The objective of the contribution is to highlight the historical account of activities that emanated from the inception of the Task Group on Data Sources for Sustainable Development in SADC as part of the Task Group on Preservation of and Access to Scientific and Technical Data in Developing Countries.

The focus will be on the extension of the South African Data Archive (SADA) directory of data producers in South Africa, the establishment of open institutional repositories, knowledge infrastructure, resource limitations in terms of meta data and training; attracting African scientists and prospects towards a data access policy.