Abstract
AU-Agenda 2063 was adopted at the 24th Ordinary Session of the African Heads of State and Government in 2015 as the blueprint for the future development of the continent. Built upon the continent’s past experiences, challenges, and successes, AU-Agenda 2063 comprehensively describes the strategic path for Africa’s future development in the next 50 years. Thus, the monitoring of its implementation in various African states is critical for ensuring sustainable development and track progress. However, the higher cost of collecting data for accurately and reliably monitoring the implementation of Agenda 2063 may hinder the progress towards achieving these goals. Satellite Earth observation provides ample data, and thus has provided opportunities for the development of novel products and services with the potential to support implementation, monitoring and reporting for AU-Agenda 2063 development imperatives. However, it has been limitedly exploited in Africa, as evidenced by lower research outputs and investments. This calls for increased capacity building in the use of available EO data and products for various users including decision makers to advance national, regional and continental priorities. The use of such data products is often hampered by the capability to understand the products and thus their value for addressing socio-economic challenges. This paper discusses the potential of Earth observation capacity building for supporting the implementation, monitoring of, and reporting towards achieving AU-Agenda 2063 development imperatives. Specifically, this paper identifies existing capacity building resources, including the role of open and free Earth observation data, open-source software, and product dissemination platforms that can be leveraged for supporting national development, service delivery and the achievement of AU-Agenda 2063 targets. Furthermore, the paper recognizes the importance of bilateral and multilateral partnerships in leveraging existing know-how, technology and other resources for advancing strategic goals of African emerging space agencies and promoting sustainable development, with examples from South African National Space Agency (SANSA). Then, the challenges and opportunities for capacity building and the wide adoption of EO in Africa are discussed in the context of AU-Agenda 2063. The paper thus concludes that EO capacity building is essential to address the skills and data gaps and increase the use of EO-based solutions for decision making in various sectors, critical for achieving AU-A2063.
Highlights
South African National Space Agency (SANSA) is an active member of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), and through the South African Earth Observation Strategy (SAEOS) participates in the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)
This paper discussed the potential of capacity building in Earth observation, in the context of an African emerging space agency (i.e., SANSA) for supporting the implementation, monitoring and reporting towards the achievement of African Union (AU)-Agenda 2063 goals
This was done by providing an overview of available open and free satellite data, FOSS software, value-added Earth observation (EO)-based products as well as dissemination platforms that can potentially support policy and decision making towards the achievement of national and continental priorities
Summary
Developing countries are faced with a plethora of challenges, including the provision of basic needs such as food, shelter, water and sanitation, health care, quality education, and a clean and healthy environment, exacerbated by exponentially growing populations, the prevalence of diseases, and a changing climate. Among the many challenges facing Africa, the eradication of poverty (reducing unemployment rate) and hunger (doubling agricultural production), access to safe drinking water, health and infrastructure, and accelerating economic growth are some of the key foci of the AU-Agenda 2063 Achieving these requires a concerted effort (i.e., multi-sectoral partnerships), improvement of institutional and human capacities, alignment of national priorities to the AU-Agenda 2063 goals and targets, and timely and accurate information to support implementation, progress monitoring and reporting. The South African National Space Agency (SANSA), an entity of Department of Science and Technology (DST), is mandated by the South African Space Agency Act, 36 of 2008, and National Space Strategy [8], to coordinate and integrate space science and technology programs, conduct long-term planning and implementation of space-related innovations in South Africa, and ensure the supply of cost-effective space-based EO data and products to support South Africa’s policy, decision-making, economic growth and sustainable development. Its multi-pronged approach includes funding of post-graduate students, short training courses, supervision of postgraduate students, guest lecturing at universities, internships and studentship programs
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