GMES & Africa Programme 

The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES & Africa) Support Programme is a 30 million Euro joint programme co-financed by the European Commission and the African Union Commission. The Programme intends to adapt and use the Copernicus Programme data and services in the African context.
GMES and Africa are designed to specifically respond to African needs with respect to the development of services for water, natural resources, marine, and coastal areas, address the global markets to manage the environment, and ensure civil security. GMES and Africa will enable the implementation of the African Space Policy and Strategy formulated to harness the continent’s capabilities in utilizing space science and technology for economic growth and sustainable development.
In the implementation agreement, the African Union Commission is the ‘delegated authority’ responsible for managing the programme. GMES and Africa Support Programme aims to improve African policymakers, planners, scientists, business and private sector and citizens’ capacities to design, implement, and monitor national, regional, and continental policies and to promote sustainable management of natural resources with Earth Observation data and derived information.
Unlike prior Earth Observation Programmes in Africa, GMES and Africa introduce five key innovations:

1. the inclusion of North African countries.
2. the program is managed entirely by the African Union Commission.
3. the engagement of the African private sector.
4. the engagement of African academia; and
5. use of Copernicus Sentinel data.

Capacity Building for Earth Observation Application under ICPAC consortia

The overall objective of the GMES & Africa project in the East African region is to promote more sustainable long-term management of natural resources in the East Africa region by improving policymakers, planners’, scientists, businesses, private sector, and citizens’ capacities to design, implement, and monitor national, regional and continental policies through the use of Earth Observation data and derived information. To this effect, the programme is designed to specifically respond to African needs with respect to services related to water, natural resources, and marine, and coastal areas and to address the global needs that revolve around the management of the environment, mitigating effects of climate change, and ensuring civil security. The programme supports the realization and implementation of the African Space Policy and Strategy and harnesses the continent’s capabilities in utilizing space science and technology for economic growth and sustainable development of the region.

Six outputs/results areas are expected from this project:

The Result Area 4 focuses on; the Capacities of African public institutions, users of GMES services, and the private sector to take advantage of EO-based information for Water & Natural Resources applications enhanced at the regional and national levels.

The IGAD Climate Predictions and Applications Center (ICPAC) in partnership with Makerere University and other institutions has received a grant to implement the " Monitoring Natural Resources and Food Security in Eastern Africa Region" project under the framework of GMES and AFRICA of the African Union Commission with support from the European Commission. In this arrangement, Makerere University's objective is to build capacity for the uptake, use, and development of Earth Observation application products for Natural Resources and Food Security Monitoring in the Eastern Africa Region. To this end, Makerere University has carried out a stakeholders’ training needs assessment, developed and validated a training curriculum, and developed training materials for the training needs identified by stakeholders’ which informed the development of the curriculum.

It is against this background that the College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, Makerere University is rolling out its training in order to meet the GMES & Africa objective of building capacity for the uptake, use, and development of Earth Observation application products for Natural Resources and Food Security Monitoring in the Eastern Africa Region.