Andani. Africa, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, has taken a step towards addressing a data handling challenge affecting Africa's creative industry by beta-launching Malaika Evaluate, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered data management platform for the sector.
According to the research firm, Malaika Evaluate addresses issues such as the scarcity of high-quality, real-time data required for demonstrating impact and securing long-term funding, representing an improvement in how organisations working in the continent's creative sectors can measure, analyse, and communicate their value to international funders and investors.
Malaika Evaluate comes as the creative sector is notoriously difficult to track in formal data spaces, leaving both African organisations and international stakeholders without meaningful insights into one of the continent's fastest-growing economic segments, noted the company.
The company said the platform addresses this challenge by providing a comprehensive solution built on monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) best practices.
According to the company, in addition to AI, the platform uses cloud technologies to provide technological leapfrogging, enabling Africa to avoid costly legacy systems.
The AI-powered tools enable users new to data analysis to develop MEAL frameworks, keeping impact high and costs manageable.
The platform also enables creative organisations to structure and measure their projects, capturing both the intrinsic value of arts practice and the quantitative metrics required for funding reports.
Furthermore, by centralising data collection, analysis, and reporting in one workspace, Malaika Evaluate reduces the administrative burden on under-resourced arts organisations while improving the quality and consistency of their impact data, highlighted Andani.Africa.
"Our world is increasingly a data-informed world. If the data isn't quality, or doesn't represent the nuance and potential of who we are, decisions will be made without truly representing us. It's vital that we have the data that backs up who we are as a continent, and even more so as a sector,” commented Molemo Moiloa, executive director at Andani.Africa.
She added: "With Malaika, our data scientist is training algorithms to standardise MEAL data and enable comparative analysis. These are exciting new frontiers of bringing together the culture sector and technology."
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