#  Executive Summary

The overall objective of this deliverable is to provide an updated Data
Management Plan that describes what data are generated during the project
execution, including formats and structure, and how the data (including
metadata) are collected, stored, and made accessible. This deliverable is
mandatory since AfriAlliance participates in the Pilot initiative from the
European Commission on Open Data. The deliverable follows the guidelines on
FAIR Data Management in Horizon 2020, which prescribes the inclusion of
specific elements in the plan, including: 1) a summary of the data being
collected; 2) methods for making sure data are FAIR (findable, accessible,
interoperable, re-usable); 3) resources to be allocated; 4) security of data,
as well as any other aspects. The document describes the _initial_ plans for
Data Management and will be revised as soon as additional elements regarding
Data Management have been identified in the course of the implementation of
the AfriAlliance project. In addition, the deliverable considers the new
General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) which entered into
force on the 25 May 2018.

#  1 AfriAlliance Data Summary

AfriAlliance is a Coordination and Support Action project which nevertheless
consists of several distinct research activities to achieve its objectives,
such as studies into the motivations to participate in Working Groups in an
African context (WP1), specific short-term social innovation needs (WP2), the
barriers for online knowledge sharing (WP3), an inventory of current
monitoring and forecasting efforts (WP4) and the creation of Social Innovation
Factsheets on specific societal needs (WP5).

As a Coordination and Support Action, one of the main objectives of the
project is to share as broadly as possible any results generated by the
project with the broad water sector community, in particular with experts and
organizations active in the field of water and climate. This counts for both
data and metadata.

The Updated Data Management Plan deliverable complements the Project
Information Strategy deliverable, with the understanding that data generated
during the project are a subset of the overall information that will be
managed during the project (ref. D6.3, page 11). In particular, the scope of
the Data Management Plan concerns a subset of information mentioned in Table 1
of Deliverable 6.3, an (updated) extract of which is repeated below:

##  Table 1 AfriAlliance Information (Data) (extract from Deliverable D6.3)  
  
<table>  
<tr>  
<th>

**Type of**

**Information**

</th>  
<th>

**Owner**

</th>  
<th>

**Access Rights**

</th>  
<th>

**Repository**

</th>  
<th>

**Format Used**

</th>  
<th>

**Standards Used**

</th>  
<th>

**Quality Control**

</th>  
<th>

**Purpose / Use**

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Input Data (e.g. surveys information)

</td>  
<td>

Task

Leaders

</td>  
<td>

Partners

</td>  
<td>

AA GDrive

</td>  
<td>

Different

</td>  
<td>

Customized format (AA identity)

</td>  
<td>

Content and

format by WP

leaders, with advice by project

managem ent team (PMT)

</td>  
<td>

Raw data for processing into Task deliverables

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Output Data (reports, papers, policy notes) (*)

</td>  
<td>

Task

Leaders

</td>  
<td>

Open Access

</td>  
<td>

AA GDrive, Website

</td>  
<td>

MS Word, html, PDF, printed copies

</td>  
<td>

Customized format (AA identity)

</td>  
<td>

Content and

format by WP

leaders, with advice by

PMT

</td>  
<td>

AfriAlliance information to be shared within the platform and to the broad
water sector (government staff, practitioners, researchers, etc.)

</td> </tr> </table>

Ethical aspects concerning the plan are covered in the Ethical aspects
deliverables (D7.1 – 7.3)

To comply with the Horizon 2020 Open Research Data Pilot, AfriAlliance makes
available data potentially useful for others as well as all aspects that are
needed to replicate the undertaken research. In this context, the following
types of data can be distinguished (see Table 2).

##  Table 2 Summary of AfriAlliance Data  
  
<table>  
<tr>  
<th>

**Type of data**

</th>  
<th>

**Description**

</th>  
<th>

**AfriAlliance WP/tasks**

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Empirical data

</td>  
<td>

The data (set) needed to validate results of scientific efforts.

</td>  
<td>

WP1: data from survey of motivations to participate in

Working Groups and data from surveys for the Social Network Analysis

WP2: data from interviews and Focus Group on shortterm social innovation needs

WP3: data from investigation of barriers and obstacles for online knowledge
sharing

WP4: inventory of current monitoring and forecasting efforts

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Associated metadata

</td>  
<td>

The dataset’s creator, title, year of publication, repository, identifier etc.
based on the ISO 19157 standard.

</td>  
<td>

WP1-WP4

Questionnaire, interviews and user-driven metadata entry through geodata
portal

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Documentation

</td>  
<td>

Such as code books (concept definitions), informed consent forms, etc.: these
aspects are domain-dependent and important for understanding the data and
combining them with other data sources.

</td>  
<td>

WP1-WP4

Questionnaire, interviews and user-driven metadata entry through the AA online
platform

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Methods & tools

</td>  
<td>

(Information about) the software, hardware, tools, syntax queries, machine
configurations – i.e. domain-dependent aspects that are important for using
the data.

</td>  
<td>

Data collection instruments

WP1: questionnaire and software to analyse and visualise the relationships
between stakeholders and their level of connectedness (SNA Analysis)

WP2: questionnaire (incl. via the AA online platform), Focus Group Discussion
protocol)

WP3: questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion protocol WP4: search terms and
questionnaire, interviews and user-driven metadata entry and search keywords
through the AA online platform.

</td> </tr> </table>

All data generated according to Table 2 is treated in compliance with the EU
GDPR regulation.

All generated data uses widely adopted data formats, including but not limited
to:

  * Basic Data formats: CSV, XLS, XML 

  

  * Aggregated Data / metadata: PDF, HTM, MS files 

  

Concerning Monitoring and Forecasting tools (WP4), the project makes extensive
use of existing data and repositories. In fact, the essence of the data
management concerning M&F tools is a more effective / more comprehensive use
of existing data rather than the generation of new (source) data.

Existing data which is going to be used for that purpose stems from many
different sources, especially generated locally in Africa.

#  2 AfriAlliance FAIR Data

AfriAlliance follows the FAIR approach to data, i.e. data is managed in order
to make them:

  * Findable 

  

  * Accessible 

  

  * Interoperable 

  

  * Reusable 

  

##  2.1 Making data findable, including provisions for metadata

###  2.1.1 Discoverability of Data

Data generated in AfriAlliance is available (for external use) via the
following resources (ref Table 1):

  * AfriAlliance online platform  : https://afrialliance.org/ 

  

  * Akvo RSR (Really Simple Reporting) tool:  https://afrialliance.akvoapp.org/en/projects/ 

  

  * Web Catalogue Service (WCS)  _https://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wcs_ tool  _https://geonetwork-opensource.org/_

  

  * Akvopedia portal: https://akvopedia.org/wiki/Handbook_on_Data_Collection 

  

The Website includes most of the (aggregated and summarised) data generated
during the project, including links to the AA web catalogue which uses
existing data.

The Akvo RSR tool provides overall and summarised information about
AfriAlliance Action Groups, including their results and impact. The tool is
compliant with the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard
for reporting.

The WCS will contain in particular all metadata information concerning
existing data used by the foreseen improved monitoring and forecasting tool.

###  2.1.2 Identifiability of Data

AfriAlliance makes use of repositories assigning persistent IDs to data to
allow easy finding (and citing) of AfriAlliance data.

###  2.1.3 Naming Conventions

All names given to AfriAlliance Data is named according to the following
naming convention:

  * Basic Data: AA WPx <name of data> -<date generated>-version 

  

  * Metadata: AfriAlliance <Descriptive Name of Data>-name generated-version 

  

###  2.1.4 Keywords

Data is assigned relevant keywords to make them findable (e.g. through
internet browsing). Such keywords may vary depending on the Work Package where
data belong to.

###  2.1.5 Versioning

All data (and data sets) clearly mention the version (indicated both in the
naming and within the information included in the data) as long as contact
information (owner of the generated or aggregated data set).

###  2.1.6 Standards

Data, and in particular metadata, follow an identified standard for metadata
creation. Although there are many different standards, the initial preference
of the consortium is to follow ISO 19157 as it is specifically adopted to
ensure the quality of geographic information, which is the core of
AfriAlliance data (used by the foreseen WCS). Several ISO standards exist and
ISO 19157 is a recent one, also adopted by INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial
Information in Europe) Directive and national implementations, and includes
metadata quality control mechanisms. Project data stored in Akvo RSR makes use
of the IATI standard.

##  2.2 Making Data Openly Accessible

###  2.2.1 Data Openly Accessible

AfriAlliance makes all data generated by the project available, with the
exception of basic data with ethics constraints which are kept within the
consortium and are only available on the AfriAlliance GDrive. WP4 data, the
WCS and the geoportal will be freely available with open access to all the
metadata and workflows. It must be noted that the WCS will contain little
(only sample) real hard data.

###  2.2.2 Modalities for Sharing Data

All data generated are available in the resources mentioned in 2.1.1. In
particular, data is made available with the following modalities:

Website: all generated data will have an easily identified section on the new
version of the AfriAlliance website where most of the data will be posted. The
website will also include reference to project data available through Akvo
RSR, and will therefore be the main source to retrieve also general data of
the project. Moreover, an easily findable reference will be made to access the
WCS tool.

The WCS tool being a web-based application, will exist also as “standalone”
resource (with a clear reference to AfriAlliance project), which will be
designed to get as many hits as possible with the most common web browsing
modalities.

Data for internal use (information sharing among partners) uses an intranet
site (Google Site).

###  2.2.3 Methods and tools needed to access data

Apart from widely known access methods (internet search based), it is
important to specifically mention that the WCS software source code will be
made available in an open source repository. The initial selection of the
consortium for this purpose is the Github resource.

Search terms and user-driven metadata entry and search key-words will be made
available through the AA WP4 geoportal. Entry search keywords will be rather
simple words such as for example: monthly rainfall, country, and other water-
and climate related searches, available from pre-coded drop down menus.

###  2.2.4 Data repositories

Most of the data generated will be stored on the internal GDrive. The WP4
geoportal will contain only metadata, which are web-based information on data
sources, data quality, etc.

###  2.2.5 Access to Data

No restrictions will apply to access to AA outputs. Access to programme
specific sources data (i.e. data from questionnaires) is restricted according
to the Ethics requirements as well as the GDPR regulations.

##  2.3 Making data interoperable

Interoperability of data is very important in AfriAlliance, especially in
relation to the geoportal.

The interoperability principle behind WP4 data is based on the principles and
standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The project includes the
concept of “volunteered geographic information” (VGI), which is the harnessing
of tools to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic data provided
voluntarily by individuals (Goodchild, 2007). VGI is a special case of a
broader phenomenon known as user-generated content. Common standards and
methodologies following the general principle will be adopted, and will be
further specified in updated revisions of the plan.

##  2.4 Owners and Access Rights

###  2.4.1 Data & Software Licences

Most of the data generated in AfriAlliance is open source, licenced under the
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY), version 4.0, in order to make it
possible for others to mine, exploit and reproduce the data.

The WP4 geoportal WCS will be open source licenced using the GNU General
Public License Version 2 (GPL v2) (June 1991). The GeoNetwork opensource
software as used for the WCS is released under the GPL v2 license and can be
used and modified free of charge.

The portal user guide documentation will be provided and licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License. Minor changes can be
adopted in case it is required by certain Partners needs/regulations; those
cases will be properly documented.

**2.4.2 Data Re-use**

No restrictions apply for the re-use of Data, also no restriction in time.

###  2.4.3 Third Parties Usage

AfriAlliance will make data publicly available to Third Parties, under the
condition that the source is referenced according to indications provided in
the data.

###  2.4.4 Data Quality Assurance

Generally speaking, AfriAlliance will follow the quality assurance guidelines
provided in Deliverable 6.3 (Project Information Management strategy) to
ensure proper quality of data. With particular reference to quality of
metadata, the ISO19157 standard guidelines will be followed.

**2.4.5 Availability in Time**

In principle, data will be available indefinitely

#  3 Allocation of Resources for Data Management

##  3.1 Data Management Costs

Costs related to generating, storing, and distribution of data are properly
taken in consideration in the respective Work Package where data specified in
Table 2 will be collected.

In WP1, data generated from the network analysis as well as Action Groups
results are covered by both staff time and other direct costs directly
allocated to those activities.

In WP2, data generated from interviews, workshops and surveys are covered by
both staff time and other direct costs directly allocated to those activities

Dissemination material, which can be considered a particular subset of output
data in a CSA, has a specific budget line allocated to the respective WP
leader.

As regards data managed in WP4, Web Services and associated resources like
dissemination packages, and other production costs, have been allocated a
substantial budget (ref. DoA AfriAlliance for details).

##  3.2 Data Ownership

Ownership of data is largely determined by Work Package Ownership. A more
specific attribution of ownership is indicated in Table 1 above.

##  3.3 Long Term Preservation Costs

Long term preservation costs relates to costs for server/hosting, and time for
updating data formats. Those costs are being included in the concerned WP
budgets.

**4 Data Security**

Data Security aspects are covered in D7.1-3 (ethics).

#  5 Other

The AfriAlliance Data Management Plan follows largely the guidelines (and
template) recommended by Horizon 2020 in the framework of the Open Data
programme of the European Commission as well as the GDPR regulations as of 25
May 2018.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that any additional internal guidelines in
terms of Information Management practices and IPR policies that are currently
followed (or will be approved in the future) in the Coordinator’s organization
(IHE Delft) will be integrated, as appropriate, as part of the plan, after
previous discussion and agreement with the consortium members. Equally, in
case any regulations or policy prevailing in any organization of the
consortium, and any additional external practice/policy/standard, which
becomes relevant for the plan, will be integrated in further revisions of the
plan.