AfriGEO: The African Group on Earth Observations

Overview

The African Earth Observation community is continuously growing and is establishing its presence in the region and in the global arena, taking also benefit from the national and regional programs and from the on-going cooperation initiatives with a great number of external Partners.

The AfriGEO initiative, developed within the GEO framework, will strengthen the link between the current GEO activities with existing capabilities and initiatives in Africa and will provide the necessary framework for countries and organizations to access and leverage on-going bilateral and multilateral EO-based initiatives across Africa, thereby creating synergies and minimizing duplication for the benefit of the entire continent.

This coordination initiative has been recognized essential to enhance Africa's capacity for producing, managing and using Earth observations, thus also enabling the Region's participation in, and contribution to, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

AfriGEO aims to provide the necessary framework for African countries and organizations as well as international partners to access and leverage on-going local and international bilateral and multilateral EO-based initiatives across Africa, thereby creating synergies and minimizing duplication for the benefit of the continent.

Vision, Goal and Objectives

Vision
The AfriGEO vision is a continent where decisions on policy and implementation programs, involving the production, management and use of Earth observation, are taken with the involvement of all stakeholders, through a coordination framework enabling the linkage country-region-continent that AfriGEO wants to build. This is expected to be realized, in the medium-long term, by strengthening and enlarging the role of the existing national, regional and continental institutions.

Goal
AfriGEO aims to provide the necessary framework for African countries and organizations as well as international partners to access and leverage on-going local and international bilateral and multilateral EO-based initiatives across Africa, thereby creating synergies and minimizing duplication for the benefit of the continent.

Objectives
To achieve the above, a set of overall objectives has been defined for AfriGEO:

• Coordinate and bring together relevant stakeholders, institutions and agencies across Africa that are involved in GEO and other Earth observation activities;
• Provide a platform for countries to participate in GEO and to contribute to GEOSS;
• Assist in knowledge sharing and global collaboration;
• Identify challenges, gaps and opportunities for African contributions to GEO and GEOSS;
• Leverage existing capacities and planned assets and resources; and
• Develop an appropriate strategy and participatory model for achieving the above goals.
• Develop a strategy of Communication of the Earth Observation data in Africa

Members