Dr. Shenggen Fan IFPRI DG, H.E Josefa Sack AU Commissioner for Agriculture and Dr. Ousmane Badiane IFPRI Africa Director rewarding the ReSAKSS Data Challenge winners.

The 2018 ReSAKSS Annual Conference held on October 24-26, 2018, organized by the International Research Institute was held  this year in partnership with the African Union Commission on the theme of “Boosting Growth to End Hunger: The Role of Social Protection”. The conference was hosted by the African Union Commission (AUC) and was held at their headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  One of the main highlights of the conference was the ReSAKSS Data Challenge (RDC) awards ceremony, during which the finalists of the first edition of the Africawide competition were rewarded. 

The awards ceremony was chaired by H.E Mrs. Josefa L.C. Sacko, Commissioner of the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission (AUC-DREA), Dr. Shenggen Fan, Director General of IFPRI, and Dr. Ousmane Badiane, Director for IFPRI Africa.

The ceremony started with the launch of a special video by the competition ambassadors Keyti and Xuman, two famous rappers from Senegal who have created a new concept - a news program aimed at making young people aware of the many issues plaguing African societies. Their news program is called the "Journal Tele Rappe" and their ReSAKSS Data Challenge special edition raises awareness on the main Africawide agricultural policy initiatives promoting sustainable food security and fighting hunger and poverty on the continent. These initiatives include CAADP, ReSAKSS and the ReSAKSS Data Challenge. View the ReSAKSS Data Challenge Video here.

The 2018 ReSAKSS Data Challenge winners

For this first edition, the winners were invited to attend the ReSAKSS annual Conference held at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a great opportunity to meet with key African policy makers and visit the emblematic premises of the AU where continental decisions shaping the future of Africa are taken. The renowned jury members composed of international experts in various fields related to the competition categories chose the winning entries based on the projects ‘use of ReSAKSS data, their relevance to African development issues, their technical quality, creativity and innovation. Following evaluation, 3 winners were listed for this year’s edition.

• The first prize in the IT Products and Services Category was awarded to IT PhD Student, Ekie Y. Jesus from Cote d’Ivoire who developed a mobile application to facilitate access to the information, data and evidence-findings of the ReSAKSS program in the context of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP).


• The second prize in the Essay Report Category was awarded to a team of Senegalese students from ISFAR (Senegal’s Agricultural and Rural Training Institute). The 4 team members include: Christine Valentine Noella Sagna, Elhadji Ibrahima Biteye, Sidoine Senghor, and Abdoulaye Sene. Using ReSAKSS data, their project proposes a new method to protect endangered plant species in the region of Bambey in Senegal.


• The third prize for the High School Project category was won by Nigerian national Oreoluwa Olorode, student from the International School at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.  The fifteen years old contestant, Mr. Olorode made an ingenious video addressing several issues faced by the African continent and used ReSAKSS data to illustrate his statements.

Alongside their awards, winners won a 3000$ prize for the 1^st Prize, 2000$ for the 2^nd Prize and 1000$ for the 3^rd Prize.

About the ReSAKSS Data Challenge 

The ReSAKSS Data Challenge (RDC) is a competition for enthusiastic data users to showcase their creativity and analytical skills using data and other resources on the ReSAKSS website to develop an innovative knowledge product or project that addresses a development challenge faced by Africa. The competition is an initiative  by the Regional Strategic Analysis Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) to raise the awareness and use of the rich data sets and numerous knowledge products available on the ReSAKSS platform (www.resakss.org) by the broader community of stakeholders in academia, business, policy, media, arts and the civil society at large.  The overall objective being to stimulate innovative use of data on African economies to create knowledge, tools, artistic products and many other services that will contribute to efforts to address matters of strategic importance to African society.

The competition offers four (4) categories: - Essay & Report, Visual Art, IT Product & Service, and High School Project. 

The second edition will be open from November 15^th, 2018 until end of May 2019 to all candidates interested in presenting their ideas and projects using ReSAKSS data and that have a meaning for Africa’s development. 

For more information visit: www.resakss.org/challenge.