Environmental data inaccessibility hampers Africa's international dialogue

She said Africa was also grappling with a lack of both human and technological resources to handle the data and make it publicly accessible.

"Every country has a bureau of statistics and what is needed is a more dedicated approach, including sensitisation of the people on how to access it," Mailafia said. She emphasised the importance of accurate information at all levels of environmental planning. "To plan effectively you need a base and data is the scientific base on which planning can be done." Mailafia also called for the sharing of environmental information among countries, regionally and at a continental level.

But Robert Bakiika, deputy executive director of the Ugandan organisation Environmental Management for Sustainable Development, said few African countries had data on their environmental resources or invested in information generation. Most governments, Bakiika told SciDev, considered the environment to be a "soft" issue. Available data was mostly in a printed form that was difficult to navigate and put to use. This shortcoming puts Africa at great disadvantage in global dialogues, Bakiika said.

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