1. BRAGMA
Bridging Actions for GMES & Africa
Newsletter no.2 | January 2013
The BRAGMA project, coordinated by IICT is a Coordination and Support Action to GMES and Africa, supported by the European
Commission. GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) is the European Programme for the establishment of a
European capacity for Earth Observation: http://www.gmes.info
Side event of the IST-Africa The rationale to undertake these workshops,
in scope of the BRAGMA Project, is:
Conference: GMES &
• To provide a consolidated validation of
Africa Workshops
the GMES and Africa Action Plan chapter
After the kick-off meeting in Lisbon, January concerned with the specific Thematic Areas
2012, the BRAGMA Project held a meeting in addressed during the meeting, with the goal
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on the 7th of May of contributing to the Joint Africa-European
2012, as a side event to the IST-Africa 2012 Union Strategic Action Plan with concrete
conference and before the JEG8 Meeting. and visible results;
This meeting focused on the organization • To help decision makers in understanding
of Thematic Workshops, which are based on the importance of EO for sustainable
the following sub-themes: development and poverty alleviation;
1. Marine and Coastal Areas, to be held in Kenya; • To outline operational modalities to reach
2. Water Resources Management, which will GMES & Africa Objectives, allowing Africa
take place in Nigeria; to make full use of the potential of space
systems for sustainable development and
3. Natural Resources Management, to be reinforcing Africa’s capacity and ownership
hosted by Egypt. in using and contributing to remote sensing
science;
• To capitalise on the investment made in the
Process launched in December 2007;
The key objectives of these workshops will be: • Identify priorities to enhance the use of EO
in Africa;
• To identify the available capacities within
Africa regarding each Thematic Area • To define modalities to establish African-
(networks, expertise, user communities); European operational collaboration to make
best use of GMES Europe services in Africa.
• To identify potential synergies with GMES
and Africa related projects funded at Experts on each Thematic Area will be
national, regional and continental level and selected to prepare each workshop with
heighten the available capacities within documents to be distributed well in advance
Africa regarding the Thematic Areas being to discuss during the workshops – the
addressed (through networks, expertise, collective feedback from all participating
user communities); experts will be consolidated in the revised
chapter of the GMES and Africa Action Plan.
• To exchange experience and know-how in Each workshop will cover sub-themes and
the field; Cross Cutting Issues and is targeted for
participation from Thematic National Focal
• To provide the consolidated and validated Points, Regional Implementation Centres
contribution to the drafting of the GMES (RICs), RECs, AUC, UNECA and the EC.
and Africa Action Plan in the respective
The expected outcomes of each workshop
Thematic Area.
will be the Revised Chapter on the Thematic
Area of the GMES and Africa Action Plan
endorsed by African Member States.

2. Newsletter no.2 | January 2013
Side event of the IST Africa Organised as a pre-conference event This was followed by a discussion on the
to IST-Africa 2012, target participants synergies which should be established
Conference: one-day public included thematic subject experts as with GMES & Africa-related projects,
workshop well as sophisticated end-users of GMES such as closing project GARNET-EO,
and Africa-related applications. which produced relevant information to
On the 8th of May 2012, BRAGMA be integrated into the GMES and Africa
organised a GMES and Africa Workshop Both BRAGMA and EAMNet presented Action Plan. The workshop was finalised
- this one-day public workshop provided their projects during this workshop, as with an overview of the past, present
an introductory background to the well as their joint effort to support the and future EDF-funded projects, a long
evolution of GMES & Africa, focussed initiative, in particular by contributing term investment in the development of
on progress to date and showcased a to the organisation of the first Thematic EO applications in Sub-Saharan Africa:
number of relevant projects supporting Workshop on Marine and Coastal Areas. AMESD & MESA.
work in different thematic areas within
GMES and Africa.
The BRAGMA GMES & Africa Workshop Report and the JEG8 Meeting Report are available at the following links:
http://www.bragma.eu/home/files/BRAGMA_WorkshopReport_DaresSalaam.pdf
http://www.bragma.eu/home/files/JEG8Report_Tanzania_May12.pdf
Presentations from the event are available at
http://www.bragma.eu/home/default.asp?page=doc-by-id&docid=31
E-collaboration tools: It also provides a discussion forum for focuses on the GMES & Africa process.
the community to provide feedback The platform can be accessed by
online platforms to BRAGMA, namely considering the everyone, but to be able to make
GMES and Africa Action Plan. comments and interact on the platform
Information on the GMES & Africa Capacity 4 Dev is run by the EC’s DG one must sign in as a member of the
process and BRAGMA activities are DEVCO, and GMES & Africa page.
being posted on 2 online collaborative
platforms:
BRAGMA E-collaboration tool
Capacity4Dev (run by the EU)
The BRAGMA E-collaboration platform
is a multipurpose tool, storing relevant
information by thematic area, for acess
by all stakeholders and experts.
BRAGMA E-collaboration platform Capacity4dev e-collaboration platform
Marine and Coastal Areas
Workshop for thematic including coastal area focal points, marine representatives from related projects
and coastal areas expert groups, Regional and programmes, including UNESCO/
experts, Mombasa, Kenya Implementation Centres (RIC) focused IOC, EDF Programmes (PUMA-AMESD-
on Marine and Coastal Areas, BRAGMA MESA), GEOSS (AfriGEOSS), African
As agreed with the European Commission project partners and Government officials Integrated Maritime Strategy - Maritime
and African Union Commission, BRAGMA who are involved in the Marine and Coastal Surveillance and EAMNet FP7 project.
project will focus its activities on three Areas together with
of the nine GMES and Africa Thematic In summary the workshop consisted of
Areas, starting with Marine and Coastal a high level official opening session, a
Areas. A two day invitation-only Marine session covering the background and
and Coastal Areas Workshop for thematic existing EO and marine and coastal areas
experts took place in Mombasa, Kenya 9 - initiatives, as well as a presentation of
10 October 2012. the marine and coastal areas baseline
study. Following these introductions
The workshop, co-sponsored by the the participants were divided into three
European Commission (EC), BRAGMA, parallel working groups (based on
African Union Commission, (AUC) and interest areas that had been previously
MoHEST brought together over 80 defined) which consisted of the following
experts from Africa and Europe Participants at the Workshop
topics:

3. Newsletter no.2 | January 2013
• GMES and Africa services for Marine and Coastal
Area Management - this topic covered marine and
coastal management, planning and policy issues;
data and information needs for marine and coastal
management and decision-making; capacity
building network of Higher Education Institutions for
EO application in marine and coastal management;
Participants at the
• Networking in a GMES and Africa Service
Marine & Coastal
specifically addressing: marine and coastal
Areas Workshop
surveillance system and network; forecast system
and a disaster early warning system; a Network of
Coastal Sentinel Stations; Each of these working groups addressed specific discussion topics
as detailed in the programme - this workshop was thus a technical
• Earth Observation (EO) Science & Technology for
consultation forum focused on the mentioned topics.
Marine and Coastal Areas in regard to: sentinel
stations and in-situ data calibration of marine and The outputs from each of the working groups were presented in a
coastal parameters; EO methods and modelling for final plenary session and were compiled and uploaded on a web
marine and coastal management; capacity building platform in order to give the participants an opportunity to make
and maintenance. further contributions.
The revised Marine and Coastal Areas chapter of the GMES and Africa
AARSE Conference, Baseline study was endorsed with recommendations to set up a unit at
El Jadida, Morocco the AUC to coordinate the implementation of the Action Plan.
The African Association of Remote
Sensing of the Environment (AARSE)
conducts conferences every two years
since 1996. The conference provides
a platform for scientific exchange &
input to policy on science and space
applications (e.g. Space Leadership
Conferences, ARM Constellation, African
Space Agency). building (e.g. the outcome of the Marine UNESCO High Level Experts Mechanism
& Coastal Environment Workshop). on EO and the African governance
The AARSE 2012 Conference was Consequently, GMES&Africa and structure to lead the implementation of
held in El Jadida, Morocco, October BRAGMA are mentioned in the El Jadida the programme. However, participants
29 – November 2, 2012 and was Declaration. welcomed the BRAGMA initiative as
entitled ‘Earth Observation & Geo-
a way to revitalize GMES & Africa.
information Sciences for Environment The Session was well attended and
Enhanced consultations between
and Development in Africa: Global comprised representatives from
African Union Commission and African
Vision and Local Action Synergy’. The UNESCO/IOC, ESA, Vito, AfriGEOSS and
Member States are urgently needed.
Conference provided an excellent forum several national delegates. Participants
for BRAGMA to engage with relevant regretted the long delay in the follow- The outcomes of the Roundtable
stakeholders and experts. up of the Lisbon Declaration related to were presented at the Meeting of
GMES & Africa with the subsequent the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES)
The GMES & Africa Side Event slow drafting and consultation of the - Science, Information Society and
(Roundtable) was held on the 30th GMES & Africa Action Plan. The Session Space Partnership: Joint Expert Group
October 2012 from 16:15 - 18:00. The stressed that for GMES & Africa to (JEG8) in Cape Town, South Africa: 6-8
Roundtable was organized immediately succeed, there is a need for an African November, 2012.
after the Special Session on AfriGEOSS grassroots approach, African ownership
which demonstrated the close linkage and African leadership.
between GEOSS and GMES.
Missing elements in the GMES &
The Roundtable managed to bring Africa Initiative include the insufficient
GMES & Africa to the centre of the EO involvement of African space institutions
agenda in Africa. and programmes including the African
Resources Management Constellation,
This was achieved by the fact that the EO
African universities, research institutes
Community recognized that BRAGMA
and services providers, the Joint AU/
is delivering by facilitating consensus

4. Newsletter no.2 | January 2013
10th EUMETSAT User
Forum in Africa
BRAGMA participated in the "10th
EUMETSAT User Forum in Africa" which
took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from environment in Africa: A vision for the future activities. This was preceded by a
the 1st-5th October 2012.The programme next 20 years”
. presentation by the AUC on the GMES
consisted of an Opening Ceremony, a For the sixth session, which focussed & Africa initiative, thus providing a clear
Technical Visit, seven sessions, and a on Earth Observation for Development connection between the initiative and
special anniversary session on "Earth in Africa, BRAGMA contributed with a the project that supports it.
observation for weather, climate and presentation on its developments and
Relevant Events - 2013
IPWE 2013 3rd GEOSS African Water Cycle High-level Meeting on National
7-9 Jan 2013, Izmir, Turkey Coordination Initiative Drought Policy (HMNDP) -
(AfWCCI) Workshop Towards More Drought
Growing demands for water and
4-5 Feb 2013, El Jadida, Morocco Resilient Societies
increased pollution loads threaten the
quality of many lakes, rivers, estuaries 11-15 March, Geneva, Switzerland
The Workshop is a follow-up event to
and groundwater bodies around the
the 3rd African Water Cycle Symposium, Given the current concerns with climate
world and pose serious threats to public
held in Libreville, Gabon, in February change, projected increases in the
health.
2012, which recognized the need for frequency, intensity, and duration of
http://content.asce.org/conferences/ enhanced cooperation among the droughts and resulting impacts on
ipwe2013/index.html various initiatives and programs many sectors, in particular food, water,
across Africa that address water-related and energy.
Innovations in Remote issues, and integrated water resources
management (IWRM) in particular. http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/wcp/agm/
Sensing Event
meetings/hmndp13/index_en.php
23 Jan 2013, London, UK
http://www.editoria.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/
The event, hosted by the Centre for Earth AfWCCI/morocco/index.php
35th International Symposium
Observation Instrumentation (CEOI),
on Remote Sensing of
will provide a great opportunity to catch International Conference on
up with the latest Earth observation Natural Resource Management Environment
instrumentation technologies, as well 22-26 April, Beijing, China
in a Changing World
as highlighting potential areas for
24-27 Feb 2013, Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi Earth Observation and Global
licensing, collaboration or supply. The
event is open to all interested parties. Environmental Change - 50 Years of
This conference will deal with all aspects
Remote Sensing: Progress and Prospects
relating to NRM and the changing world.
h tt p : / / w w w. c e o i . a c . u k / i n d e x .
p h p ? o p t i o n = c o m _ c o n t e n t & v i ew = a r http://www.fos.uaeu.ac.ae/conference/ http://www.isrse35.org/
ticle&id=106:innovations-in-remote- nrm/
sensing-event-wednesday-23rd-january-
2013&catid=7:latest
GMES & Africa future Events
• GMES&Africa Coordination Team Meeting: Brussels, Belgium, February 2013
• Water Resources Management Workshop - technical consultation forum: Abuja, Nigeria, Spring 2013, date TBC.
• Natural Resources Workshop - technical consultation forum: Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, Summer 2013, dateTBC.
• Validation Workshop: South Africa, Summer 2013, date TBC
Links:
http://www.bragma.eu
http://bragma.mixxt.eu/
http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/africa-eu-part.gmes/