Geospatial Data Sharing Barriers across Organisations and the Possible Solution for Ethiopia

Abstract

Geospatial data sharing across organisations is a well-recognized challenge with multiple facets. Due to the absence of appropriate space for the sharing of and access to geospatial assets, these often remain scattered and locked within various economic sectors of Ethiopia; this means that datasets are not maintained or updated regularly, efforts are duplicated, finding available datasets is difficult and there is no single reliable version of the data. Exploitation of the full socio-economic benefits of using geospatial information is therefore impossible. This paper therefore aims to assess inter-organisational geospatial data-sharing challenges and the possible solutions within Ethiopia. A lack of coordination between organisations, poor data quality and compatibility, institutional, legal, policy, and technological issues are identified as major challenges. Ethiopian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (ENSDI), which has already been introduced, should be further promoted as the collaborative entity for effective cross-sectoral geospatial data sharing. A national strategy to hand over informal SDI initiatives, building on existing efforts, setting clear (top-down) ENSDI development approaches and collaborative investments in the building blocks of ENSDI are suggested to enable the successful execution of ENSDI as a cross-sectoral geospatial data-sharing mechanism.