GMES an Africa Support Programme – Technical Assistance Team

Detailed description of project:

The GMES & Africa Initiative is a cooperation framework established within the Joint Africa-EU Strategy by the 2nd Africa-EU Summit (2007) for the development and implementation of Earth Observation (EO)-based services to support sustainable development in Africa. The principle adopted for GMES & Africa is that it should be guided by African-owned processes to serve African needs and implemented by African institutions.

The GMES & Africa Support Project has been approved for a total of € 31.75 million, including a € 26.5 million EU contribution. The core of the project will consist in establishing two services: i) A Water and Natural Resources Service and ii) A Marine and Coastal Service.

The Technical Assistance Team will support the AUC in its coordination and support role. The purpose of the consulting contract is i) to provide technical contributions on the two services mentioned above and their applications, and ii) to provide technical contribution to the other tasks to be achieved by the AUC (e.g. training and infrastructure), and iii) support AUC in fulfilling its role of project coordinator. The expected results (contract outputs) are:

  • Capacity of the AUC GMES & Africa Unit in managing the support project is developed;
  • Adequate systems within the AUC are established to plan the installation and optimise the utilisation of data access infrastructure, equipment and facilities;
  • Relevant processes established to strengthen current continental cooperation frameworks with GMES & Africa partners and other EO and geo-data providers;
  • Regional and continental GIS databases of projects and initiatives related to Water & Natural Resources and Marine services developed;
  • Improved capacity of the GMES & Africa Regional Implementation Centres in delivering the expected Water & Natural Resources and Marine services to the relevant decision makers;
  • Improved capacity of the AUC GMES & Africa Unit in establishing a training programme for the GMES & Africa.

Type of services provided:

  • Develop and operationalise project management tools for the AUC GMES & Africa Unit to assess needs, plan their work and monitor implementation;
  • Develop a system to monitor and optimise the utilisation of EO data access infrastructure/equipment supporting GMES & Africa Services;
  • Provide support to AUC in strengthening the dialogue between AUC, implementing partners, End-Users and other EO data providers;
  • Provide support to the GMES & Africa Unit in contributing to integrate the products of GMES & Africa into the decision and planning processes at various levels;
  • Identify and establish a database on potential users’ communities (working in relevant areas in Africa;
  • Liaise with Regional Economic Communities and other inter-governmental bodies involved in GMES & Africa;
  • Support the AUC in establishing technical specifications for the services;
  • Support the AUC in the technical assessment of proposals for the implementation of Water & Natural Resources and Marine & Coastal services;
  • Develop draft monitoring mechanisms (including a system to gather and assess feed-back from users) for GMES & Africa Services;
  • Support AUC in conducting a training needs analysis for technicians involved in the implementation of GMES & Africa Services;
  • Support AUC in conducting awareness campaign for decision makers on the G&A services.
African Union Commission (AUC)
EC
01/2017 -12/2021
Contract value: 3,885,617 €