This newsletter provides summaries of two workshops focused on water resource management and long-term natural resource management in Africa. Over 30 African countries were represented at the water resource workshop in Nigeria, and 44 experts from 28 African and 7 European countries attended the natural resource workshop in Egypt. Both workshops aimed to discuss draft chapters for the GMES and Africa Action Plan. Working groups at each workshop provided recommendations around monitoring, data sharing, and building African capacity. A consolidation workshop is planned for October in South Africa to finalize operational recommendations for the action plan.

1. BRAGMA
Bridging Actions
for GMES & Africa
Newsletter no.5 | September 2013
The BRAGMA project, coordinated by IICT is a Coordination and Support Action to GMES and Africa, supported by the
European Commission. Copernicus, formerly GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) is the European
Programme for the establishment of a European capacity for Earth Observation: http//www.copernicus.eu
This newsletter issue focuses on the last
two GMES & Africa workshops, organised
in the scope of the BRAGMA Project. The
thematic area of these two workshops,
Water Resources Management, and
Long Term Management of Natural
Resources, complete the first set of
areas that were identified to finalise the
GMES and Africa Action Plan, along with
The workshop was hosted by NASRDA
(National
Space
Research
and
Development Agency) and co-financed
by the European Union in the framework
of the joint Africa-EU Strategy with the
support of BRAGMA.
Over 30 African countries were
represented by around 60 participants,
including also AUC, AMCOW, NEPAD,
ECOWAS, EAC, CEMAC, along with
2nd GMES and Africa Workshop on
Water Resources Management - May
2013 Abuja, Nigeria
Marine & Coastal Areas (1st workshop).
The main objective of these events is
to discuss in detail the content of the
draft chapter on each thematic area
and come up with an African-endorsed
updated chapter.
representatives from the EC, thematic
EU-Africa cooperation projects such as
WATPLAN
(http://www.watplan.eu/),
and the European Space Agency funded
TIGER (http://www.tiger.esa) project.
Three working groups were organised,
focusing on the following sub-themes:
1.Policies,
strategies
and
legal
frameworks for water resources
monitoring as well as national, transboundary and integrated water
A consolidation - validation workshop
is planned for October 2013 in South
Africa. This last workshop is expected
to move towards clear operational
recommendations in the 3 thematic
areas.
3rd GMES and Africa Workshop on LongTerm Management of Natural Resources
- June 2013 Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt
management;
2. Surface and ground water resources
monitoring next to water use monitoring
(for: drinking, hygiene, sanitation, industry,
agriculture, energy, transport, tourism and
ecosystems);
3. Early Warning Systems for flood and
drought monitoring, monitoring for climate
variability and change adaptation strategies
and (African) space technology for water
resources monitoring.

2. Newsletter no.5 | September 2013
This event gathered 44 experts from
28 African and 7 European countries
and it was hosted by NARSS (National
Authority for Remote Sensing and Space
Sciences).
On the first day there were several
presentations regarding projects using
Earth Observation as well as information
on the specific GMES and Africa baseline
study chapter on natural resources
management.
Three working groups were organised:
1- biodiversity
2- land and forest resources
3- non-renewable natural resources
Group 1’s recommendations included
a strong emphasis on training, the use
of international standards to facilitate
data management and sharing, the
recognition of the importance of
protected areas and ecosystems in land
use planning processes and the support
of Earth Observation in natural resource
management.
Group 2 highlighted the need for
information across Africa and therefore
the
requirement
of
facilitated
information exchange, possibly through
Open Access arrangements.
Group 3 highlighted the need for more
African capacity in the sector, which is
at present unequally distributed, and
requires both expertise from other
countries (both European and African)
as well as the development of new
capacity, for example through the panAfrican universities.
An open discussion session took place
with the following topics:
Africa for EO is weak. It needs to be
addressed at the level of the GMES and
Africa cross-cutting themes.
- A clear definition of EO needs to be
provided, to clarify that it does include
in situ observation alongside satellitebased and aerial surveys.
- There is a need to redefine borders
in order to enable clear information
exchange for the management and
exploration of NR. This will require crossnational collaboration and strengthened
geodetic networks.
- A call was made to ensure that the
chapter focused on developing an Action
Plan with clear guidelines.
- Data exchange across borders requires
strong policies;
- A suggestion was made that more
African countries join the Open
Geospatial Society.
- Currently, the ICT infrastructure in
- Validation of data services is important
3rd GMES & Africa Workshop on Long-Term Management of Natural Resources - Sharm-el-Sheikh, 25-26 June 2013

3. Newsletter no.5 | September 2013
List of International Cooperation FP7 projects with focus
on development or African priorities
EAU4FOOD: European Union and
African Union cooperative research to
increase Food production in irrigated
farming systems in Africa (2011/2015)
WAHARA: Water Harvesting for Rainfed
Africa: investing in dryland agriculture
for growth and resilience (2011/2016)
http://www.wahara.eu
http://www.eau4food.info
WATERBIOTECH: Biotechnology for
Africa’s sustainable water supply
(2011/2014)
http://www.waterbiotech.eu
AFROMAISON: Africa at a mesoscale: Adaptive and integrated tools
and strategies for natural resources
management (2011/2014)
http://www.afromaison.net
DEWFORA: Improved Drought Early
Warning and FORecasting to strengthen
preparedness and adaptation to
droughts in Africa (2011/2013)
http://www.dewfora.net
HEALTHY FUTURES: Health,
environmental change and adaptive
capacity: mapping, examining and
anticipating future risks of waterrelated vector-borne diseases in
eastern Africa (2011/2014)
http://www.healthyfutures.eu
CAAST-NET: A Network for the
Coordination and Advancement of
Sub-Saharan Africa-EU Science &
Technology Cooperation (2008/2012)
http://www.caast-net.org
QWECI: Quantifying Weather and
Climate Impacts on Health in
Developing Countries (2010/2013)
http://www.liv.ac.uk/qweci QWECI:
Relevant Events - 2013
TIGER Workshop 2013 - Achievements Review and Future Planning
Organizer: TIGER Capacity Building Facility / Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente (ITC)
Date: 21-22 October 2013 Venue: Hotel Ramada Plaza Tunis, Tunisia
http://www.ramada.com/hotels/tunisia/gammarth/ramada-plaza-tunis/hotel-overview
BRAGMA future Events
Consolidation - Validation Workshop which will take place in South Africa, October 2013
Links:
http://www.bragma.eu
http://bragma.mixxt.eu/
http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/africa-eu-part.gmes/