GMES and Africa
The former Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Initiative, now called Copernicus, is the European Programme to establish European capacity for Earth Observation. GMES was developed by the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA) to provide sustainable, reliable and timely services to the public and public policy makers related to environmental and security issues.
The GMES and Africa initiative is an integral part of the EU-Africa 8th Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space.
The partnership between GMES and Africa will be established by:
- Deepening the dialogue with the African users and between the African and European policy makers for the identification and integration of their requirements for the provision of GMES services to the African Continent;
- Leveraging on existing relevant initiatives and projects for strengthening and building Earth observation capacities in Africa, valuing in particular the existing endogenous initiatives as to avoid duplication;
- Establishing a long term partnership among European and African stakeholders.
The goal is to support national and regional policies in key areas including climate change, environment and disaster risk management, food security and natural resources through systematic exploitation of Earth Observation data, technologies and services. It is one of the two space-focused priority projects for Africa identified in the Book of Lighthouse Projects.
Timeline of events in the development of GMES & Africa:
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MAPUTO, OCTOBER 2006 – 7th EUMETSAT User Forum in Africa. Representatives of the African Union, ACP Member States, and the five Regional Economic Communities (ECCAS, ECOWAS, IOC, IGAD, SADC), signed the Maputo Declaration
, requesting the extension of the GMES initiative to Africa.
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LISBON, DECEMBER 2007 – “GMES & Africa” Event and the EU-Africa Summit of the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union Council. Government entities and European and African organizations participated in the event Lisbon Process, Space for Development: the case of GMES & Africa (in preparation for the Second Africa-EU Summit in Lisbon), and agreed on working together to submit the “Action Plan for the GMES & Africa Partnership” at the Third EU-Africa Summit, to take place towards the end of 2010 in Libya. As stated in the Lisbon Declaration
on GMES & Africa, the Action Plan will be developed throughout the Lisbon Process, between 2008 and 2010.
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ACCRA, OCTOBER 2008 – Before the 8th EUMETSAT User Forum in Africa, the European and African partners of the Lisbon Process met in Accra to define the Terms of Reference for this Process and the thematic areas to be included. The structure of the technical coordination and development of the GMES & Africa Action Plan was defined, including the consultation process by experts and Africa users. The Joint Implementation Group of the 8th EU-Africa Partnership will provide political supervision and guidance of the Process.
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ISPRA, MARCH 2009 – Launching of the GMES & Africa Action Plan. The Coordination Team, defined in Accra in 2008, established a timeline for the development of the Action Plan, for adoption at the Third EU-Africa Summit in Libya, to take place towards the end of 2010. The Consultation Team, composed of experts from the eleven thematic groups, started the Action Plan, in order for it to be subject to an expanded consultation process in Europe and Africa, as of December 2009. The African Consultation will be organised through Workshops.
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HAMMAMET, NOVEMBER 2010 – The Hammamet Strategic Document
reflects the extensive work by Africans and Europeans since the second Africa-EU Summit, held in Lisbon, Portugal in 2007. It outlines immediately required steps, such as establishing a dedicated Secretariat to support the initiative, and formalising the governance framework currently provided by the ad-hoc Extended Coordination Team. It also outlines the time frame to conclude the Action Plan. The document concludes that in order to foster the implementation plan of GMES and Africa there is a need for a renewed political commitment.
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LISBON, JANUARY 2012 – At the request of the Space Troika, the GMES and Africa Coordination Team deliberated that the first three thematic workshops to be carried out will address the Marine and Coastal Areas Chapter, the Water Resources Management Chapter, and the Natural Resources Management Chapter of the GMES & Africa Action Plan. Following these, a fourth validation workshop will take place, gathering experts from the relevant thematic areas. These workshops will take place in the 4 regions of Sub-Saharan and North Africa.
The Second Action Plan for the period 2011 - 2013 of the 8th Africa-EU Strategic Partnership (Science, Information Society, Space) has identified a number of priority areas for public sector, private sector and research community collaboration between Africa and Europe to complement investments in ICT infrastructure deployment by exploiting synergies between the EU 2020 Digital Agenda and the African Union (AU) ICT development frameworks.
One of the priority areas identified for Space is to finalise, expedite and implement the Baseline Draft 0 Action Plan on GMES and Africa, taking into consideration ongoing deliberations and guidance on the process since it was initiated in 2007.
The current draft of the GMES and Africa Action Plan addresses 9 thematic areas as well as 5 cross cutting issues.
The 9 Thematic Areas identified are:
- Long-Term Management of Natural Resources
- Marine and Coastal Areas
- Water Resources Management
- Impacts of Climate Variability Change
- Natural Disasters
- Food Security and Rural Development
- Infrastructures and Territorial Development
- Conflicts and Political Crisis
- Health Management Issues
The 5 Cross Cutting Issues identified are Policy and Institutional, Infrastructure, Capacity Building, Financial, Monitoring and Evaluation.