Welcome to the GODAN Summit 2016 Blog Series. Each week, we will post a blog written by a participant of our Summit held in New York City on September 15-16. This week's blog is written by Okeke Celestine, the lead partner of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Advocacy and Support Initiative (MSME-ASI).
GODAN, OPEN DATA AND THE NIGERIAN STATE
Global Open Data on Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) has been at the forefront for open data on how governments fund and support agriculture and nutrition.
When it ran its summit from the 15th -16th September 2016 in New York, GODAN brought together a collection of delegates and organisations that have advanced the cause for precision agriculture in ways too numerous to mention.
Agriculture and nutrition have no doubt been undergoing several transitions; transitions that have combined to move several countries from subsistence-based agriculture to commercially viable agriculture nations.
These transitions have enabled several nations to produce enough food to not only feed its teeming population but also for export. In all of this, the role of open data in driving the campaign for what works best and how it can be made to work best cannot be over-emphasised.
For this purpose, the GODAN 2016 Summit provided a platform for participants to cross-fertilise and take home idea. There was a zeal to contribute to the campaign to end hunger via the usage of appropriate data.
Agriculture is surely at the bedrock of every nation’s development -- any nation unable to feed its population must engage in food import, which acts as a drain on the hard currency of nations doing so.
GODAN provided a platform at the Summit for participants to have a greater understanding of the transitions agriculture and nutrition are undergoing in various climates.
It urged all participants to return back home and lead a revolution for governments to take agriculture beyond rhetoric, as we drive towards zero hunger and food sufficiency world over.
GODAN’s aid in providing myself with an opportunity to attend the event is one that will remain forever green in my memory for a combination of reasons, chief amongst them being that the event brought me in close and personal contact with various organisations, government agencies from different countries and individuals doing great and commendable work in the sphere of advancing agriculture and nutrition the world over. Also importantly, it provided an opportunity to spend some very memorable days in New York.
The campaign for open data on agriculture and nutrition in Nigeria has surely taken a new dimension as my organisation, MSME-ASI has taken upon itself to drive the campaign across all states of the federation and across all funding and support services targeting agriculture and nutrition.
It aims to partner with all relevant stakeholder to ensure we achieve maximum impact for all funds allocated for agriculture and nutrition is Nigeria.
We look forward to working closely with GODAN and other development partners to address the challenge of open data sets that are needed to drive the kind of revolution we need in the agriculture and nutrition space in Nigeria.
For us at MSME-ASI, we see the Summit as the first important milestone in our partnership with GODAN and look forward to collaborating with the organisation further.
About the author: Okeke Celestine has extensive knowledge and experience in business development and management services, management audit and facilitation of training programs. He also advocates for MSMEs in Nigeria.
