NEWS

The Project Memorandum that was written to request funds for the next phase of the project has been approved. The Project Division (DIT) are holding regular consultative meetings with the National GIS Coordination Committee, NGCC to finalise the Scope of Work for the project.

The next meeting is scheduled to be held on Monday 16th October 2006, 0830hrs at Department of Town and Regional Planning, DTRP Conference Room.The meeting will aslo discuss the proposed project management structure.
ALL comittee members are urged to attend the meeting.

GIS Coordination Unit in collaboration with other GIS stakeholder organisations organised a Geographic Information systems Day on the 15th March 2006 at the University of Botswana, Gaborone.

GIS Day in an annual event that celebrates GIS- the innovative technology that uses geography to bring countless benefits to the world. It serves to make people aware of the technology and the important contributions it is making in the fields of science, technology, information and the humanities. The event is held worldwide in November during Geography Awareness Week, however, it is held on a different day in Botswana to accommodate secondary school students who would normally be writing examinations at that time of the year.

The theme for the day was “GIS for efficiency and productivity”. The opening speech was delivered by her Excellency, the US Ambassador to Botswana, Ms. Katherine Canavan. She said GIS day was a grassroots event during which users of GIS technology opened their doors to schools, business and the general public to showcase real world applications and also gives students a chance to discern their career opportunities as it gives them a chance to interact with professionals from different fields. She also noted GIS as one of the tools that will help achieve one of Botswana’s Vision 2016 goals, i.e. to have an ‘Educated and Informed Nation’

Activities of the day included presentations from FFM Botswana titled Using GIS for Productivity and from the Botswana Police about how using GIS helps them to assist clients in their Crime Response and Interception System. Different other organisations exhibited their applications and posters. There was also a
lab session where students were given a basic introduction to GIS.

When officially closing the day, Deputy Permanent Secretary (ICT), MSCT, Ms. Alicia Ramaribana noted MCST’s involvement in previous celebrations and said the ministry will continue the support. She stressed on the objectives of the day and the opportunities it presents to those who attended. She said the GIS community has now come to a point to ask themselves if they are moving forward in the use of GIS. She said the use GIS can make a big difference in our lives and urged all to use it.

THe GIS Unit is currently working with FFM Botswana, Departments of Secondary Edcucation, Surveys and Mapping, Town and Regional Planning,UB-Enveronmental Science to organise for GIS Day which will be on MARCH 15th, 2006-University of Botswana Library Audutorium.

More Information

In an endeavor to market the NSDI initiative, the GIS Unit made a presentation to some members of staff at the Department of Roads, Gaborone in a meeting at which the Consultants were presenting an Inception Report for the "Referencing and Carrying out of Condition Survey on the Paved and Unpaved Public Highway Network" project the department has ebarked on.

The GIS Unit presentation covered what the NSDI is and its aims/ojectives; the background for the NSDI/NGIS project and organisational bodies-NGCC, Working Groups and GIS Coordination Unit, established within it. The GIS Coordinator also mentioned ways the Unit uses to market the initiative and the services the unit provide-Metadata Service and GIS Projects Registry. In the conclusion, she mentioned that implementing the NSDI is a huge task, heavily dependant on all stakeholders and the community and therefore requested the department to register their GIS projects-completed, ongoing and planned and to send the metadata records to the Unit.

On other news, the GIS Unit has submitted a request for funds to the Ministry of Finance- for carrying out phase 2 of the project.

The National GIS Coordination Committee (NGCC) held a workshop under the theme "Developments in the NSDI initiatives and the way forward", on the 25th November 2004 at Maharaja Conference Centre in Gaborone. This workshop was organised by the GIS Coordination Unit and participants were from different organisations from government, para-statals and the private sector. Click the links to browse through the program which will also take you through links to presentations.The proceedings of the workshop are also available. The workshop marked the end of the interim phase of the NSDI establishment process, presenting achievements and developments made so far and the way forward.

On the week of 18-22 October, a GIS Expert, Mr. Anders Rydén, who is a Swedesurvey Consultant based in Namibia, visited the Unit. Together with the Unit, he worked on the specification for the Data Request System (SVG application). Mr. Anders also attended an NGCC meeting on the 20th October where he made a presentation on Introduction to GIS and a demonstration of MapVEiw SVG, which is an extension of ArcView and its functionalities. The purpose of the NGCC meeting was to review the progress so far.

Swedesurvey will continue to give support to the GIS Co-ordination Unit and the NGCC until the end of November when their participation in the project will come to a complete end.

The GIS Co-ordination is pleased to announce that a new member of staff has been recruited. The Unit takes this opportunity to welcome Ms Gosego Garegope who joined the Unit in the middle of June and hopes that she will be happy here.

The GIS Coordination Unit at the Department of Information Technology organised a Seminar on the 27th May 2004, at Boipuso Hall in Gaborone, under the theme "Towards Increased Coordination of Geographic Data and GIS in Botswana –Developments and Ongoing Activities".The participants were from different organisations from government, para-statals and the private sector. The seminar also marked the end of the first phase of the NSDI establishment process, presenting achievements and developments made so far. Proceeding documents can be found here.

The GIS Coordination Unit has been staffed with one government employee with effect from the 1st of March. The Consultant still leads the work at the Unit, but through training and transfer of knowledge, the government employee will be able to run the Unit at the end of the Consultancy project. It also envisaged to employ one more staff from the Government.

The NGCC was represented by two officers at the SADC SDI Workshop in Pretoria. Documentation from the Workshop can be found at the SADC Remote Sensing Centre in Harare, which also hosted the Workshop

Swedesurvey has been contracted to continue with the establishment process until 15 December 2003. During this period Swedesurvey will mainly act as the GIS Co-ordination Unit and support the working groups in their work.