AFRICAN UNION
UNION AFRICAINE
UNIÃO AFRICANA
P. O. Box 3243, Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA Tel.: (251-11) 5182410 Fax: (251-11) 5182450
website:www.au.int
REPORT OF MISSION
WORKSHOP ON ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND DATABASES
Algiers, Algeria: May 14-16, 2013
Table of Contents
I.
PURPOSE .......................................................................................................................... 2
II.
OBJECTIVES .................................................................................................................... 2
III.
PARTICIPANTS ............................................................................................................ 2
IV.
MEETINGS’ OUTCOMES ............................................................................................ 3
V.
VI.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................ 7
ANNEXES ...................................................................................................................... 8
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I. Purpose
In the framework of the establishment of an «African Infrastructure Databases», which will
include data on Tourism, Transportation, Information Society (ICT) and Transboundary
Water Resources, and will be established by the Department of Infrastructure & Energy
(DI&E) of the AUC and NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency (NPCA), the African
Energy Commission (AFREC)hosted a workshop under the theme « African Energy and
Infrastructure Information Systems and Databases »; which was held at the AFREC
Headquarters in Algiers on 14-16 May 2013. Besides AUC and DI&E delegation, the
workshop was also attended by a delegation from the Statistics Division of the African
Development Bank (AfDB). The AfDB requested to visit AFREC in order to present its
program of ‟Portal Data and Open Data System” for the management of statistical databases.
II. Objectives
The main objectives of the workshop were to learn in detail the AFREC’s data collection
methodology and how they have build their database on Energy, what content it has in terms
of indicators on Energy, and to know what challenges it is facing in this area.
The Department of Infrastructure and Energy is planning to build the Africa Infrastructure
Database which will include the data on PIDA. To tackle this big challenge a team has been
set and planned consultations of the African institutions which havealready built databases so
that it can benefit from their experience and use their data whenever possible. For that reason
a sample of institutions which are actors in that area have been selected to be visited. Since
AFREC has been working on the Energy database for years and have experience on dealing
with member states on collecting energy data, it was chosen to be the first one to be visited
by the team. AFREC organized the visit in form of a workshop with the following objectives:
-
Presentation of the Portal Data and Open Data System for statistical databases,
-
Review the statistical databases of the AUC including indicators and metadata,
-
Elaborating data collection strategies, and
-
Discuss lessons learned from past experiences in databases development.
III. Participants
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The workshop was attended by three delegations of three institutions: AFREC, AfDB and
AUC. The AUC delegation was composed of two groups from the DI&E and AUC Statistics
Division. These institutions were represented by the following staff officers:
-
Dr. Hussein ELHAG: Director, AFREC
-
Mr. Slaheddine SAID: IT Consultant, AfDB (PROGNOZ Company)
-
Mr. Rafik MAHJOUBI; IT Consultant, AfDB (PROGNOZ Company)
-
Mr. Crispen ZANA: Senior Energy Advisor, DI&E (EUEI-PDF)
-
Mr. Yagouba TRAORE: Senior Information and Data Analyst, DI&E (GIZ)
-
Mr. Nzingoula Gildas CREPIN: Statistician, AUC – (Statistics Division)
-
Mr. Abdoulaye OUEDDO: IT/IS Consultant, AFREC
-
Dr. Gilbert NZOBADILA Energy Policy Consultant, AFREC
IV. Meetings’outcomes
The key issues that were discussed and concluded are:
1. Data Portal and Open Data
The visit of the AfDB delegation to AFREC was fixed in February this year after an earlier
request by the AfDB Statistical Division to visit AFREC to present the “Portal Data and
Open Data System”, a tool for databases representation and manipulation which was adopted
by the AfDB for the management of its statistics database. The Bank described it as a
powerful tool for statistical data representation, management and manipulation. In doing so,
the Bank suggested the visit to be on 13-14 May 2013 whichcoincided with a planned visit by
an AUC delegation for a workshop with AFREC on statistic databases. Since the objectives
of both visits were similar, AFREC merged them into one workshop.
Furthermore, in the context of its statistical capacity building program and support for the
AFREC’s energy database, the Bank has decided to install and put in place for AFREC the
Portal Data and Open Data System to improve its energy data dissemination and facilitate
data exchanges. AFREC can eventually build the capacity of its National Focal Points in the
member countries to compile and manipulate energy data with ease and reliability. This tool
was actually developed by an American company called “PROGNOZ” and the Bank
delegation was represented by two technical officers from this company, who on behalf of the
Bank, explained the features of the system and discussed plans to installthe systemfor
AFREC as part of the Bank’s technical support.
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The Portal Data and Open Data System is a web portal which acts as essential step in the
strategy for the dissemination of energy data and information. The objectives of the web
portal include the following:
-
Serve as communication tool for data dissemination and facilitate data exchanges,
-
Allow for quick manipulation of the database,
-
Enable instant connections with other statistical databases and importation of datasets,
-
Facilitate instant data transmission by the National Focal Points,
-
Provide constant services all the time and anywhere through the Internet, and
-
Allow access to data in a friendly manner to all users.
The Outcome:
- After presentation and thorough discussionsfrom the technical experts of
“PROGNOZ” company, they informed AFREC that they were directed by the Bank
to create a web portal for AFREC using its existing energy database. Thus, the two
sides discussed and approved a step-by-step roadmap for the system construction and
operation which will be completed within a period of 2 months (14th May to 15th July
2013).
-
Immediately after the meeting, AFREC transferred its entire database to the
PROGNOZ technicians and the AFREC’s IT/IS Consultant (Mr. Oueddo) will work
with them on the construction of the web portal.
-
Once completed, this System will represent an easy tool to connect all statistical
databases of the AUC along with others such as those of the AfDB, IEA, WEC, etc.
Thus, any user with a password can import data from multiple databases using the
AFREC Web Portal System.
-
After the installation of the web portal, AFREC can reach an agreement with the
company for future updates and technical support.
2. Workshop on Statistics databases of the AUC
Legal Framework:
Three parties under the AUC have met in this workshop to discuss the development of
statistics databases for Energy and Infrastructure (Transport, ICT and Transboundary
Water). The legal framework within which these statistical databases are functioning is
the Constitutive Act of the African Union and the 1991 Abuja Treaty for Creating an
African Economic Community.
Page | 4
Objectives:
The main objectives of the statistical operation of all parties of the AU include the
following:
- Coordinate statistical activities of the parties under the AU and strategize, develop,
manage and disseminate statistical datasets, create synergy in operations, exchange
experiences and sharing best practices, and publish joint statistical reports to serve the
needs of the AU and its Member States’ socioeconomic development strategies.
- Treat the statistical data and information relevant to Africa collected by international
agencies as secondary data while treating the data collected by African entities as primary
data.
- Guarantee Africa’s ownership of its statistical databases.
- Provide reliable statistical datasets and information for the implementation of the PIDA
and SE4ALL initiatives.
Coordination Body:
The meeting recommended the establishment of a “Coordination Body” within the AUC
to oversee and monitor the cooperation process among all the parties in the development
of the statistical databases. The body will initially compose of AFREC, DI&E and the
AUC-Statistics Division as follows:

AFREC: for Energy

DI&E: for infrastructure (Tourism & Transportation, Information Society and
Transboundary Water Resources)

AUC-Statistics: for Socio-economics
Other institutions which have activities in statistical databases and which are relevant to
Africa can be invited to join the Coordination Body and may include the following:
-
COMESA
-
Other RECs
-
AfDB
-
UNECA
-
APUA (former UPDEA)
-
APPA
-
AU-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP)
-
NEPAD/NPCA
Page | 5
Harmonization of Operations:
In order to achieve harmonization of activities of all parties under the AUC, the
Coordination Body would oversee the following:
-
Identify areas of possible cooperation
-
Support each-other in statistical data collection and share the already collected data
and information
-
Participate in each-other’s regular events
-
Conduct joint field surveys for data collection whenever possible
-
Organize joint workshops and seminars on the Africa’s statistics
-
Exchange ideas and good practices in the validation techniques of statistical data
-
Liaise with each for accommodating each other’s interests
-
Publish joint statistical reports and publications
-
Coordinate efforts for managing the Portal Data System
Modalities for Operations
The following modalities should be observed and considered by all parties in the joint
cooperation with each other:
-
Technical Support: Support each other in the establishment of individual and regular
databases.
-
Data Sharing: Connect the established databases through the Portal Data System.
-
Focal Points: Harmonize activities of all Focal Points of the parties in the same
country.
-
Technology Awareness: Jointly benefit from the rapid developments of IT/IS tools
for communication among the parties, with Focal Points and automatic transmission
of data.
-
High Level Meetings: Use high level meetings to promote the importance of
statistics to the African Member States.
Recommended Timeframe for Notable Achievements:
The operation of the parties should produce certain achievements within target dates,
including the following:
1. Short Term (up to December 2013):
- Promote consultation and exchange of ideas among all parties.
-
Undertake preparatory actions, appoint and harmonize National Focal Points.
Page | 6
-
Create and operate a Portal Data System by AFREC.
2. Medium Term (January-October 2014):
- Prepare questionnaires and start data collection by the National Focal Points.
-
Prepare summary reports for submission to the 3rd CEMA meeting and other AUC
events.
-
AFREC will update its indicators list to include the energy indicators for SE4All,
AEEP and PIDA programmes.
3. Long Term (2015 and beyond):
- Launch all statistical databases.
-
Publish the established databases in paper and posted on-line.
-
Connect them to the Portal Data System.
Way Forward:
The parties will use the upcoming events to further discuss and review the functioning of
their statistical operations including the following:
-
The second cycle of Regional Training Workshops for the AFREC’s Focal Points this
year (in June, September and October),
-
The proposed DI&E visit to the AfDB and UNECA for consultation on statistical
databases (in June-July), and
-
The meeting of the AFREC Coordination Group for the establishment of the AEIS (in
October).
V. Conclusions and Recommendations

The Department of Infrastructure and Energy should define a list of indicators for
each sector concerned by the African Infrastructure database. At the beginning we
should focus on PIDA.

In addition, the team from AUC Statistics Division and Department of Infrastructure
and Energy will visit UNECA and AfDB in order to understand what they have done
so far in infrastructure and energy data management.

There is also need to harmonize the data collected by Focal Points at the countries
levels including outputs from partner contributions like the EU funded projects and
other partners.
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VI. ANNEXES
1. List of participants
NAME
DESIGNATION/TITLE
1.
Dr Hussein ELHAG
Executive Director of AFREC
2.
Mr. Abdoulaye OUEDDO
IT/IS Consultant
3.
Dr. Gilbert NZOBADILA
Energy Policy Consultant
4.
Mr. Crispen ZANA
Senior Energy Advisor Advisor
to the African Union
Commission -AEEP Monitoring
5.
Mr. Yagouba TRAORE
Senior Information/Data Analyst
ADDRESS
African Energy Commission
02 Rue, Chenoua, BP: 791
Hydra, 16035, Algiers-Algeria
Tel.: +213 61 681 576
Email: afrienergy@yahoo.com
African Energy Commission
02 Rue, Chenoua, BP: 791
Hydra, 16035, Algiers-Algeria
Tel.: +213 561 130 972
Email: afrienergy@yahoo.com
African Energy Commission
02 Rue, Chenoua, BP: 791
Hydra, 16035, Algiers-Algeria
Tel.: +213 561 130 806
Email: afrienergy@yahoo.com
African Union Commission
EU Energy Initiative
Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI
PDF)
c/o GIZ - AUC Office
P.O. Box 12631
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Email:crispen.zana@euei-pdf.org
African Union Commission
Department of Infrastructure and
Energy
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia
Mobile: +251 919 314 645
E mail :traorey@africa-union.org
African Union Commission
Department of Economic Affairs
P.O. Box 3243
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: +251 1155 77 00
Fax: + 25111 5510249
Email: crepinN@africa-union.org
6.
Mr. Gildas Crépin
NZINGOULA
Statistician
7
Mr. Slaheddine SAID
IT Consultant
AfDB (PROGNOZ Company)
8
Mr. Rafik MAHJOUB
IT Consultant
AfDB (PROGNOZ Company)
Page | 8
2. Agenda of the Workshop
09:00-09:15
09:15-10:15
10:15-12:15
12:15-13:00
13:00-14:30
14:30-15:30
15:30-16:30
09:00-10:30
10:30-12:30
12:00-13:00
13:00-14:30
14:30-15:30
15:30-16:30
09:00-11:00
11:00-13:00
13:00-14:30
14:30-15:30
15:30-16:00
16:00-16:30
14-16 May 2013 Day 1: Tuesday 14 May 2013
Opening Remarks:
AFREC Director
AfDB Representative
DI&E Representative
AUC Representative
AFREC Presentation: Strategy for the Development of the AEIS
AfDB Presentation: Portal and Open Data Systems for Energy Statistics
Discussion
Lunch
DI&E Presentation: Development of the African Infrastructure Database
AUC-Statistics Presentation: AUC Statistics Operation
Day 2: Wednesday 15 May 2013
AFREC Presentation on the Questionnaire for Energy Data Collection
DI&E Presentation on the Strategy for Infrastructure Data Collection
including AEEP
Discussion
Lunch
AUC-Statistics Presentation on the Strategy for Statistics Data Collection
AFREC Presentation on the Formation and Training of the National
Focal Points for Energy Data Collection in the Member States
Day 3: Thursday 16 May 2013
AFREC Presentation on the Harmonization of Energy & Infrastructure
Databases under the PIDA Initiative: Structure & Modalities
Revision and Adoption of the Strategy for the Development of an African
Infrastructure Database
Lunch
Discussion of Developing a Questionnaire Model for Infrastructure Data
Collection & Development of the African Infrastructure Database
Presentation and Adoption of the Communiqué of the Workshop
Any Other Businesses & Wrap up
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