Stories

Datum Africa Initiative Launches Dedicated Website

Datumafrica.org now serves as the home of the Datum Africa Initiative — mission content, research, programs, and partnerships — clearly separated from the datum.africa data platform.

Why African Data Needs Its Own Infrastructure — Not Just Adaptation

Adapting Western data governance frameworks to African contexts is not enough. We need infrastructure designed from the ground up for African realities.

Datum Africa Research Team

Community Data Stewards Cohort 2026 Now Accepting Applications

Applications are open for data stewards who will improve metadata quality, taxonomy support, and dataset discoverability across Africa's open data ecosystem.

Decolonial Data Practice: What It Actually Looks Like in the Field

A practical look at how Datum Africa's community programs approach representation, language, and context in African data documentation — and what we've learned.

Community Programs Team

Datum Africa Hosts First Open Data Community Roundtable of 2026

Community contributors and institutional partners convened to discuss data standards, cross-border collaboration frameworks, and language accessibility priorities for 2026.

The Hidden Cost of Missing Metadata: Evidence from 500 African Datasets

Our analysis of 500 community-contributed datasets found that missing or incomplete metadata reduces discoverability by an estimated 60% — with non-English datasets most affected.

Datum Africa Research Unit

What 300 African Data Contributors Said About What Makes Them Stay

Our 2025 contributor survey found that mentorship quality and community belonging — not technical tools — were the top two factors driving sustained open data contribution.

Community Programs Team

Datum Africa Partners with Three Regional Research Networks

New formal partnerships with research networks in East, West, and Southern Africa expand Datum Africa's reach and research capacity across the continent.