Summary of the Outcomes of the 1st AfriGEOSS Steering Committee Meeting Humbulani Mudau DST, South Africa 1st AfriGEOSS Symposium 27 – 29 April 2016 Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Members of the Steering Committee (SC)

Inauguration of the Steering Committee The SC reviewed the ToRs as adopted by the Africa Caucus in November 2014 Actions/ Recommendations: Proposed text changes in the AfriGEOSS Management arrangement to be presented to the Africa Caucus in Russia (see pg7) South Africa and Egypt were nominated as the Co-Chairs for the current SC term

AfriGEOSS Priorities and Policy Implementation The Steering Committee defined the AfriGEOSS Initiative as: Coordination framework Framework for strengthening partnerships within Africa Gateway into Africa for international partners Pan African initiative to create awareness on EO Platform for Africa’s participation in GEO (GEOSS home in Africa) Support mechanism for establishment of national coordination mechanism

AfriGEOSS Priorities and Policy Implementation The Steering Committee identified the following priority areas to support policy implementation: Forest and deforestation management Food Security and Agriculture Water Resource Management Urban Planning and Growth Contribution to achieve SBAs and SDGs Building the System of Systems

AfriGEOSS Priorities and Policy Implementation Actions/ Recommendations: Prepare a simple short description of AfriGEOSS for engaging policy and decision makers (Secretariat with Gabon and Madagascar) South Africa to lead engagements on AU-EU High Level Policy Dialogue on food security Articulate the unique value of AfriGEOSS in the priority areas (SC Co-Chairs)

Enabling AfriGEOSS Activities Resources required to implement AfriGEOSS activities: Secretariat operations budget African participation in GEO activities Coordination Teams (CTs) operational budget Hosting of meetings and workshops Other considerations: Home of AfriGEOSS in the continent Resources provided as financial contributions to the GEO Trust fund or as in-kind Re-investment by GEO in AfriGEOSS Request support from the AUC

Enabling AfriGEOSS Activities Actions/ Recommendations: Develop framework for consideration by the Caucus Members on the funding model (SC through Co-Chairs) Investigate the requirements of the African Renaissance Fund to support AfriGEOSS activities (South Africa)

Implementing African Political Decisions and Mandates The SC noted five political decisions/ declarations as follows: Mandate for AfriGEOSS to contribute to the decision making process Framework to provide feedback to political structures Framework for resources mobilisation Actions/ Recommendations: A Task Force to prepare an AUC-AfriGEOSS partnership framework document

Coordination of Africa’s Participation in GEO GEO Executive Committee : Egypt, Senegal and South Africa Programme Board (CAR, Egypt, Gabon, Madagascar, Somalia and Zimbabwe) Actions/ Recommendations: A formal mechanism by Members of the governance structures to enhance information flow

Implementing Data and Infrastructure Activities Egypt presented the Data and Infrastructure Coordination Team (DICT) progress report. Actions/ Recommendations: The DICT’s work is critical for building a Coordinated Data Acquisition Strategy for Africa

Strengthening the Coordination Network One of the objectives of AfriGEOSS is to ensure active participation by Members and POs in GEO. Members are strongly urged to activate national coordination mechanism (national GEOs). Actions/ Recommendations: SC calls for active participation in AfriGEOSS and GEO by members Member countries with established national mechanisms to share lessons learnt (SA, Uganda, Secretariat)

User Needs and Applications Build AfriGEOSS that is responsive to societal challenges (priority areas and other relevant areas), underpinned by human capital, data and infrastructure capacities. Actions/ Recommendations: National and regional institutions with mandate in the priority and SB areas be identified and approached to form Thematic Coordination Teams; to develop inventories of capacities and gaps in Africa linking to the GEO User Needs and Knowledge Base activities. Member countries with expertise in use of EO to develop pilots in various application areas to showcase value of EO (SA, Egypt, Kenya, Gabon, etc)

Capacity Development (HCD) SC noted the need to engage youth and non-scientific ambassadors for EO. Actions/ Recommendations: Develop strong connections with universities that have programmes that can contribute to training institutions (an inventory/ audit of institutions and programmes) (Secretariat) Identify and engage with institutions mandated to undertake capacity building, to become part of CB CT (Secretariat)

Communication and Outreach The Communication and Outreach (CO) involves promotion of AfriGEOSS initiatives and showcasing EO applications. Actions/ Recommendations: SC Members to identify and and/ delegate their institutions/ countries communication’s officers to the CO CT The CO CT to develop a CO Plan that will be well resourced for implementation

Resource Contributors Coordination SC undertook/ committed to strengthen their national coordination mechanisms as critical to resource mobilisation. Actions/ Recommendations: Egypt to follow up on possible contribution to the GEO Trust Fund The DI CT to consider which aspects of its activities can be turned into project proposals for funding

1st AfriGEOSS Symposium 2016 Zimbabwe provided updates on the preparations of the Symposium. Actions/ Recommendations: Secretariat with Technical Committee to provide the draft programme for SC considerations SC to advise on discussion points for the high-level session

Review of Decisions 21 recommendations/ actions from the 1st SC in Pretoria Date of next meeting: Prior to November 2016 GEO Plenary, Russia

Thank you!