The government is set to start an online portal for information sharing, engineered by the ministries of environment and tourism.
The move was announced during the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi by the two Cabitet Secretaries in charge of the ministries, Mr Keriako Tobiko (environment) and Najib Balala (tourism).
“We have an obligation to leverage on technology and promote sharing of knowledge and best practices that can provide solution to environmental challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation,” said Tobiko.
According to Tobiko, the portal will be used to integrate and visualize data on key sustainability themes like food security, wildlife protection, restoration of rangelands and climate resilience.
Despite announcing partnerships with international conservation groups, the two ministers did not expound on how the portal will operate.
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This comes despite there being another ‘development’ portal by the government, Gokdelivers, which is meant for highlighting the Jubilee government agenda.
“Access to data is key to facilitating development of policies that promotes conservation of habitats. The online portal once operational will assist policymakers to respond better to challenges facing our wildlife that include poaching, drought and shrinking habitats,” said Balala.
One of the partners, Africa at Conservation International, says that the portal will set the pace in the development agenda in Kenya.
“The online information sharing portal Kenya is developing jointly will enhance the capacity of policymakers and citizens to make a positive contribution to sustainability agenda like food security and protection of natural capital,” says Michael Onyeka, senior vice president for Africa at Conservation International.
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