Perspectives on Space Technology for Africa’s socio-economic development United Nations Economic...

Perspectives on Space Technology for Africa’s Perspectives on Space Technology for Africa’s socio-economic developmentsocio-economic development

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

ICT and Sciences & Technology Division (ISTD)

Makane Faye

Officer-in-charge, e@pplications Section

High level conference « Space for the African Citizen »High level conference « Space for the African Citizen »16 September 2010, Brussels16 September 2010, Brussels

22www.uneca.owww.uneca.orgrg

OutlineIntroductionSpace Technology & Applications for socio-economic developmentUNECA’s support to African countries on exploitation of Space technology for socio-economic developmentThe African ICT Ministers Abuja Declaration & RecommendationsThe Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology (CODIST)Challenges on Space Technology and Applications in Africa The Way Forward


Introduction

Globalization and the emerging new global economy put emphasis on information as an economic assetA major imperative in each African country is the commitment to deliver relevant information that could promote and sustain socio-economic developmentWithin its programme of Harnessing Information for Development, UNECA supports Member States in the exploitation of spatially enabled information technologies for decision-making at all levels through advisory services, capacity building and development of common resources and online repositories.


Space Technology & Applications for Socio-economic development

Geospatial technology is critical to the development of the Knowledge Economy and an equitable Information SocietyIts importance lies on the fact that Location affects nearly everything we do in life and is also at the heart of some of the world’s most pressing problemsNeed for Africa to acquire orbital locations to facilitate acquisition of data & development of suitable space applicationsService delivery industries that depend on location and spatial knowledge benefit from reduced transaction costs, thus, leading to up scaling of economic activities contributing to socio-economic development


Space Technology & Applications for Socio-economic development (ctd) Examples

Food Security Land cover, soil, topography,

hydrography, rainfall, demographics,

infrastructure, yield, production etc.

Water Supply Hydrography, topography, aquifers,

waterbodies, land cover, soil types,

vegetation, rainfall, etc.

Resources

Management

Ecosystems, biodiversity, vegetation,

land cover, soils, water, wetlands, biomass

etc.

Drought Rainfall, temperature, evapo-

transpiration, wind, aerosols etc.

All the information products exemplified would not be complete without the location attribute

They need to be localized: Where are the features located? Where are the population involved in an activity, vis-à-vis location of

the activity? Who will benefit from an activity or event ? Or at risk? Where are they? Where are the markets for the products? The input factors? Where are the infrastructure elements, utilities, etc? What areas are suitable (or unsuitable) for specific activities or events? How do we move (people, products, services) from source to

destination?


Space Technology & Applications for Socio-economic development (ctd) Examples (ctd)

Security and

Emergency

Land cover, soil chemistry, topography,

geology, mining, utilities, settlements,

transport infrastructure, flood, etc.

Health

Planning

Hospitals locations, settlements and

demographics, disease vectors,

environmental factors distribution, etc.

E-Services

for socio-

economic

development

Telecom, market prices, demographics, e-

edcuation, e-health, e-government, e-

commerce, etc.

All the information products exemplified would not be complete without the location attribute

They need to be localized: Where are the features located? Where are the population involved in an activity, vis-à-vis location of

the activity? Who will benefit from an activity or event ? Or at risk? Where are they? Where are the markets for the products? The input factors? Where are the infrastructure elements, utilities, etc? What areas are suitable (or unsuitable) for specific activities or events? How do we move (people, products, services) from source to

destination?


More examples on use of Space Technology for for Socio-economic development

Various sectors of the economy benefit significantly from access to Spatial Applications, including:

Communications in general;location/mobile services;travel and tourism;National defence;Environmental modelling; etc.

370 million Africans subscribed to mobiles in 2009 Most of the mobile are now embedded with spatial applications such as GPS and street mapsWeb-based GIS technology is also widely used in Africa


UNECA Vision on Space Technology and Applications

Our Vision is to generate, share and disseminate knowledge: By ensuring that spatial data permeates every

aspect of society and that they are available to people who need them, when they need them, and in a form that they can use them to make decisions with minimal pre-processingBy ensuring that generated information is put to the maximum possible uses by publicising their existence and making them easily available to the widest possible audience


Selected on-going activities

The African Regional Spatial Data Infrastructure Adopt cooperative, multi-stakeholder approach to production, management,

and dissemination of spatially enabled data: Regional and National level Improve regional scale development decision-making

The African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF) Project

A scientific project using modern satellite based positioning with aim to To determine a continental reference system for Africa and to establish continuous, permanent GNSS base stations to ensure that data is freely available to all African nations

The Mapping Africa for Africa (MAfA) Initiative Based on the Durban Statement, it is a plan of action to provide the

fundamental geo-spatial information for sustainable development in support of regional projects


Development of Interoperability & Standards: The Common Geodetic Reference (AFREF)

Network of permanent GNSS base stations (CORS) covering the whole continent

At least one in every country Eventually, everywhere in Africa

less than 1000 km from a base station.

Salient Features 5 GPS CORS Stations being installed

in African Sub regions

30 GPS Reference Stations to be installed, depending on availability of funds

On-going inventory of existing and planned GNSS base stations in African countries

http://geoinfo.uneca.org/afref/


Development of Interoperability & Standards: The Harmonized Administrative Boundary

Second Administrative Level Boundary (SALB)

Produce a comprehensive digital database of Second Administrative Level Boundaries

Provide a flexible and intuitive coding scheme that can be applied to any country, independently from administrative structure an international borders template developed

by the UN Cartographic Section in order to be able to create a global data set that is cross-boundary

an editing protocol in order to insure the comparability between the countries

a coding scheme for the identification of each administrative unit through time and space

a metadata profile that is associated with the information

a validation process of all the information by an official entity (generally the National Mapping Agency

www.salb.org


Creation of Regional Databases TheTransport Infrastructure Database (TIDB)

The segments of the trans-African highway have been entered, together with proposed priority transport infrastructure projects of the various regional economic communities and specialized technical organizations. (http://geoinfo.uneca.org/afriquecentrale)

Programme of Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) The database covers all existing and planned infrastructure facilities in the

continent. A compendium of maps was generated from the database and customized as an interactive digital atlas. (http://geoinfo.uneca.org/africaninfrastructure)

The African Fiber optic connectivity data base Describes international Sea connectivity and current as well as planned

connections within and between African countries. An African fiber optic map was generated. (http://geoinfo.uneca.org/downloads/Fiber%20Optic%20Network.pdf)


The Trans African Highways


e-Services Delivery (Clearinghouse Services) To use data produced by another

person/agency, potential users need to know: That the data resource

exists How the data was produced How to access the data

The metadata collections are best maintained By the producers of the data As an integral part of the data

production process But they should be accessible to

potential users Always available and easy to

access Result: on-line metadata

clearinghouse services Search and discover what

exists, where and how to access

Publish and advertise what you have and do

Field level, location and other criteria-based searches

http://geoinfo.uneca.org/


e-Services Delivery (Online Mapping)

Exploit the vast opportunities provided by the Web Make it easy and

rapid to search, and access geospatial information from multiple locations

Enable standards and interoperable web-based exploitation of Geodata

Develop value-add products and services

Decentralized Mapping…

Previously unthinkable map themes now common at demand: Visualizing MDG

Progress Dynamic maps and

Statistics… http://

geoinfo.uneca.org


Meeting of African ICT Ministers, August 2010

3rd ordinary session of the African Union ICT Ministers, held in Abuja, Nigeria, from 6-7 August 2010, adopted The Abuja 2010 Declaration, which requests the AU Commission to, enter alia, : Conduct a feasibility study on the establishment

of the African Space Agency and develop an African Space Policy in cooperation with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).


Meeting of African ICT Ministers, August 2010 (ctd)

Also the ministers endorsed the following recommendations from the experts: Undertake awareness raising campaigns for policy

makers; Promote the use of African Regional Centres of

Excellence to build the capacity of Member States; Provide appropriate input to African members of the

Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space; (COPUOS), in order to better take into account Africa’s concerns and needs, especially on Disaster Management, Emergency Response and peaceful use of satellite imagery;

Improve communication and coordination among existing initiatives in African countries.


Regional Coordination: CODISTRegional Coordination: CODIST

Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology

UNECA’s parliamentary body to provide technical advice on, and oversight over the ICT, Science & Technology sub programme Reports to the African Ministers of Finance and Economic

Development

Meets every two years Official delegates are government official in areas of

geographic information, space, ICT, Science and Technology Governments encouraged to include wide representation of all

stakeholders in their delegations

Observers from Private Sector, Academia, NGOs and non-African officials and industry partners


Challenges on Space Technology & Applications in Africa

Communication infrastructure not yet fully developed to support remote access to data and services

Data not available at appropriate scale, and they are not up to date

Human capacity: lack of critical mass and retention of staff

Computing resources not always available Awareness raising: decision-makers not aware of

space benefits Policy environment not yet developed


The Way Forward

Implement the Abuja 2010 Declaration and Recommendations

African Stakeholders and decision-makers to capitalize on the regularly organized Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology

UNECA & technical African organizations to secure funding from the EU to provide technical support to the AU for implementing the Abuja Declaration and the Experts recommendations


Thank you

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