Held at the ECA Headquarters in Addis Ababa from 4 10 11 July 1994
A.
BACKGROUNDl. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have been cooperating on mutual activitIes related to remote sensing and geographic information systems since the beginning of the eighties. Sincc then the two sister organizations have been undertaking activities for the benefit of the ECA member States.
The latest of these activities was the organizing of Technical and Donor Consultative meetings on the AFRlCOVER PROJECT in which ECA has been involved from the onset.
2. The overall objective of the AFRlCOVER PROJECT is to strengthen the capacities of African countries to manage their natural resources sustainability with particular emphasis on food security and environmental protection.
J. The specific objectives are to: (a) establish a land cover digital databasc for, and by African countries. based on a harmonized methodology and advanced geographic mformation technologies and existing data; (b) produce a land cover map at scales 1:250 000 and I I 000 000 from the dIgital database; (c) strengthen national and regional capacities In the applicatIOn of advanced geographic informallon technologies to land cover mapping.
natural resource. assessment and environmental monitoring.
B. ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECfS OF THE MEETINGS
4. The Technical and Donor Consultations on the "AFRICOVER PROJECT" were jointly organiz.ed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) from the 4 to II July 1994 at the ECA Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
5. The meetings were held with the aim of presenting and discussing the project with representatives of African countries, United Nations Agencies, and other organizations concerned both with the technical and institutional aspects related
to
the implementation of the Africover proposal, in particular: Cal output and methods proposed in the preliminary' draft proposal; and (b) cooperation bctwcen the parties and institutions concerned and coordination of the establishment of a continental programme6. The Technical Consultation was officially opened by Mr. Samba Jack, the then Officer·In·
Charge of ECA, On behalf of thc Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa:
the following also made opcning statements: Mrs.
M. Smith John, Deputy FAO Country Representative in Ethiopia. and Mr:Bied·Charrcton, Chief of the FA
0
Remote Sensing Centre in Rome.on behalf of the FAO Director General.
7. During the opening session all speakers emphasized the relevance and importance of this project in contributing to resource management and
the
conservation of environment for sustainable development in the Afucan continent. Its timeliness,it
was
said, also falls within the global context of the monitoring of land resources as an integral part of the implementation of Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.8. Fifty nine participants attended the technical consultation, representing eight African countries, ten African regional and subregional organizations, four United Nations Organizations and eighteen other mtemational and national organizations from abroad,
9. The technical presentations comprised a detailed presentation of all technical . and institutional aspects related to the proposed implementation of the project, comments and contributions made by the other participants of the meeting, ECA presented a paper on "The status of mapping programmes in Africa, major constraints, potential strategies to fill spatial information gaps".
10. All in all the participants of the meeting confirmed their support for the AFRICOVER project and presented their suggestions on tho possible involvement of their respecti,'c organizations,
C. RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TECHNICAL CONSuLTATIONS
10. Based on the panel and group presentations and discussions. the following recommendations were made.
(a) complete cndorsement of thc overall and specific objectives. the general approach and the output products of the AFRICOVER project proposal.
(b) • Neoesslty to reinforce the capacity building component ohhe project in particular by:
(i) involving, in addition to rhe regional centres forescen by the project, all component national centres for the interpretation and preparation of
the
maps and for their follow-up;(ii) organizing specific training courses for AFRICOVER product users and seminars for decision-makers,
(c) Neoessity to strengthen the harmonization, monitoring and control procedures of project implementation, in particular by stting up several working groups (provisionally five) composed of well recognized cxpcrts and aiming to provide precise guidelines [or:
(i) the technical specifications of AFRICOVER products;
(ii) the standardization of products, techniques and methodologies;
(Iii) the land cover classification and legend and their links with land use applications;
(iv) the validation of land cover information (quality, accuracy) provided by the project;
(v) the conception and implementation of a common geographic reference system (possibly WGS 84 ellipsoid and UTM projection) at national, regional and continental levels.
(d) Necessity to strengthen the preparatory phase of the project by preparing detailed surveys and databases on potential users of the AFRICOVER products and existing African capacities, as well as informallon that could support the operation of the project covering human
resources~ec[uipment, traming facilities, available expertise in national and regional centres, existing maps, satellite imagery and aerial photographs available at national and regional levels.
(e) Investigate the possibility of including sets of complementary data to the AFRlCOVER products, such as gcocoded satellite images and CD, ROM of the land cover and geographical databasc.
D. OUTCOME OF THE DONORS CONSULTATIVE MEETING
II. The Donor Consultative meeting was held on Monday, II July 1994. Most of the participants from the African countries and organizations were presen't at the technical consultations, as well as several international organizations and the main potential donor countries and agencies (see attached list in Annex ""j were invited to the donor consultation.
12. The meeting was opened by Me. Layashi Yaker, the Executive Secretary of the ECA, ffwho strongly appealed to the donors to support the AFRlCOVER Project Mr. Bied·Charreton, Chief of the F AO Remote Sensing Centre, presented the project in its contcxt
13. A synthetic presentation of the objectives
.
and the mechanisms of implementing the project, and !he recotrunendations made by the Tech·
nical Consultation was given respectively by Mr. Momadou Fofana Secretary. General of CNTIG of Cote Ivoire and by Mr. Luka Isavwa, Director of Remote Sensing Department in RCSSMRS:
Nairobi, Kenya.
14. The reactions and positions taken by the donor community was very encouraging. the Government of Italy, for example, announced its fmandal support for the EAST Afrie. region (US$
5.4 million) and indicated that it eould consider co-financing other African countries
IS. The Government of France offered to provide contribution for the operationalization activity of !he project and to study the support of tts implementation at national level in selected countries.
16. The European Union supported the project idea and indicated that discussions will be held in the Commission to study the possibilities of collaborating with the project