To keep up with this rapid urbanisation, governments, humanitarian organisations, and researchers need accurate information on buildings and infrastructure.

This data helps plan for future growth, respond to crises, and ensure resources are distributed fairly. But in many parts of Africa and the Global South, this vital information is outdated or simply unavailable.

That’s why Google launched the Open Buildings project in 2021. It started at the AI Research Lab in Accra, Ghana, and has helped map 1.8 billion buildings across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean—about 40% of the globe.

This data has been used by governments, NGOs, and researchers to improve services and respond to disasters.

Real-world examples:

• In Uganda, the nonprofit Sunbird AI used our data to prioritise areas for rural electrification, ensuring that towns and homes most in need received power first.
• WorldPop, a team from the University of Southampton, has integrated the Open Buildings data into their population estimates. These estimates are being used by UN agencies and governments, including in Nigeria, where the data has helped identify areas where children haven’t received routine immunizations.

Now, we’re expanding this effort with the Open Buildings 2.5D Temporal Dataset, which doesn’t just map buildings—it shows how they change over time and estimates their heights.

This new data covers the years 2016 to 2023, offering a detailed picture of how cities and settlements across Africa and the Global South have grown.

This is crucial for urban planning, disaster response, and understanding population density.

Governments and organisations can use this data in various ways:

• Flood preparedness: In flood-prone areas, accurate data can help authorities predict which buildings and neighbourhoods are most at risk.
• Urban growth: In cities like Kumasi, Ghana, which has seen rapid expansion, this data allows city planners to better manage resources and infrastructure.
• Disaster recovery: In places like Palu, Indonesia, where a tsunami struck in 2018, this data shows how the built environment changed before and after the crisis, helping rebuild communities more effectively.

How we built this dataset:

We used AI to improve the quality of low-resolution satellite images and estimate the size and height of buildings.

This is important because higher-resolution satellite images are not always available for the Global South.

With this technology, we’ve created a detailed map of over 58 million square kilometres, covering parts of Africa, Latin America, South, and Southeast Asia.

Why this matters:

Maps are a lifeline. They help governments, humanitarian agencies, and researchers ensure that everyone is counted and represented.

With this new dataset, we’re giving these organisations better tools to plan for the future, respond to crises, and support communities in need.

We invite researchers, policymakers, and anyone interested in urban development to explore the Open Buildings 2.5D Temporal Dataset on Google Earth Engine and share their feedback with us.

The post Using AI to Map Africa and Beyond appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

They are meant to be agents of development, more especially at the grassroots level, while engaging the citizenry with a deliberate agenda to awaken their awareness and desire for positive social changes that would enhance their quality of life while driving them to make their world a better place.

Non-governmental organisations are supposed to be interventionist bodies that are formed to improve the quality of life for people through various means, some of which are one or more out of the provision of necessities such as food, clothing, improvement of educational and healthcare infrastructure and provision of materials, training and many more that would improve the quality of life and enhance employment opportunities.

Aware of these herculean but noble tasks, when the United Nations was formed in 1945, Chapter 10, Article 71 in its Charter recognized them as such provided they remain nonprofit entities and independent of governmental influence, even if they receive certain funding from the government. That was probably inspired by The Anti-Slavery Society, arguably the first NGO in the world.

In Nigeria, the earliest NGO formally recognised was that to do with the work of Mary Selessor against the killing of twins considered evil in Calabar.

However, there are so many now in Nigeria that it may be impossible for even the government to know some, considering our poor database system.

Even though according to AllAfrica, a multi-media content provider, systems technology developer and the source-of-record for African news and information worldwide, there are over 46,000 NGOs in Nigeria, lack of proper monitoring has given some a window to engage in activities detrimental to our well-being as a nation.

The nefarious activities associated with some of them have made some states tag some of them with the toga of ‘persona non grata’, booting them out of their states.

Some prominent NGOs in Nigeria, some bearing names of individuals and some reflecting their works include the TY Danjuma Foundation, the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), Amnesty International, the North East Regional Initiative, and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

There are many others such as the Solutions for Internally Displaced (SOLID) People Project, Saving One Million Lives Programme, Africa Hope Alive Initiative, Mental Aware Nigeria Initiative, CLEEN Foundation, Federation of International Female Lawyers, Global Peace Foundation, etc.

However, apart from states that halted the activities of some NGOs, the federal government has had occasions to altercate with some of them because they deliberately incite the public or their beneficiaries against constituted authorities.

Some of them prefer beneficiaries that will always be at loggerheads with the government; to them, such are friends deserving of more and more patronage.

Apart from all these, most of them are not corrupt free or super accountable as they want the world to believe. For those bearing respected people’s names, is it in collusion with the individuals or are they being blindsided?

• When beneficiaries’ grants are in foreign currency, for instance, some of the NGOs “help” the beneficiaries by converting the funds into naira for them.

However, in a show of corruption bordering on fraud, they do not do the conversions based on any known parameter: not official rate and not parallel market rates.

While what they give is always lower than official or black-market rates, beneficiaries never get to see the excess, which invariably affects their activities.

Yet these are organisations purposely established to fight corruption and mismanagement in governance as well as fight for accountability and transparency among public officers.

The NGOs mostly get their funding from abroad as conduits to beneficiary bodies here. Do their funders abroad know of this misappropriation? Will they condone it if they knew? Is the government aware of such vices that can be deemed as sabotaging the nation’s economy?

The federal government needs to set up an inquiry into how many of these NGOs run their activities, including giving more encouragement to subversive elements and those calling on the depredation of national assets and how they utilize their funding, including how they disburse them to beneficiaries.

While we intend to subsequently present three-year evidence of such malfeasance to aid any action the government intends to pursue, we believe the Nigerian government must come out with a new policy that would guide the activities of all NGOs.

Many of them can be rightly said to be tools of neo-colonialism and outright agents of foreign intelligence services in the way they go about their activities. The amount of information they have at their disposal, using local organisations is far more than the Nigerian state has.

However, others are genuinely concerned with the well-being of Nigerians and are actively impacting positively on the lives of people in both rural and urban areas.

They do not short-change beneficiaries because they are aware that they are not a profit-making body and therefore they do not collect funding from A, meant for B, but end up not giving to Caesar what belongs to him because Caesar has no way of asking A what was due to him.

They also do not, under the carpet, encourage and empower elements that see the governments of the day as enemies, fighting them, weakening them in such a way that the future becomes uncertain.

• Hence we will look at basically two such NGOs, the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

The WSCIJ is a “non-profit, non-governmental organization with social justice programmes aimed at exposing corruption, regulatory failures, and human rights abuses with investigative journalism.” SERAP desires to “advance transparency, accountability and respect for economic and social rights through other means such as media advocacy, public impact and strategic litigation, capacity building, institutional building, and education and awareness.”

…To be continued.

[Featured Image Credit]

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Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation (OGRC) supports a stronger, louder voice from Africa, and through its partners, has developed key programmes focussed on addressing and mitigating climate change. 

Global efforts to limit carbon emissions are falling short, developed countries have not coughed up the $100 billion promised to help developing countries meet targets, and the EU is set to impose carbon taxes that will hamstring Africa’s development ambitions.

Exactly how far countries have fallen short in meeting global climate goals and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions will be revealed by the first Global Stocktake due to be presented to delegates at COP28 in Dubai in early December.

In spite of these headwinds, OGRC research on ecosystem conservation, financing, carbon credits and wildlife economies will be highlighted at COP28 to show how African countries can put the brake on climate change while keeping the economy thriving.

As the world continues to heat up at an unprecedented rate, scientists grapple with trying to understand the global impact and the historical lack of decisive action. Climate has shifted temperatures and weather patterns, and although some of these changes are natural the dramatic fluctuations in temperatures and sporadic rainfall patterns are of great concern.

Scientists have persistently highlighted human activities, particularly the unbridled burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas since the industrial revolution, as the primary drivers behind these observed changes.

“Freak weather events” – severe fires, changes in the rainfall patterns in tropical cyclones, heatwaves and flooding – have led to biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and mass extinctions.

These changes have damaged commercial agriculture, subsistence farming and household food security.

There is however hope. Government, business and industry are recognising that robust scientific data and recommendations from scientists are the solid base on which meaningful decisions are made.

At COP28, UAE, NGOs, politicians, scientists, youth, business, investors, civil society and frontline communities will engage in critical discussions and decision-making about global climate change.

The key themes to be addressed will include transforming climate finance by delivering on old promises, putting nature, people, lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action and fast-tracking the energy transition to slash emissions before 2030.

The aim is to limit the global temperature rise to below 2°C, preferably below 1.5°C, above pre-industrial levels. However, the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report suggests that even with our best possible mitigation efforts, the chances of us limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees will not be achieved.

The Global Stocktake (GST) will provide a comprehensive assessment of progress made by countries to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and provide support to developing nations in these endeavours.

Unfortunately, the developed world has fallen short of fulfilling its financial commitments of $100 billion in annual funding to assist developing countries reduce their emissions and manage the impacts of climate change.

The failure to fulfil financial commitments has further derailed the world in the ambition to reduce its emissions by 43% by 2030.

The financial commitment required to reach these reductions far outweighs what already heavily indebted developing countries require – yet undershoot the financial capacity the combined developed countries have the capacity to provide.

Yet, instead of meeting their obligations, the European Union has introduced the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a policy that imposes a carbon cost on certain imports based on the carbon emissions associated with the production of those goods.

The implications for African exports to the EU are substantial, potentially hindering the continent’s development ambitions and causing an annual GDP loss of around $31 billion.

The justification for the policy is to level the playing field for industries within the EU that are subject to strict emissions reduction requirements.

We have to question how this reasoning coming from nations that have benefited from fossil fuel use for over 250 years is justifiable, when they are yet to fulfil their commitments to ensure that we have the capacity to explore alternative greener technologies and transition from coal heavy industries to renewable energy sources.

In this context, it becomes evident that for any meaningful change to occur, Africa, where feasible, must assume a leadership role in shaping policies that not only articulate our needs but also position us advantageously in the global fight against climate change.

Recognising that climate change is a collective responsibility, Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation (OGRC) has committed to contributing to the global effort to combat the adverse effects of climate change. We view COP 28 as an invaluable platform to showcase the innovations and climate research done by our partners.

Our Future Ecosystems for Africa (FEFA) programme, in collaboration with AGNES (African Group of Negotiators Expert Support) and OGRC, has recognised the need to mobilise African climate science and evidence on the continent, to feed into important discussions and provide an integrated, technical summary of the potential synergies and trade-offs between climate actions and sustainable development.

This work focuses on developing viable and pragmatic solutions to contemporary climate-related challenges, derived in collaboration with numerous other research partners, with the overarching goal of enhancing decision-making processes in relation to climate change and development on the African continent.

In line with COP28’s core theme of “investing in climate solutions by committing and investments in nature-positive projects, policies and practices, OGRC has partnered with the African Wildlife Economy Institute (AWEI) to address these aspects.

Conserving Africa’s biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides should be central to climate change responses, given the high dependence of people on these services.

The key finding of the Africa chapter of the last IPCC report was that reduced species representation in protected areas is predicted due to climate-induced range shifts, with range shifts impeded by increasing land transformation and fencing.

African countries urgently need complementary conservation strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change on biodiversity.

Wildlife economies present one such strategy, which involves increasing the extent of conserved ecosystems and their connectivity, while also contributing to livelihoods and food security through sustainable wildlife use, including hunting, harvesting, meat, and tourism.

Our research also shows that wildlife economies have more diverse revenue streams than conventional agriculture, which builds their resilience to disturbance and change.

Wildlife economies can simultaneously contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Africa through sequestering carbon while conserving biodiversity and promoting resilient livelihoods.

Another OGRC-supported programme, the African Leadership Universities (ALU), School of Wildlife Conservation, states “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”.

The key concept here is to gather consistent, comparable data on the impacts of climate change on wildlife economies across Africa.

In Africa, climate action alone is unlikely to succeed, but if combined with development in a way that wildlife is seen as a key strategic asset, it will encourage investment and finance in conservation.

OGRC has further invested in Rewild Capital, a carbon credits company. Experts from Rewild Capital use their knowledge of international carbon market dynamics and integration into global networks to reduce transaction information asymmetry and secure the best prices and terms for landowners across the continent.

Their carbon and rangeland scientists deal with the complexity of meeting international carbon standards requirements. From start to finish they take care of soil carbon measurements and analysis.

These measures ensure that Africa can lead in the mitigation of climate change, while securing livelihoods in non-forested African ecosystems.

Some of the major messages that will emerge from COP28 are on workstreams that will attract climate investment and finance, as well as assessing mitigation and adaptation response measures.

Research tells us that finance gaps across Africa are huge and that new, additional money is needed.

There is a strong feeling that new, multinational, scaled finances for long-term goals are required. So, there will be focus on securing new financial pledges, while encouraging fulfilment of old promises.

There will be a focus on adopting high level targets with clear delivery indicators, including the enhancement of adaptive capacity, with a hope of doubling finance. Negotiators will also be pushing for a clear roadmap to achieve these outcomes.

There will be a focus on developing countries and ensuring that all are supported through delivering on promises made at COP27, with a focus on compensation and provision for historical loss and damage.

*Duncan MacFadyen is head of research, and Rendani Nenguda research associate at, Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation.

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The Non -Governmental Organisations, which includes Charities, Co-operatives and all other Community Based or  so called Non Profit Organisations  (NPO) , like all other businesses are under great threat of survival.

In Apartheid South Africa, NGO’s delivered services to communities that the government didn’t care about. These communities were in disadvantaged settlements, meaning mostly black townships.

Come the advent of democracy, it was hoped that the NGO’s would be assimilated into government structures and continued their work of serving their once neglected communities. Yes, NGOs are still in the mix in the democracy but are not, even though there is a remarkable collaboration, not part of government official structures.

The advent of democracy left the NGOs in a lurch as they continued outside government structures. The work that these NGOs is doing is still needed in those communities and the challenges are getting bigger.

Where do we go, as NGOs, from now. That’s the challenge.

THREE Cape Town based Development Agencies are embarking on refining the model of funding the NGO sector globally.

Phandulwazi Educational & Development Center; Space Academy and Business Exploration Company (PTY) Ltd and Think Twice organisation are calling on society to join them on a new venture and journey for the NGO sector.

The move comes after the groups’ experiences during the Covid-19 global pandemic, when the NGO sector was found wanting when those in need the most could barely access assistance from many NGOs locally and abroad.

Of course the funding problem has been around for some decades now and seems to be a problem going into the future unless drastic changes are made. Hence the three groups’ commitment to finding alternatives comes to being.

The three groups believe that the sharing of information, resources and ideas greatly influences the Collaborative Learning & Development model. And if the NGO sector was to adopt such measures a lot of empowerment would come to life as a result.

There is a need to bring new idea, strategies and systems into the table of how poverty and inequality can be eradicated.

But of the challenge is to get NGOs to work together in their communities and elsewhere to address the social ills affecting their communities. The current NGO funding model and system is broken and unsustainable.

Bringing people, industries, sectors, organizations, institutions etc., in all communities to bounce idea off each other and plan for implementing projects and programmes to develop everybody in our communities is long overdue.

At the moment the NGO sector in various communities around the world lacks a comprehensive plan that all communities should aspired to achieve. Structures like Community Development Forum are mired in political squabbles rather funding solutions to the problems facing their communities.

These forums where they exist done seek to unite, mobilize, organize everyone in the community to participate and be involved in matter affecting the community.

Exclusion rather inclusiveness characterizes the state of affairs in many communities in Africa and the world, to the detriment of our communities.

The few run the show, while the majority is not even invited.

And that is why we are looking at a number of projects, programmes and campaigns in addressing the challenges we face in our country; and especially Cape Town with the special focus being on the under-served communities, these are clearly areas that suffer the most from everyday hardships of urban & rural lifestyle due to historical and current imbalances.

We are investing big on enterprise and skills development and the transfer of skills, information, knowledge and resources, promoting networking, participation & involvement and the boosting of capacity building for the business and the private sector broadly.

Research shows that countries like Germany and the Netherlands retired people don’t just sit home and do nothing after they retire. They join Co-Operatives in their communities. That means all the skills; knowledge and experience will not be lost as they reinvest it back to their communities.

Imagine this happening in South Africa and the rest of the continent for that matter.

In Africa and elsewhere in the world, the so-called ‘underdogs’ perform miracles daily be it in business, innovation or the creative sector.

Most commercial media in Africa is filled with these moving stories of people who come from humble beginnings and have gone on to beat the odds in building empires that are impacting millions of people positively.

At least 400 businesses in Africa make a $1Billion or more in our great continent.

That should inspire the rest of us to dig deep some more. We can start small by creating businesses that can uplift society through Co-operatives in cleaning or providing security services.

A new business model, where businesses can pay you for bringing more customers to them.

As society we must constantly strive to build our communities everyday working hand in hand an seeking to support each from all sectors of our society.

Phandulwazi is one of the early enterprises in South Africa to be formed on the basis of the Black economic empowerment (BEE) programme.

On this front we call on investors, businesses, industries to partner with groups like Phandulwazi for mutual benefit and to create jobs for locals while these enterprises stand to thrive, an example here are retail giants, Boxer, Shoprite, among others.

And community ownership should be around 49 – 51% agreement, subject to negotiations.

We strongly believe that every human being matters, everybody has a story to tell and everybody must be supported to fulfill their God given purposes.

That is why we encourage people, organisations, institutions, industries, sectors to engage and interact with us through advice, suggestions, partnerships, donations, proposals, business plans etc, on how to rebuild our society for the benefit of everybody. You can connect with Phandulwazi through our page Phandulwazi KwaLanga on Facebook.

We are reaching out to the public to join us on this journey of re-eventing the NGO Business Model.

About the Writer:

Thandisizwe Mgudlwa is Director at Phandulwazi, an award-winning journalist, bestselling author of the children’s book, Kiddies World. He holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the Regenesys Business School.

The post NGO’s Business Model Needs to be Re-evented appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

In its continuous drive towards fostering national development through efficient Information Technology (IT) governance in Nigeria, coupled with the growing need of the Digital Economy Ecosystem, the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA) in collaboration with Office of Digital Economy and e–Governance, Imo State Government has organised ICT Stakeholders’ Engagement Forum in Owerri, Imo State.

The engagement amongst other objectives is to establish sustainable collaborations and consistent channels for feedback and the exchange of ideas as well as share with stakeholders NITDA’s vision, regulatory instruments for national development, and the journey so far.

Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, in his opening speech challenged participants to use the meeting as a veritable platform to pool knowledge, experience, expertise, and co-create solutions, articulate strategies, and extend NITDA’s services to all stakeholders, especially at the grassroots.

Inuwa who was represented by the Director, Zonal Offices Directorate, Mr Babajide Ajayi noted that strategic actions are being taken in the implementation of critical areas of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS).

NDEPS, the DG explained is a strategic document approved by the Federal Executive Council which focuses on eight pillars that are critical to the development of the Digital Economy.

He further enumerated the pillars to include; Developmental Regulation, Digital Literacy and Skills, Solid Infrastructure, Service Infrastructure, Digital Services Development and Promotion, Digital Society and Emerging Technologies, Soft Infrastructure, and Indigenous Content Development and Adoption.

“Throughout the twenty-one-year journey, we have had to look continuously at our mandate, reset our vision, and invigorate our mission. We have moved from being a highly centralised organisation to a functionally decentralised Institution.

“Our aspiration is to be an organisation closer to stakeholders. We are also increasingly becoming a process-driven, data-dependent, and results-oriented organisation”, Inuwa stressed.

He further said, “the Agency’s strategies and choices are pursued while always ensuring financial prudence – even in the most turbulent times and ensuring that we meet the objectives of a national IT Governance, foremost of which is delivering value to our stakeholders”.

While emphasising the fact that the stakeholders come first, Inuwa assured everyone that NITDA ‘s goal is to deliver value to them which underscores the importance of the engagement to get clarity on their perspectives, aspirations, and needs.

“Some of the people-oriented programmes we have implemented in consultation with stakeholders and under the supervision of our parent Ministry, the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, include the National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA), the National Adopted School for Smart Education (NASSE), Digital Literacy Capacity Training for Persons Living with Disabilities, support for ICT Innovation Hubs, building of Community IT Centres, development of State IT policies, and a host of other activities”.

“However, there is always the need to re-strategise in the face of new challenges and opportunities that the Digital Economy ecosystem affords. Therefore, the NITDA Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP), 2021-2024, has been conceived to provide direction for the Organisation and a sound platform for mitigating the foreseen and unforeseen threats to the Digital Economy ecosystem”, the DG maintained.

The NITDA Boss was hopeful that the event and indeed the entire Stakeholders’ engagement programme across the country will provide fresh understanding and ideas on how NITDA can deliver more impactful values to Nigerians.

In his Keynote address, Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodima, represented by the Commissioner, Imo State Ministry of Digital Economy and e-Government, Dr. Chimezie Amadi commended NITDA for organising the meeting.

He assured that the State government must further strengthen the foundation of digital infrastructure to broaden access to new opportunities, building an innovation ecosystem, enhancing workforce quality, and instituting social protection frameworks.

The programme with theme “Creating Opportunities, Breaking Boundaries: Towards Digitisation and Entrepreneurial Evolution” was attended by 81 stakeholders drawn from 3 states in the Southeast.

Participants ranged from ICT experts, government representatives, academia, startup ecosystems, ICT associations, technology solution providers, Non–Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and relevant stakeholders in the Digital Economy Sector.

The event featured presentations by NITDA officials, keynote addresses, interactive sessions and several goodwill messages from participants.

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