GMES & Africa Continental Workshop on Marine and Coastal Services kicks off in Accra, Ghana

share

The first Continental Workshop of GMES and Africa on Marine and Coastal Services has opened in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. The workshop brings together more than 75 African experts in natural resources management mainly from the GMES & Africa consortia of institutions, the African Union Commission, Regional Economic Communities, and EO practitioners from the private sector. The workshop centres on cross-fertilization of practices and the strategic pooling and deployment of resources by the consortia in addressing the services they are specialised in. Two GMES & Africa consortia, namely the University of Ghana and CSIR are specialised in Marine and Coastal Areas.

At the opening ceremony, the Provost of the University of Ghana, Professor Boateng Onwona Agyeman, called on the GMES & Africa community to consolidate their gains from the first implementation phase of yhe programme and work towards a successful second phase. He encouraged participants to come out with concrete actions that will drive services delivery and results at the end of the programme.

The Coordinator of the GMES & Africa Programme Dr. Tidiane Ouattara, described Coastal and Marine Areas as critical for Africa's sustainable development. "Our coastal areas and resources are under threat, and the task for us in this community is to utilise space science and technology to contribute towards addressing these challenges", Dr. Ouattara said. He reminded participants that the goal of the workshop is to brainstorm on mobilising and utilising resources in better ways, and to work together in developing a clear roadmap on activities for joint implementation.

The promotion of data sharing among Africans and African institutions is a prime focus of GMES and Africa. In this connection, the African Union Commission has been underlining the need for GMES and Africa institutions and stakeholders to be diligent in sharing data, particularly Copernicus data, which has been made available through partnership with the European Union. The three-day workshop will seek to address questions on cross-fertilization around marine and maritime issues such as sea rescue, coastal vulnerability, mapping and monitoring, ship trafficking, oil spill monitoring, and warning services. The experts will investigate mechanisms to ensure that the services in these areas become user-driven and sustainable at both technical and financial levels.

The GMES & Africa Accra workshop follows one convened in Lusaka, Zambia, which was dedicated to Water and Natural Resources Services as another thematic area of the programme. In the programme's second implementation phase, knowledge management, institutional framework and cross--fertilisation among stakeholders are primary areas of focus.