The momentum is increasing around international land monitoring initiatives, together with an unprecedented demand for free, accessible, and usable land data and information. The land sector must find ways to seize opportunities presented by open data innovations while negotiating a rapidly changing data environment. 

The Land Portal and Open Data Charter have been working with the Government of Senegal to open up land data, following the guidance set forth in the Open Up Guide for Land Governance. The Open Up Guide is a practical guide for governments who are seeking to better collect, publish, and use land data for the public good. As Phase 1 of this project, the team has published the State of Land Information in Senegal (SOLI) Report. SOLI reports are research-driven analyses of the current state of land data that assess the available land information against open data standards. 

Concurrently, the Land Portal is researching and publishing SOLI reports for other countries in Africa, including Namibia, Malawi, and others. 

The webinar will share the latest results from the Open Up Guide implementation pilot in Senegal and the SOLI research in Namibia. We will ask and answer pressing questions concerning the interest in and maturity of open data in the two countries and specifically in the land sector. 

Speakers

• Moderator: Dr. Mark Napier, Principal Researcher of  Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
• Oumou Kalsom Khoule Seck, Director of the National Agency for Spatial Planning (ANAT)
• Natalia Carfi, Executive Director of the Open Data Charter 
• Royal Mabakeng, Lecturer in the Dept of Land and Spatial Sciences at the Namibia University of Science and Technology
• Charl-Thom Bayer, Project Lead of the State of Land Information reports for Namibia and Senegal and co-leads the open data work at the Land Portal.

Interpretation will be provided in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.