National Spatial Data Infrastructure in Botswana – An Overview

The spatial data plays a vital role in any developmental activities whether it is natural resource management or socio-economic development. Most land-related government departments in Botswana have over the years since independence in 1966 developed systems to support their principal areas of operations as regards to spatial data. The adequacy and currency of spatial data in government operations improved leading to a need for integrated systems. This has progressively led to issues of building a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and an initiative modeled around Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has been established. Several facilitative committees were set and several meetings held in attempt to develop the idea to a realizable level and integrate it into the greater workings of the national economy. This noble idea has stalled for some time now and it is the intention of this paper to report on how the idea was initiated in Botswana and look at the probable causes for its stalling. The paper will then go ahead and suggest what could be done to revitalize the idea by relating it to what is considered the best practices in Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) programmes globally.