Emerging Trends in Data Curation: New Initiatives and collaborations in Africa

The value of data in Africa has for long been limited to the initial analysis and report publication. The practice of data curation remained a concept with no known practice untill around the 2000's. Ever since the introduction of the Multimedia Data Management Toolkit developed by the International Household Survey Network (IHSN), Africa has embraced the practice of data preservation. A number of countries have adopted the toolkit as the principle method of data documentation and archiving. The number of countries using and planning to use the toolkit increase by the day. This very positive development however has its own challenges and thereby calls for collaborative support from other development partners. The African Development Bank and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa are among the few who have joined hands to further this cause. The purpose of the paper will be to highlight the new inititives and re-echo the need to develop regional capacities to support data curation through collegial networks.