Conference paper
The IDRC project “Opening Access to Economic Data to Prevent Tobacco and Alcohol Related Diseases in Africa” will collect and share economic data on tobacco from subSaharan Africa. There is a general perception that little to no data is available for tobacco and alcohol control research in this region. In fact, there is infrastructure in African countries to collect relevant economic and policy data through national household and consumer surveys. This infrastructure, usually in national statistical offices, has been strengthened through collaborations with intergovernmental organizations, and academic institutions.This project will increase awareness of and access to economic data for tobacco and alcoholrelated policies in SubSaharan Africa among researchers, policymakers, and public health advocates.
The purpose of this project is to demonstrate that economic data can be collected and disseminated through a centralized Open Data platform, and used for policy research. The data and platform will be used to improve capacity to conduct policyrelevant research in a number of subSaharan African countries.The challenges in collecting and managing this data are fivefold: Discovering what relevant data exist, accessing these data, assessing data quality, obtaining permissions to share these data, and selecting or building the tools for curation. Data discovery is complicated by a paucity of metadata. Data access involves building relationships with the many agencies involved and developing the technological and institutional infrastructure to publish Open Data.