GMES and Africa Continental Workshop digs deep into issues affecting marine and coastal services in Africa

The technical discussions are narrowing in on key questions that border on institutional policies, infrastructure and data, and the value addition of existing services being rendered by consortia.

Round tables during the GMES and Africa 1st Continental Service Workshop on Marine and Coastal Services, Accra - Ghana, 4-6 July 2022

Workshop participants, all African natural resources experts, are brainstorming on the issues surrounding the efficient delivery of services in marine and coastal areas, and are seeking to identify initiatives with which consortia could forge linkages and tap into the possibility of integrating EO data and geospatial information technologies, in collaboration with other African organisations.  

The installation of regional geoportals is a key deliverable of GMES and Africa as a continental programme. Participants are therefore interrogating the functionalities of these geoportals as vital sources of data and geo information.  

On training and capacity development, the experts are looking at the viability of courses offered by consortia, their target beneficiaries, timelines for delivery, and gender balance in participation during the trainings.   

To promote knowledge management and sharing of the Programme's knowledge resources and assets, workshop participants have emphasized the need for the establishment of communities of practice under each consortium.  The communities of practice contribute to service implementation and cross-fertilization of practices and ideas. 

Discussants at the workshop are in agreement that the other programme axes can only be delivered with impact if they are supported by robust outreach and awareness strategies that engage beneficiaries and stakeholders. The obligation was therefore emphasized for consortia to develop and deploy robust visibility and communications mechanisms.

More information

Mr. Adiatou FATTY

GMES and Africa Communication Officer 

fattya[at]africa-union.org