13th AARSE Conference, Kigali : G&A Coordinator urges African academics and researchers to actively collaborate in feeding the capacity needs of the continent’s space sector

The Coordinator of the GMES and Africa programme and Space Science Expert at the African Union Commission, Dr. Tidiane Ouattara, has called on African scientists and researchers in academia to organize and fill up the capacity gap in the continent’s space sector. Dr. Ouattara was speaking at the opening of a three-day meeting of the GMES and Africa Network of Academia, held on the sidelines of the ongoing AARSE Conference in Kigali, Rwanda.

As part of its mandate to promote information sharing and engagement on earth observation in Africa, GMES and Africa works with academics involved in the implementation of the programme through its various consortia. The university lecturers and researchers were mobilized to create a network for valorizing the active participation of academia in the programme’s activities through research, training and internships. This supports the capacity development pillar of GMES and Africa, intended to utilize earth observation for integrated decision making.

The GMES and Africa Coordinator used the opportunity to urge the academics to concretize their involvement in the programme by developing a clear roadmap detailing their plan of activities and preparing schemes on training, mentoring and internships. He observed that this could not be accomplished without intensive collaboration. According to Dr. Ouattara, the Network would be more successful if it diversifies its membership to include more women and young academics whilst focusing on African priorities.

Training and capacity development is one of the outputs of GMES and Africa, which is mandated to work on enhancing regional and national capacities of African public institutions and private sector to generate and apply earth observation-based information for natural and water resources as well as marine and coastal applications. At the center of this continental training architecture is the AU’s Pan-African University, which has a Space Sciences Institute hosted by South Africa and on the verge of being operationalized. GMES and Africa trainings are also conducted through virtual networking platforms linking technical and non-technical experts for experience sharing and user feedback.