The Program

The GMES & Africa initiative is the crystallization of the longstanding cooperation between Africa and Europe in the area of space science & technology, which is one of the key priorities of the long-term European Union (EU)- Africa Joint Strategy. 

The Maputo Declaration of October 2006 provided the necessity for the EU-Africa partnership to confirm the commitment to avail European infrastructure and facilities, under the Copernicus programme to Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries. This commitment led to the launch of GMES & Africa process in Lisbon, Portugal, on 7th December 2007 during the 2nd EU-Africa Summit. GMES & Africa aims at promoting the development of local capacities, institutional, human and technical resources for access to and exploitation of EO-based services on an operational basis for sustainable development in Africa. 

Nine thematic chapters were initially identified and agreed on for the Action Plan: (i) Long term Management of Natural Resources; (ii) Water Resource Management; (iii) Marine & Coastal Areas Management; (iv) Food Security and Rural Development; (v) Climate Variability and Change; (vi) Disaster Risk Reduction; (vii) Health; (viii) Conflict and Political Crisis, and (ix) Infrastructure and Territorial Development. The following cross-cutting areas were also identified: (a) Policy and Institutional framework (b) Infrastructure framework (c) Capacity Development framework (d) Financial issues, and (e) Monitoring and Evaluation. 

The African Union and the European Commission  finally agreed on a programme implementing three thematic areas under two services, namely, Natural and Water Resources; and Marine and Coastal Areas, with 23 applications. These first two services were to be built upon the achievements of predecessor programmes which include the MESA, AMESD and PUMA projects across Sub-Saharan Africa.

GMES & Africa Support Programme phase 1 was signed between African Union Commission (AUC) and European Commission (EC) in December 2016 for a total amount of Euro 30 million for 4 years. 

As results, the GMES & Africa Phase 1 established a Programme Management Unit (PMU). It granted funding to 12 Consortia representing over 122 institutions in 45 African countries involving 20 African private companies and 20 universities and training centres. African institutions have been identified for hosting 12 environmental stations (e- stations) and 188 existing climatological and environmental e-stations have been identified to be maintained. 17 applications dealing with water and or land management, served by 8 consortia (94 institutions) are active in 5 africa regions, and 15 marine and maritime applications delivered by 4 consortia (28 institutions) are active in 4 african regions. 

The delivered services are offered through 10 regional geoportals (7 terrestrials and 3 marine) and cover agriculture, oil pollution, daily forecast of ocean state, potential fishing zone, aquaculture, 15 RAMSAR sites and 10 Wetland development and management plans (DMP), wildlife protection and conservation and water balance monitoring. A Digital Learning Platform (DLP) which contains currently 30 courses has been developed as well as an operational network of 27 African Universities (made up of 15 francophone and 12 anglophone universities) has been established. More than 5000 Africans have been trained and the programme is supporting 30 graduate students in Masters and PhDs as well as it has offered internships opportunities to 11 young Africans through the AUC Youth Volunteers programme.

The GMES and Africa Phase 2 has started in January 2022 and will end in December 2025. The total investment of the European Commission to this phase is € 24,650,000. 

It will involve 8 consortia and it aims to cover the entire supply chain for services on Water & Natural Resources (e.g. land use, wetlands, land, forest resources, etc.) and Marine & Coastal areas (e.g. coastal area monitoring, ship traffic and pollution monitoring, etc.) from access to information, generation and provision of services, and engagement and capacity of users to ensure utilization of these services. The services provided on Water & Natural Resources and Marine & Coastal areas will contribute to a sustainable management of natural resources. Better access to information and availability of specific tools in these areas will also contribute to improve adaptation to climate change and to reduce disaster risk. The action will support African organisations, policy-makers and practitioners, to make more effective use of Earth Observation data to develop relevant operational information services to support sustainable management of natural resources and tackling climate change.