Collaborations between Africa and Europe in Earth Observation (EO) have a rich history spanning decades.

The African Space Strategy of the African Union recognises the importance of EO as a crucial data and information source to address Africa’s challenges.

EO satellites of the Copernicus Programme provide large volumes of data over the African continent annually. This data, once processed, can be utilised to support a variety of Africa’s information needs to support research and development (R&D) and applications to assist in economic development.

In this context and as part of a long-term strategy, the European Space Agency (ESA), recently launched its new initiative EO AFRICA (African Framework for Research Innovation, Communities and Applications in Earth Observation).

The objective of this initiative is to build an African-European R&D partnership to facilitate the sustainable adoption of EO and related space technology in Africa. The initiative will be driven by African research challenges and user needs. It will follow a long-term vision for the emergent digital era in Africa as outlined in “Agenda 2063 – The Africa We Want” of the African Union Commission (AUC).

The European Commission has recently proposed an African-European partnership for the digital transformation of the continent as part of its strategy with Africa. EO from space is identified as essential digital technology providing information for evidence-based policy and decision-making.

The ESA’s European Space Research Institute invited Dr Sandile Malinga, Group Executive for the Smart Society division at the CSIR; the research group leader for Spatial Information Systems, Sives Govender; and Dr Marie Smith, senior researcher in the Coastal Systems and Earth Observation research group, to the EO for Africa Symposium in Frascati, Italy, from 23–26 September 2024.

The CSIR trio were representatives of the Marine & Coastal Operations for Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean States (MarCOSIO) project under the auspices of the Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security for Africa (GMES and Africa) of the AUC.

The symposium hosted over 200 EO scientists, researchers and policymakers and provided the CSIR team with an opportunity to network and share experiences to promote the collaboration between Africa and Europe in the EO field.

The workshop was co-organised by ESA, the AUC, the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment, the European Commission, the SANSA and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.

Smith presented a poster on the MarCOSIO services. Govender was a panel member in the session on ‘What’s next – evolution of EO in Africa – lessons learned from GMES Africa and EO Africa’. He addressed the contribution of the GMES and Africa programme in supporting sustainable marine management, considering the increasing environmental and socioeconomic pressures the marine sector faces. He described the challenges and lessons learnt in developing societal impact-based marine services.

He emphasised that the applications developed required an understanding of the user needs, relevant policy imperatives and bespoke user interfaces. Furthermore, the institutional and infrastructural challenges and needs were highlighted.

Workshop representatives hailed from SANSA; the Nigerian Space Agency; the African Association of Remote Sensing; the AUC; the Centre de Suivi Écologique in Dakar, Sénégal; TAT-AUC; and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory.

The CSIR met with the AUC’s Space Council Chairman, Dr Tidiane Outtara, and is exploring a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the African Space Agency (ASA). Under such an MoU, the CSIR would be recognised as an African centre of excellence and provide EO-based applications and services to the continent. The official agreement will coincide with the commissioning of ASA in April 2025 in Cairo, Egypt.