Participating in the Global Open Science/Open Data Space: Towards a Botswana National Data Forum and Strategy

The potential benefits of Open Data and Open Science to economies in Africa and indeed elsewhere cannot be over stated. However, the reality in Africa is that the landscape in terms of sharing data needs a lot of negotiations at individual, institutional, and governmental level.  This article takes a snapshot view of Botswana and outlines these contextual realities that  could present a challenge to the Open Data Open Science agenda. Through document analysis, the authors trace the experiences of sharing data and arrives at the conclusion that data sharing hardly happens in Botswana.  The paper than offers the benefits that could accrue from Open Data and Open Science and provides a procedural road-map for the country to embark on operationalising the Open Data Open Science agenda in Botswana.