Enhanced Dashboard with Customized GIS to improve Performance Monitoring

The Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA), in collaboration with TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), is upgrading the Northern Corridor Transport Observatory toolkit to improve the efficiency in reporting.

The expanded toolkit will include a data collection tool running on mobile devices and a data warehouse consisting of data storage and extract, transform, load (ETL) to blend data from multiple sources and a database for processed data.

The enhanced dashboard with customized Geographic Information System (GIS) will have the ability to spatially feature selected indicators on the map at various nodes along the corridor including the different indicator components. Key features also include data mining and business intelligence capabilities aimed at supporting decision-making processes for different corridor participants. The tool will also incorporate a universal data exchange mechanism to automate data exchange from the sources as well as reports and recommendations modules as the repository for all reports and publications on the Corridor performance.

The upgraded system will be flexible and adaptable to accommodate data changes.

The new system is expected to track and report performance on the expanded infrastructure from the development of the Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya and Inland Container Depots (ICDs) in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Flexibility and adaptability of the system enables it to accommodate data changes from different sources, future extensions in terms of indicators to be monitored, new data sources and any new features on data analytics and reporting.

In addition to improved efficiency, the robust system is expected to greatly support the commitment by the Northern Corridor Secretariat to transform the Corridor into an efficient, smart and green corridor through continued advocacy for full automation of systems and processes. Interfacing of systems, infrastructure developments and improvement, simplification of procedures and processes to reduce barriers to transport and trade, harmonisation of transport and trade-related policies and infrastructure to ensure a resilient and developmental corridor, and implementation of the Green Freight Programme that seeks to make the Northern Corridor an environmentally safe transit corridor are all within the anticipated outcomes of the enhancement.

As a monitoring tool, the Transport Observatory platform currently measures over 40 indicators on the performance along the corridor. It tracks the indicators using raw data collected from the stakeholders in all the Member States of Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. The information collected provides a clear picture on various indicators, enabling to identify the bottlenecks that need to be resolved to improve on the efficiency and sequentially improving in the trade and operations.

The current toolkit has four components; Dashboard, Indicators, GIS and the Documents platforms. The upgrade of the system seeks to automate data exchange processes, transform to intuitive platforms through new information delivery components, and improve on the database design by adopting the latest data management technologies.