The custodianship principle

The custodian principle has been adopted by Africover as the mean of ensuring accountability for the care and maintenance of information within the National Focal Point Institutions (NFPI) in each of the Participating Country.

Custodianship is seen by the AFRICOVER Steering Committee as being at the core of efficient and effective management and access to the Multipurpose Africover Database on Environmental Resources (MADE).

The principle of custodianship assigns to each National Focal Point Institution certain rights and responsibilities for the management of MADE on behalf of the relevant national country and its agencies.

A custodian is a recognized contact point for the distribution, transfer and sharing of the information and has responsibilities regarding the maintenance and quality of the information. The custodian ensure accessibility to the information, and has the right to apply market conditions provided that this does not significantly disrupt accessibility.

The overriding philosophy in the activities associated with custodianship is that NFPI manage the MADE information as trustees in a partnership to enable the integration of the environmental information at national, regional, continental and global level.

There are advantages in custodianship to be gained by each NFPI and the data users. In following the rules and responsibilities for custodianship as set out in these Guidelines, a custodian agency is most likely to become the preferred supplier for information under its custody.

This is because it will have the most accurate and reliable information. Custodianship provides a means of accountability and reliability of source for designated information within government.

There can be increased confidence that the information within government is accurate, complete, identifiable and accessible. Custodianship also eliminates unnecessary duplication of capturing and maintaining land information; which will in turn allow the monies previous spent on these duplicative activities to be reallocated to more worthwhile projects within government.

For users, custodianship lessens the confusion regarding sources of accurate information; they can also receive more accurate advice on the source, currency and completeness of the information.

The Guidelines for custodianship

The documents containing the guidelines for custodianship has been approved during the Fifth FAO Africover Eastern Africa Project steering committee. Download the full document.