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"Getting
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"Getting there without getting Lost"
Introduction
This situs addressing
initiative is about highlighting the benefits and method of optimising ways and which
people identify, navigate in, and localise places in African countries. At the national
level, it is now well established that a poor or absence of a functional physical address
system induces lost of revenue due to limited revenue collection strategies (taxation and
billing, location based services activities), discourages foreign direct investments,
negatively impacts on regional and global economy, wastes time and resources, increases
transaction costs, upholds poor governance, poor performance of emergency and security
services, etc. This initiative aims at fostering the benefits of implementing a functional
and standard addressing system in African countries. In particular, the initiate seeks to
raise awareness of various addressing stakeholders. Some major components of the
addressing initiative include (but are not limited to):
Some basic definitions In general terms
An address is a primary
means to identify and locate a unique object. Three main types of address are commonly
used: geographic, mailing and physical.
Geographic or positional
address uses geographic reference systems (e.g., longitude and latitude) to describe the
exact, permanent and unique location of an object on earth (e.g., 12º, 34' 54"
Latitude North and 19º 18'’ 44" Longitude East).
The mailing or postal
address uses information on the exact location to deliver an item or parcel (e.g., Post
Office Box or street address).
The physical address or
situs address refers to the precise, complete, permanent and unique location of any
spatial object (e.g., thoroughfare, parcel, place of interest and property addresses)
using a system of identification such as name, number or descriptor.
This addressing initiative
focuses on physical address, which allows people to navigate, identify and access desired
location.
Why situs addressing initiative?
The initiative argues that
it is becoming critical to optimise ways and which people localise places, mostly because
a poor or absence of a functional physical address system induces limited revenue
collection strategies (taxation and billing, location based services activities),
discourages foreign direct investments, negatively impacts on regional and global economy,
wastes time and resources, increases transaction costs, upholds poor governance, poor
performance of emergency and security services, etc. This situation prevails in many parts
of Africa with a poor or inexistence functional address system.
Situs addresses provide a
means to deal with location-based navigation issue in Africa, without relying on memory or
extensive local knowledge. Unlike other parts of the World, urban and other
‘built-up’ areas in Africa do not often have direct access to a thoroughfare.
The conventional expression, street addressing, does not necessarily apply to the African
context. Instead, situs addressing is a more appropriate method that provides a framework
for accounting for all types of parcels, thoroughfares, buildings and property types.
Nevertheless, this initiative seeks to unify physical, postal and geographic addresses for
broad-based applications.
Context
The United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA), within its mandate, has been providing support to its member
States in the various aspects of geo- information since the 1960s. These were in the form
of advisory services, organizing of meetings, conferences, seminars and workshops, and
conducting studies on specific topics of geoinformation. For example, ECA already held a
seminar in 1970, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on cadastre in response to a recommendation
made by the Second United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Africa. In 1992,
ECA developed a compendium in Cadastral Regulations and Land Tenure Policy in Africa. In
1996, ECA in collaboration with the Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel (OSS) undertook a
subregional workshop, held in Addis Ababa, on Land Tenure Issues in Natural Resources
Management in Anglophone East Africa, with focus on the Inter-governmental Authority on
Development Countries (IGAD). A comprehensive study on “An Integrated Geo-information
Systems with Emphasis on Cadastre and Land Information Systems for Decision Makers in
Africa was prepared by the Commission in 1998 and presented for review to an Ad hoc expert
meeting.
On institutional issues ECA
convened in 2000 an Ad hoc expert group meeting on the “Future Orientation of
Geoinformation Activities in Africa”. The main objective of the meeting was to
“raise awareness of African governments and other sectors of society on the
importance of geographic information in socio-economic development and to identify
practical mechanisms to facilitate spatial data collection, access and use in the
decision-making processes, both nationally and regionally, through a participatory
approach.” The meeting reviewed global trends in the management of geographic data
and the status of geoinformation development in Africa.
The current addressing
initiative contributes to the ECA’s ongoing efforts to promote geoinformation
technologies as tools to improve the management of development information for sustainable
development. It's all about how the geographic information resources can support the
creation and maintenance of national addressing systems in the context of national
geographic data assets.
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