Capacity Building in the AUC on Geospatial Sciences

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• Capacity Building in the AUC on Geospatial
  Sciences

CHAIBI ThameurAU Division of Science Technology
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• Lisbon Summit
• (December 2007 from donor-ship to partnership)
• Joint Africa EU Strategy long term policy
  Framework
• First Action Plan (2008 2010) eight Thematic
  Partnerships

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• Africa-EU Strategic Partnership in  Science,
  Information Society Space 
• Support the development of inclusive information
  Society in Africa and the implementation of the
  African regional Action Plan on the Knowledge
  Economy (ARAPKE)
• Support ST Capacity Building in Africa the
  implementation of the Africas ST Consolidated
  Plan of Action (CPA)
• Enhance the EU-Africa cooperation in Space
  applications and technology

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• The Book - Lighthouse Projects
• Prepared by the Human Resource ST Department of
  the African Union Commission in consultation with
  EC (videoconferences, teleconferences, shared
  website, )
• Structured according to the 8th Africa-EU
  Partnership of the 1st Action Plan (2008-2010)
• Responding to AU Summit requests, to AMCOST
  Decisions and to CPA implementation

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CONT. The Book - Lighthouse Projects

• 19 Projects presented in 3 Clusters
• Support the development of an inclusive
  information society in Africa (5 projects).
• Support Science and Technology (ST) capacity
  building in Africa and implement Africa's Science
  and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action CPA
  (12 projects).
• Enhance cooperation on Space applications and
  technology (2 projects)

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Political engagement

• I. AUC-EC College to College Meeting
• (1st October 2008)
• Joint Declaration
• AUC Chairperson (Ping) EC President (Barroso)
• Joint Statement
• EC Commissioners (Potocnik, Reding, Verheugen,
  Michel)
• and AUC Commissioner (JP Onvehoun Ezin)

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• Joint Statement
• EC Commissioners (Potocnik, Reding, Verheugen,
  Michel)
• AUC Commissioner (JP Onvehoun Ezin)
• Consider the book of 19 lighthouse projects as
  the framework for EU-AU Cooperation under 8th
  partnership.
• These projects will be further refined and
  prioritised via the involvement of Member States
  relevant players on both side.

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• Joint Declaration
• AUC Chairperson (Ping) EC President (Barroso)
• Further cooperation on the basis of the 19
  lighthouse projects
• Immediate action for the six identified projects
  as early deliverables 

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• II. Africa-EU Troika
• (20-21 November 2008)
• Recommendations on the Lighthouse Projects

• The book of lighthouse projects fundamental tool
  for dialoguing amongst EU and AU partners
• The Troika recognize the six early deliverable
  projects
• The existing financial instruments optimum
  manner in order to demonstrate the potential of
  this partnership
• Enlarge the JEG8 Members AUC, EC, AU and EU
  Member States, RECs, AMCOST, NEPAD
• Welcome the EU-Africa Policy Dialog on Science
  and Technology

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Early Deliverables !!!(To be implemented before
the end of the First AU-EU Action Plan)

• 2 for ST
• African Research Grants Scientific Awards
• Water and Food Security in Africa
• 2 for INFORMATION SOCIETY
• Africa Connect
• The African Internet Exchange System (AXIS)
• 2 for SPACE SCIENCE
• The African Global Monitoring for Environment and
  Security (Kopernicus - Africa)
• Capacity Building in the AUC on Geospatial
  Sciences

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• the book of lighthouse projects The starting poi
  nt on AUC side is the project proposal initiated w
  ith UNECA under the name AFREF (establishment of
   a network of reference GPS station in each countr
  y in support to the standardization of reference t
  opographic maps) 
• EC side the understanding was to promote the JRC p
  roposal to make available in some way (mirroring
  ) the capacities and information developed in the 
  various components of the ACP Observatory for sus
  tainable development developed to support EC serv
  ices in their work of policy formulation and imple
  mentation by the use of objective and factual info
  rmation. 

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From where to start ?
The problem to be solved was therefore twofold a)
 identify a way  of reconciling views, and b) iden
tify the concrete actions to be implemented . 
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• Capacity Building in the AUC on Geospatial
  Sciences
• The EC Joint Research Centre's Africa
  Observatory exploits geospatial science for
  sustainable development focusing on natural
  resources, food security, crisis management and
  renewable energies.
• Capacity building will identify modalities for
  implementing a mirror of the Observatory at AUC
  so as to increase the use of scientific
  information for decision-making.

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• Main functions of the pan-African Geoinformation
  Cluster
•  
• The word cluster is preferred here rather than
  centre because the objective is not to carry out
  in a centralized manner what is already done by
  various institutions and centres at national and
  regional levels, but rather to build on their
  capacity
• Geoinformation includes all types information
  with a spatial dimension, being them collected on
  the ground, or from airborne or satellite
  platforms
• Through its pan-African dimension the cluster
  focuses primarily on the continental-wide scales.
•  
• The cluster should include two main
  functionalities
• An information analysis and reporting facility
  for pan-African needs
• A pan-African data acquisition, management and
  storage capacity

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• PART 1 Information, Analysis and Reporting
  Facility (IARF)
•  
• In the framework of the EU-Africa Partnership 8
  JRC has proposed to work jointly with AUC on the
  development of such a capacity at AUC via the
  mirroring of the above-mentioned ACP
  Observatory.
• The facility should have its own explicit mandate
  with a statement of autonomy with respect to
  specific national or regional interests as well
  as external lobbying groups.
•  Benefit should/could be taken from on-going
  activities both within and outside AUC, such as
  the CLIMDEV team at UNECA, the information hub in
  support UN environment-related international
  agreements to be established at AUC, the
  satellite-based data distribution capacity of the
  AMESD Project (specific antenna dish to be
  installed this week) etc..

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• Steps towards the deployment
•  The general strategy proposed here is not to
  develop in one step a full system, but rather to
  use a stepwise approach which makes best use of
  already existing resources so as to consolidate
  the proof of concept and provide visible early
  deliverables.
• Identification of capacities and limitations of
  the infrastructure currently available at AUC
• Identification of the key thematic areas to be
  covered the point of view of AUC.
• Evaluation of actual possibilities to join
  efforts with on-going actions i. a. international
  agreement Hub (REA), AMESD (REA), UNECA, others?
  (action on-going)
• Identification (action on-going) and
  implementation of an initial prototype based on
  the mirroring of the JRC ACP observatory to
  test in real conditions the concept and its
  feasibility
• Preparation of the final documentation for the
  complete system architecture, the work plan for
  deployment (including institutional aspects and
  human resources), and the costing.
•  

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• PART 2 Pan-African data acquisition, management
  and storage capacity
• Strategic objectives
• - In the short term ensure access to, and
  processing and storage of all kinds of
  geo-spatial information
• - In the medium term foster African autonomous
  conception, design and implementation all steps
  of the production chain, from the satellite
  sensor to the end user.
• - Avoid duplication of effort make best use of
  all existing initiatives, both in Africa and
  abroad
• - Activate / organize access to data acquired by
  African EO satellites.
• - Attract better offer / service offer from non
  African operators, including technology transfer.
•  

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• Geo-information to be considered
• Spatial data infrastructure seek UNECA
  contribution (incl. AFREF)
• Pan-African reference topographic map coverage
  (past and current, see also colonial
  collections, and more recent US and URSS
  coverage, consider specific section for border
  conflicts)
• Thematic maps (geology, underground water, soil,
  vegetation, etc )
• High resolution satellite imagery historical
  data sets
• Current high resolution imagery acquisition
  scheme. Includes activation of the charter?
• Low resolution satellite imagery useful for land
  and ocean management
• National and sub-national statistics
• Point measurements if appropriate (weather,
  pollution, agrometeorology)

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• Where to locate the capacity
• Several options can be considered for the
  deployment of the capacity, between the two
  following extremes
• Fully distributed approach. Rely on an equal
  role of each node of the network. The nodes are
  already existing capacities, such as satellite
  reception centres, or others.
• Fully concentrated approach a new or a
  pre-existing entity is given a prominent
  pan-African role in its domain of competence. In
  this case this entity receives the mandate to
  receive data from the other nodes of the network,
  to process and archive it for pan-African needs.
  Several pan-African centres can be identified,
  each for a given category of geospatial products

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Further information and permanent contacts

• Dr. Ahmed Hamdy
• Hamdya_at_Africa-Union.org Cc ahmedeg68_at_yahoo.com
• Dr. Thameur CHAIBI
• chaibit_at_Africa-Union.org Cc chaibithameur_at_yahoo.f
  r
• Web site WWW.african-union.org and/or
  WWW.Africa-eu-partnership.org