Capacity building is a key action item in the Data revolution Policy. In that context, various institutions started developing and implementing programs aiming at increasing skills for big data analytics. Here below are some of these initiatives:
NISR Capability Initiatives
The NISR has been implementing a range of initiatives to raise awareness and build statistical capability in Rwanda; such as:
- In-house capacity in various statistical areas (household and business survey data analysis, poverty mapping, poverty analysis, sampling, demographic analysis, data processing tools and how to use tablets for data collection, etc);
- Rebasing national accounts;
- Outreach workshops with university lecturers and students on how to access and use data for teaching and further research using DevInfo Rwanda
- Reading data with children from different secondary schools in Rwanda
- Coaching and mentoring university students to visualize data through infographics;
- Training of journalists in statistics and how to use statistics in media
- The NISR plans to train competent stakeholders how to do further analysis using NISR surveys and census datasets available at NADA to support policy formulation and basic skills in using Microsoft Excel and SPSS for basic data analysis for different people from both central and local government, private sector, civil society, etc under the upcoming training centre.
These and others will continue.
Rwanda Capability Strategy in Data Analytics
Rwanda has established four African Centres of Excellences in Data Science under the University of Rwanda:
- African Centre of Excellence for Data Science (ACEDS), based in College of Business and Economics and in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)-Rwanda;
- African Centre of Excellence in Internet of Things (ACEIoT) based at the College of Science and Technology;
- African Centre of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable Development (ACEESD), also based in the College of Science and Technology;
- African Centre of Excellence in Innovative Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science (ACEITLMS), based in College of Education.
Collectively, these centres are expected to enroll over 3,500 students in regional development priority areas, out of which over 700 will be PhD students and more than 1,000 will be female. As mentioned during its launch ceremony, the centres are expected to publish 1,500 journal articles and 500 studies in collaboration with the private sector and other academic institutions within and beyond the region.
More important the African Centre of Excellence in Data Science focuses on data science involving the collection, analysis and transmission of data for facilitating decision-making, including big data analytics. Specifically this centre is in the process of opening both Masters and PhD in Data Science. Currently the PhD programmes are soon starting (in September 2017), while Masters programmes will follow soon after in March 2018.