The GMES & Africa Programme has been delivering on its Pan-African mandate to strengthen the capacities of African institutions with the resources required for access to and exploitation of Earth Observation-based services, particularly in the Water and Natural Resources and Marine and Coastal Areas domains. In line with its role in promoting collaboration and engagement within the African EO sector, the programme has announced the second and final continental Forum for the second phase of GMES & Africa.
The event is scheduled from the 1st to the 3rd of December 2025 in Cairo, Egypt, under the Theme “GMES and Africa: A journey toward shaping Africa EO Road Map as a Key Pillar of a Sustainable African Space Economy.
Objectives of the Continental Event
The main objectives of the forum will include;
- Discussions on the achievements, impacts, best practices and lessons learnt from the implementation of GMES in Africa and the way forward.
- Provide an avenue for different partners, especially from academia, NGOs, the public sector, the private sector, international partners, and end-users, to contribute to the EO Africa roadmap in terms of policy partnerships, human capital, infrastructure, and service delivery.
- Build on EO successes, define potential intra-African and international partnerships.
Agenda Features
- High-level segment featuring keynote speeches, press conferences from policymakers
from Africa and Europe, and face-to-face engagement with journalists. - Testimonials from the consortia and end-users, and discussions along the six main pillars of GMES & Africa, namely, Policy and Institutional Framework, Infrastructure and Data, Services, Human Capital Development, Synergy and Knowledge Management, and Outreach and uptake.
- Technical sessions on the utility of EO services for socio-economic development.
- All-day exhibition booths showcasing EO services and products by GMES & Africa consortia and partners.
The full provisional agenda can be downloaded here: Draft Agenda – 2nd Forum of GMES & Africa – phase 2
Expected Results
- The definition and awareness of the key results, impacts, best practices, and lessons learnt from the last 8 years, along with necessary recommendations for the way forward.
- Identification of the EO road map in terms of policy partnership, human capital, infrastructure, and service delivery.
- Documentation and review of the intra-African and international partnership, ensuring the sustainable mechanisms for resource mobilisation, skills transfer, and human capital
development.
Forum Participants
GMES & Africa Forum is a platform for engagement among diverse participants, with a view to enhancing and integrating EO services for socio-economic development. Additionally, the platform brings together a congregation of policymakers, scientists, academics and user communities to contribute in enriching EO services. AUC will sponsor some delegates, while consortia will sponsor participation of partners and associates, including the students who have benefited from the scholarships. Furthermore, AU Member States, Regional Economic Communities, the African Union Commission, the European Commission, regional and international institutions, non-governmental organisations and the United Nations system are among the participants.
Further details on event registration will be provided in due course.
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