attracted over 20 organizations and institutions including the Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Meteorological Agency, Sierra Leone Maritime Administration Stats Sierra Leone, Code for Salone, Right to Access Information and our own Vidal Sesay from Society 4 Climate Change Communication learning how to use Cube geo-spacial open data to study and investigate deforestation, flooding and land degradation.