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A Survey Data Archive Network in Africa - Possibilities and Practicalities

Literature › Works

Lynn Woolfrey (2007). A Survey Data Archive Network in Africa - Possibilities and Practicalities. IASSIST Quarterly, Spring 2007. IASSIST.
Type journal article
Scope Comparative and methods
Method policy analysis
Period studied 1973–2007
Regions Africa, South Africa, Ethiopia, Eastern Europe (comparison)
Themes methods data sources, education human capital, transition post apartheid
Citation key woolfrey2007

Argument

Woolfrey argues that survey data archives can safeguard data quality and enable data sharing, and that a network of such archives in Africa would be a useful complement to national statistical agencies. She reviews existing African data-sharing bodies (SADA, DataFirst, an Ethiopian archive) and the obstacles: poor infrastructure, scarce skills and funding, historical government-academia distrust, language divides, data ownership by foreign investigators and confidentiality. She compares Africa with Eastern Europe and suggests locating archives either in statistical agencies or, to protect independence and trust, in universities. The article is a short advocacy and policy essay, not an empirical study.

Evidence and method

Secondary literature (National Academies reports, Mwase 1986, Hausstein and de Guchteneire 2002), websites of archives and statistical bodies, personal communications with DataFirst staff and others, and usage counts for the South African LSMS dataset.

Findings

  • Africa lacks the archive networks found on other continents, yet archives may be the best way to preserve and use African survey data. (p. 1)

    Survey Data Archives may be the most appropriate facilities for ensuring the survival and usage of survey data in Africa

  • South Africa has two survey data archives, SADA (government, 1993) and DataFirst (UCT); a third nascent archive is in Ethiopia. (p. 2)

    SADA is a government repository, which was established in 1993 with the assistance of consultants from the Danish Data Archive

  • The South African LSMS (1995) shows how heavily re-used survey data can be, with many outputs used in policymaking. (p. 2)

    By January 2007, the South African LSMS data had spawned 78 monographs and 39 journal articles, by international and local academics

  • Foreign-led surveys often impose embargoes, with Afrobarometer cited as an example, excluding African researchers. (p. 4)

    the Afrobarometer Project has used their superior funding and technical resources to harvest data from African countries, but does not place this data in the public domain for at least two years.

  • Aggregate data alone cannot give an accurate picture of a national economy, so access to unit records matters for policy research. (p. 4)

    a truly accurate picture of the national economy of a country cannot be obtained from analysis of only aggregate data

  • Housing archives inside statistical agencies would compromise their independent quality-monitoring role. (p. 5)

    any archive administered and funded by a national Statistical Agency would have its objectivity compromised.

  • Internet access is a technical barrier to a continental network. (p. 3)

    Africans comprise just three percent of internet users worldwide