# Towards the Development of Agenda 2063 Geo-Portal to Support Sustainable Development in Africa
###### Abstract
Monitoring and evaluation systems are not a new concept, many governments and international institutions have been using them for many years. The practice and culture of monitoring and evaluation are well embedded in organisations such as the United Nations, the World Bank Group and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for instance, published a handbook to guide the planning, monitoring, and evaluation for development results [22]. The 2009 version of the UNDP handbook [22] integrates planning, monitoring, and evaluation into a single guidebook aimed at inculcating the application of a results-based approach in programming and performance management in order to support the UN development agenda, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), at that time. It provides a robust Results Based Management (RBM) results chain that shows the process flow from the inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts and the linkage between resources and results. The RBM results chain effectively encapsulates the planning and implementation processes and addresses pertinent strategic planning questions related to execution and impacts. The usage of the GIS as a monitoring and evaluation tool has gained traction in the last few decades due to its ability to support the collection, integration, storage, analysis, output, and distribution of location-based data. While the use of GIS in monitoring and evaluation adds significant value to the current methodologies, most GIS implementations remain institutional without any capability to serve users across institutions, national boundaries, and diverse geographic locations. The advent of web-based GIS provides a powerful online platform to collect, integrate, discover, use, and share geospatial data, information, and services related to sustainable development [23]. Web-based GIS systems are extending the gamut of geospatial data uses and are helping in improving the update and distribution of spatial data. Cooperative spatial data entry, updates, and management across administrative and political jurisdictions are increasingly becoming feasible using internet-based depots. Geoportals provide a powerful internet-based platform for finding and accessing geospatial information and related geographic services such as sharing, displaying, editing, analysing, and publishing geographic information online [24]. The importance of geoportals as part of spatial data infrastructure is emphasized by [PERSON] [23]. To support and optimize the widespread application geographic information, most institutions are adopting the use of geoportals to facilitate the discovery, dissemination, and sharing of geospatial information [25; 26; 27; 28; 29]. The proliferation of geoportals is enabling quick and direct access to geographic data sets of various formats such as satellite imagery, land use, and land cover data sets, and vector layers related to administrative boundaries, transport network layers, and demographic datasets. The geo-visualization capability provided by some deputies enables interactive techniques for visualizing geospatial metadata and information. The growing importance of geoportals is succinctly captured by [PERSON] [30] who sees geoportals as a one-stop-shop for the discovery and assessment of geo-information products and services with significant cost savings. This point is reiterated by [PERSON] [24] who highlights that geoportals are the main gateways to find, evaluate, and use geographic information. The design and development of most geoportals are largely influenced by the concept of service-oriented architectures (SOA) and the principles and standards prescribed in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), particularly the catalogue service web (CSW) norms [24].