GODAN Executive Director Andre Laperriere held a high level meeting in Rwanda today with H.E. Dr Gerardine Mukeshimana, Minister of agriculture and animal resources, and H.E. Jean de Dieu Rurangirwa, Minister of Information, Technology and Communications at the MINAGRI offices in Kigali. The purpose of this meeting is to strengthen the collaboration between GODAN and the republic of Rwanda in advancing its open data policy in the agriculture and nutrition fields. They also discussed Rwanda’s involvement in the implementation of the Nairobi Declaration which Rwanda committed to in 2017.  

It was decided that the two ministries will designate focal point who will represent the country in the pan African Nairobi initiative discussions and act as the main link with GODAN, and for Rwanda in leading open data priorities in the areas of precision agriculture, geodata and open data platforms.

GODAN supports the proactive sharing of open data to make information about agriculture and nutrition available, accessible and usable to deal with the urgent challenge of ensuring world food security.

It is a rapidly growing group, currently with over 800 partners from national governments, non-governmental, international and private sector organisations that have committed to a joint Statement of Purpose. The initiative focuses on building high-level support among governments, policymakers, international organizations and business.

Speaking about GODAN’s interaction with the Republic of Rwanda, Executive Director, André Laperrière said “As an agrarian society, Rwanda’s economy has been powered by its farmers and their agricultural output, contributing immensely to its national GDP. We are therefore quite optimistic to revolutionize the farming practices in the country through open-data, by making vital information and smart data metrics available and accessible to the country’s farmers and food producers. Further to my meetings with H.E. Dr Gerardine Mukeshimana, Minister of Agriculture and Animal resources, and H.E. Jean de Dieu Rurangirwa, Minister of Information, Technology and Communications of the Republic of Rwanda, I am very confident that we can work together to achieve a food and nutrition revolution in the country. I am very optimistic of the country’s future.”