The african Development Bank (AfDB) has launched a programme to improve data management and dissemination in Africa. The ultimate goal of the programme is to facilitate wider public access to official statistics and to support countries in their efforts to improve data quality and dissemination for better policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation. It is part of the broader statistical capacity building programme in Africa. Work has been going on concurrently in several African countries and institutions and has been completed in 13 countries, including Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania among others. The programme involves the development and installation of common IT platforms in all 54 countries and 16 sub-regional and regional bodies in Africa by July. The initiative provides a unique opportunity for African countries to take the lead in implementing statistical standards at a regional level and to make their data easily accessible through a common platform.