https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xK-aQpoYQb6gdOdrgpvZ2x51bHMdbKeEijF-rLxNtmc/edit?hl=en

Feel free to edit and expand – but please – keep it readable – thanks !

Its interesting that now more than ever that technology options to deliver the same has become more accessible and more importantly more acceptable to our policy makers. Government does use data and has data, but not open. That’s the key challenge. COMESA for instance has had their comstat database for ages, not to mention the various databases by various UN agencies available online… But the use has been restricted to an audience of statisticians only. Open data makes data available and usable by the common mwanainchi… Afterall, to change the world we first must understand that world.

At TradeMark East Africa, We are working with key partners like the Sub-saharan Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP), the Northern and Central Corridor Authorities, the East African Community and the EAC governments to manage and use such data to improve trade logistics and to bring down the cost of doing business as well as the cost of goods in landlocked countries of the EAC.

We aim to do this through key ICT interventions on projects such as the transport observatories, electronic single windows, integrated border management and new ways of handling transit bonds using ICT. Other direct funding inputs are geared towards institutional capacity building in the collection of data and analysis of the same at key node points on the transit corridors as well as collecting data to identify and assist in the removal of tarrif and non-tariff barriers on the transit corridors.

For more info, visit our website at http://www.trademarkea.com or email me at athman.mohamed@trademarkea.com.

P.S: Thanks for the mention on the award btw!