State of Cartographic Services among the East African Community Member States

Abstract

The East African Community is a regional block that brings together Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan into various forms of economic partnership, the eventual dream being to achieve political federation. The current activities within this community, plus the block’s further development, require the generation and sharing of much geo-information to support the attendant decision-making. Such geo-information can be best served through a harmonized cartographic service with common standards. Such a harmonized service is not only lacking, but even the status of the current national services is also largely unknown. This paper reports on a study undertaken to establish this status, as represented by twelve elements of a cartographic service that the authors are able to establish. Results of the study have shown that the present national services are characterized by inadequate basic datasets that remain largely analogue. In addition, there are non-uniform spatial reference systems, inadequate cartographic human resources and lack of common mapping standards; further, funding for mapping activities remains low in national budgets. Given that over 80% of decisions are influenced by geo-spatial data, these findings point to an urgent need to improve, harmonize and digitize these services as the way forward, if the East African Community is to remain globally competitive.