Who uses the data and what is it used for?

The data produced by the institutions is used by various stake- holders. These include national and local governments, the private sector, international agencies, NGOs, and research and academic institutions. The information is mainly used to support various management functions including monitoring compliance, enforcement of regulations, policy formulation, research and operations.

Networking

Networking appears to be well established among institutions working in the environment sector in Rwanda. The networks include steering groups or committees made up of local in- stitutions, while some have membership from outside Rwan- da. In October 2006 Rwanda began implementing a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) initiative. Under this initiative, the Rwanda Metadata Portal was launched.

Despite evidence of networking, there are barriers to shar- ing of data, including differences in data collection method- ologies, data structures and the predominant absence of data sharing policies or information strategies. The skills, exper- tise and numbers of employees vary greatly between organ- isations. The same applies to equipment. There is a need for capacity building and improvement in these areas.

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