After successfully hosting the inaugural ASW workshops in Egypt in October, three team members were awarded full scholarships by the African Union to attend the 1st GMES and Africa Forum. The event took place in Libreville, Gabon between November 19-23, 2018.
The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and Africa initiative is the crystallisation of the longstanding cooperation between Africa and Europe in the area of space science and technology, one of the key priorities of the long-term EU-Africa Joint Strategy. The programme aims to address the growing needs of African countries to access and use Earth Observation (EO) data for the implementation of sustainable development policies on the continent through the integration and deployment of African requirements and needs in Copernicus Services.
ASW was represented by Maryanne Muriuki, Ahmed Abdi and Arnold Bundotich. The members took participated at the main sessions, as well as parallel tracks. They also joined in the visit to AGEOS, which is the Gabonese agency for Spatial Studies.
At the end of the programme, ASW pledged to carry on their work, and also design project that will enhance the public understanding of the generation and application of Earth Observation (EO) data.