Africa is the new Eldorado for space business: Dr. Tidiane Ouattara, Space Science Expert at AUC

Dr. Tidiane Ouattara, the GMES and Africa Coordinator and Space Science Expert at the African Union Commission, delivered a keynote at the Global Conference on Space for Emerging Countries (GLEC2019) on behalf of the Director of Human Resources, Science and Technology of the African Union Commission.

Left to Right: Dr. Tidiane Ouattara, Space Science Expert at AUC , Jean Yves Le Gall (the president of the French Space Agency - CNES) and Driss El Hadani (Director General of the Royal Center for Spatial Remote Sensing of Morocco).

During the three day conference kicked off on 24 April in Marrakech, Morocco, he posited that Africa’ s future is indeed intertwined with Space, which has a role in addressing the knowledge gap, safety and security challenges, employment as well as innovation.

The African Outer Space programme - He continued - will contribute to ensuring that Africa has its rightful share in the global commons, taking full charge of its space, land and oceans. The African Union’s Space model is designed to address the drawbacks and utilize space towards sustainable development for more than fifty emerging countries in Africa.

The Agenda 2063 has identified the African Outer Space Programme among the African Union flagship programmes. The African Space Policy and Strategy enable African countries to approach space activities with a common agenda, strategy and pool of resources to maximize the benefits derived from space and to harness space science, technology and innovations for Africa’s growth and transformation. The Policy and Strategy offer a framework and aim to create the African Outer Space Programme as the platform to coordinate and harmonize all space activities in the continent for sustainable socio-economic development and to facilitate the development of skills as well as knowledge and expertise among the Member States.

More information about GLEC2019 and the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

Founded in 1951, the International Astronautical Federation is the world’s leading space advocacy body with 366 members in 68 countries, including all leading space agencies, companies, research institutions, universities, societies, associations, institutes and museums worldwide - http://www.iafastro.org/about/

Among several activities, IAF organises yearly Global Space Conferences that are a gathering of specialists confronting ideas on a very specific subject deemed important by the area where the conference takes place.

Last year IAF organized the GLAC 2018 (Global Space Applications Conference). This year the GLEC2019 (Global Conference on Space for Emerging Countries) featured the benefits of space technology and applications to socio-economic development, under the theme "Bridging the Space Divide in Emerging Countries" - http://www.iafastro.org/events/global-series-conferences/glec-2019/