Lims development
A full information system has been developed and promoted. It will be used by all SADC Member States (at national level) and at SADC secretariat level (regional consolidation of information).
The system is made of; harmonized reporting templates organized into 11 Data Modules translated into the three official languages of SADC (English, Portuguese and French), an application i.e. a relational database (LIMS software in MS Access©) to capture, import or export and transfer data, several networks of professionals forming national LIMS task forces and regional committees, standard operating procedures , and a LIMS WEB Portal (with WEB 2.0 collaborative tools) where information and documents are posted.
In order to achieve this, it was necessary to complete a full situation analysis of the Livestock sector in Member States, develop the LIMS system, and launch LIMS Adoption missions and training in countries.
Situation analysis
From 2006 onward until 2009, PRINT did a situation analysis of all SADC Member States (15 countries to date) regarding the situation of the Livestock Sector and the national Livestock Information Systems used in the respective countries.
Part of the analysis was an in depth appraisal of Information Systems, Databases, Information and Data used in the sector by various stakeholders.
All SADC countries (Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe) were covered by 2009 after Seychelles joined SADC in 2008.
Adoption missions
Using the results of the situation analysis made in SADC countries, a full information system (LIMS) has been developed. The LIMS adoption missions were launched when the first "stable" elements of the LIMS system were made available, i.e. in August 2008. The first country to be visited and to be trained was Zambia.
LIMS system
The LIMS system is made of several Components.
A brochure is available here:
Brochure LIMSA poster is available here:
Maps Mapserver Flash Webmapping and GIS
This section will guide Member States and LIMS users on how to present some interactive maps (national and regional) using LIMS data.
Everybody knows about reading a map on line like on google maps (have a glance to this example of Google Maps Botswana and its capital Gaborone where SADC HQ stays)
This part of the LIMS web site will guide you on to create your own "online maps" to be posted on this collaborative portal or on your respective national portals.
Interactive Mapping
The interactive maps should display the various aspects of the livestock sector in the SADC member states (animal production, livestock development, marketing and trade, animal health), taking national and regional perspectives.
Member States are encouraged to use their own data and to add thematic maps to their national reports. They may also request from SADC the use of the Geoclip software acquired by SADC, to be used at national level in order to publish Geoclips Web maps. These maps will be then uploaded and posted on the LIMS portal because of licensing agreement (sadc.int domain only).
Geoclip screen
Thematic maps
To produce thematic maps , firstly read the following guiding document:
It will help to make you more "map aware".
Secondly, query your LIMS database and use the result of the query to establish a link between the data and the geographical layers you have collected. the geographic layers should reproduce the same geographical partitions as implemented into LIMS, be they administrative partitions or technical partitions (livestock management zones).
Map layers
A good open source of map layers (Administrative boundaries) is Maplibrary.
Free GIS Software's
To map your data using geographical layers and LIMS data, you can use various free softwares like the freeware from ESRI, "ArcExplorer " (make sure you also have Java installed on your computer), which you can download here.
It has a full documentation attached.
For the non english speaking SADC countries (french and portuguese speaking), one can use a mapping software like Philcarto to make maps (a software which can be run in the three SADC languages). It has tools to convert shape files (ESRI standads) into Adobe Illustrator files format (.ai) as used in the software (you do not need to have Adobe though).
PRINT has published two simple leaflets in portuguese to demonstrate the use of ArcExplorer and Philcarto.
SADC has purchased a license for Geoclip to produce Flash-based maps to be posted on line. For more information visit the Geoclip website.
Web Mapping Service
Moreover, a webmapping service (using Mapserver software), has been developped as a common mapping tool under the AIMS portal. It is compliant with the WMS standard (Web Mapping Services) and therefore follows the OGC recommendations. There, you can overlay data and layers from various OGC compliant sources (FAO, Google maps..).