The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

As the coordinating agency fur all United Nations activities in Africa, ECA is a major player in the development and utilization of remote sensing for resource and environmental monitoring in support of sustainable development. ECA's major effort in remote sensing has been the sponsorship of three regional remote sensing training and technical assistance centres. These are the Regional Centre for Services in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (RCSSMRS) in Nairobi, Kenya, the Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS) in lie-Ire, Nigeria and the Centre Regional de Teledetection (CRTO) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. These centres, which are the principal focus of this study and which are discussed in more detail in following sections, were

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established to provide training and technical services in the related fields of surveying, mapping, remote sensing and later the newer related technologies of GIS and GPS. ECA also sponsors other regional centres, such as the Afiican Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development and the Regional Mineral Resources Research Centre, which use remote sensing data.

While ECA is a coordinating rather than a funding agency, it continues to play an active role in the operation of the centres. The Executive Secretary of ECA or his appointed representative regularly chairs the governing council meetings of the centres. ECA staff also participate in other special events. The Cartography and Remote Sensing Unit of the Natural Resources Division maintains current files of all documents of the centres such as governing council meeting reports, future development plans, evaluation reports, financial reports and others.

ECA also helps the centres and member states keep up-to-date on the latest developments in remote sensing and related technologies through the organization of seminars and workshops. One example is the Regional Workshop for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems for Afiican Decision Makers held in Nairobi in August 1991. ECA also supports and collaborates with other international organizations in the support of projects for African development such as Africover.

The Cartography and Remote Sensing Unit supports the dissemination of information on latest technological developments in cartography, remote sensing, GIS and related technologies through the regular publication of its "Bulletin." CRS encourages scientists from the African region to contribute articles and reports for the "Bulletin" that help colleagues keep current on new developments. CRS has also developed its own GIS through the recent acquisition of ARCIINFO software. CRS plans to use this new capability initially to develop a digital Atlas of African map and air photo coverage. Data for this Atlas were collected over a several year period making this a very valuable collection of information whose usefulness will be greatly enhanced by its inclusion in a digital data base. This data base will supplement the file of hard copy maps that ECA has also developed and maintained since the inception ofCRS.

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4.3 Regional Development and Food Security Organizations

Three existing sub-regional organizations in Africa deserve special mention because of their involvement in remote sensing and related activities, These organizations are the Comite Permanent Etats de Lulie contre la Secheresse dans Ie Sahel (CILSS) in Western Africa, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD) in the Hom of Africa region and the Southern African Development Community (SADC),

4.3, I Centre Permanent InterEtats de Lutte conlre in Secheresse dans Ie Sahel (CU,SS)

CILSS operates predominantly in the Sahelean region of West Africa and its membership consists ofnine countries in that region although other countries can participate in CILSS activities, CILSS receives its funding from the contributions of its nine member states and from a group of donors known as the Club du Sahel which is headquartered in Paris, CILSS has branches in three different countries which cover different aspects of its operation. The office in Ouagadougou is primarily political dealing with elementary security and the management of natural resources, The centre in Bamako deals with general development, population and agricultural research, CILSS' major contribution, as far as this study is concerned, is its support to the Agrhymet Centre in Niamey, Agrhymet is a large modem facility that was estahlished, to provide early warning through the dissemination of agre-meteorological and hydrological information, to help CILSS countries increase food production by providing relevant information to government agencies, donors and other user groups working with farmers and to create a natural resource and socioeconomic data management system to monitor degradation and environmental change, To achieve these goals Agrhymet collects, analyses and distributes NOAA and Meteosat data on a regular basis, Agrhymet also conducts remote sensing training and research in areas that affect agricultural development, Within the CILSS region but having a broader geographic mandate for interagency coordination and data distribution is another drought monitoring centre known as the African Centre of Meteorological Applications (ACMAD),

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4.3.2 InterGovernmental Authority for Drought and Development (IGADD)

IGADD is based in Djibouti and draws its membership from countries in the "Hom of Africa"

region. In addition to supporting general development activities in the region, IGADD's main functions will be drought monitoring and food security. In order to carry out these activities IGADD needs, among other things, capability for drought and environmental monitoring through the use of remote sensing and related technologies. The management ofIGADD has considered setting up a regional remote sensing centre in Djibouti to serve IGADD and its drought monitoring activities. It now appears more likely that member states will wish to avoid duplication and utilize the facilities of RCSSMRS in Nairobi which already conducts weather monitoring in collaboration with the Kenya Meteorological Department.

Like other regional organizations, IGADD is supported financially by a group of member states that have a common regional interest in drought monitoring and food security. There has also been discussion about organizing a donor group something like the Club du Sabel. This would help ensure the financial stability of not only IGADD but also RCSSMRS which has been having its own financial difficulties. One potential donor, USAID, has already indicated an interest in taking a more active role in food security and general development in the region. USAID has proposed a "Greater Hom of Africa" initiative that would help to coordinate and focus greater development assistance attention on the region. While still in its formulation stage, Greater Hom of Africa promises benefit to the region and to IGADD provided that organizational details can be worked out to the satisfaction of all parties.

4.3.3 Southern African DevelQPment Commynity (SADC)

SADC was conceived as a regional organization with a broader development mandate than CILSS or IGADD. The SADC region consists of eleven member states in Southern Africa, 'including South Africa as of mid-1994, with different member states having mandates to organize and lead development in different sectors. The sectors, which are hosted by different member states, include agriculture, natural resources, transportation, food security and others. Zimbabwe as holder of the mandate for food security has developed in Harare the Food Security Technical and Administrative

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Unit, Within this unit reside, among others, the Regional Early Warning Unit, the Household food Security Project and the Regional Remote Sensing Project (RRSP).

At the present time the RRSP, which was established in collaboration with FAO, is focusing exclusively on weather monitoring and food security, The RRSP office in Harare is setting up a receiving station for the acquisition of NOAA and Meteosat data. RRSP will also process these data and distribute them to selected sites in member states. In order to achieve the timely distribution of data, RRSP is providing equipment and assisting with the establishment of Internet links at the cooperating remote sites. With this capacity, RRSP will deliver Cold Cloud Duration (CCD) and Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NOV!) imagery to regional meteorology departments inexpensively at ten day intervals.

While there are no apparent plans at the present time to expand the role of RRSP into a general remote sensing centre like RCSSMRS, there has been discussion about establishing a general remote sensing centre in the SADC region. The Geography Department of the University of Botswana, for example, has a strong remote sensing and GIS programme at both the undergraduate and graduate leveL Faculty members there have stated that they are, in effect, already a regional training centre because they train a large number of students from throughout Africa. The Environmental and Remote Sensing Institute (ERSI) in Harare (a national organization not presently connected with RRSP) conducts resource assessments regionally and is also in a position to expand into a regional centre. With the entry of South Africa into SADC in 1994, personnel of several South African organizations have expressed an interest in developing closer professional relationships with other countries in Southern Africa. The Southern African Regional Consortium for Conservation and Utilization of the Soil (SARCCUS) is one organization that already has regional connections and has remote sensing and GIS capabilities. Because several of the RCSSMRS member states are also members of SADC, there is good reason to carefully monitor developments in the SADC region to avoid conflict or duplication.

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4.4 International Development and Lending Institutions

It is important to consider the role of institutions such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the African Development Bank (ADB) in a study of remote sensing in Africa because they are some of the most important users of the data as well as being potential sources of financial support. UNDP regularly funds resource and environmental studies such as the development potential in the Zambezi Valley in Zimbabwe. UNDP has also contributed to RCSSMRS in the form of surveying and geodetic equipment. The World Bank and ADB both finance a wide range of development projects, many of which are resource oriented and which require resource and environmental data. Both banks have recently financed agricultural sector studies in a number of African countries. Agricultural sector studies generally include analyses of soil conditions, land suitability, land productivity, land use, vegetation cover, forest utilization, soil erosion and other forms of environmental degradation. Remotely sensed imagery and topographic maps are the principal sources of geographic data for these studies.

Such projects are important for national and regional remote sensing centres for two reasons.

First they represent a potential source of income for the centres. There is a strong consensus among member states that the centres should supplement their incomes by playing more active roles in bank fmanced projects. At the present time most of these projects are executed by large international consultancy firms based in Europe and North America. This includes the collection and analysis of resource data which could be undertaken by African institutions. While neither the regional centres nor most of the private African consulting firms have the resources to compete with the large international firms, many of them have technically trained personnel who are much more familiar with African geography, demography, social customs and resource and environmental conditions than scientists from abroad. Even if they cannot compete for contracts for entire large projects, they could subcontract for data collection and analysis.

A second reason for being familiar with the activities of international financiers is that the projects these institutions undertake include some of the most important resource and environmental projects.

These projects require substantial amounts of resource and land use data ofthe kind that the centres can produce. These data are an important potential source of income for the centres.

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4.5 Bilateral Donors

The importance of bilateral donors has already been mentioned in the context of their contributions to Agrhymet through the Club du Sahel and for their individual contributions to the ECA-sponsored regional centres as well as to other remote sensing projects throughout Africa. Like the international financing institutions, bilateral donors fund a wide range of development activities which include resource development projects that utilize remotely sensed data and other geographic information.

It is important for the regional centres and other remote sensing departments to understand the nature of donor activities in order to take full advantage of any opportunities these relationships might offer.

In the early days of satellite remote sensing, there was a great deal of interest, particularly in the countries where the technology was being developed, in assisting developing countries to have access to this technology. The developed countries felt that this was a technology that offered great potential for mapping the vast and largely unexplored resources of the developing world. It was felt that with these great needs for information about their resources, the developing countries were a potentially good market for imagery and analysis equipment.

Now the situation has changed. The technology has matured to the point where it is not attracting as much grant money for research and experimentation but there is more emphasis on applications.

At the same time, the industrialized countries are experiencing budgeting problems of their own and foreign aid is one of the safest areas for politicians to cut. Accordingly the projects sponsored by donor countries are likely to be where there is a great humanitarian need such as in drought monitoring, food production, health and family planning. Such projects can more easily be justified to voters at home because they reduce the threat of major crises that would require expenditures for emergency relief and they reduce the potential for the displacement of persons creating refugee problems.

While the need for accurate resource and environmental data has not diminished-wit has probably increased--remote sensing installations can expect fewer handouts from donors in the form of equipment and fellowships for study abroad. Remote sensing programmes must therefore be oriented toward sustainable development projects and less toward experimentation and research if donor funds are to be attracted.

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4.6 International Specialized Agencies

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (F AO), the Desert Locust Control Organization (DLCO) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI, formerly ILCA and ILRAD) are some of the specialized agencies that are heavily involved in remote sensing, GIS and related technologies. Many of them are better funded than the regional centres and therefore are in a stronger position to use the technology for development.

UNEP, for example, had developed a Global Resource Information Data Base (GRID) for collecting, archiving, analysing and distributing data on a world wide bases. GRID acquires data from widely differing sources and in different forms for processing and entry into GRID's geographic information system. GRID is then able to give scientists and planners access to integrated, environmental data sets and also help in establishing data management technology using common formats and common systems of storage and retrieval. While UNEP and GRID operate on a world wide basis, with UNEP's headquarters being in Nairobi, there is a definite advantage to the African region. UNEP is planning to establish a GRID Node, or information base, at RCSSMRS which would utilize Centre personnel and equipment for handling user data requests. This will be good experience for the Centre staff and a source of income as well.

The activities ofFAO in the region are well known. As mentioned, the latest major activity of FAO is the development of a project known as Africover. The technical objective of Africover is the production of a homogeneous and standardized vegetation coverlland cover map, digital data bases and a geographic reference (toponomy, roads, drainage) at a scale of 1 :250,000 (1 :200,000 in some areas) and 1: 1,000,000 for all African countries. A second but equally important objective of the project is to strengthen national and sub-regional capacities for mapping vegetation and land cover and monitoring change. African countries will participate in the data collection and analysis, thereby strengthening their own capabilities.

DLCO and ILRI are two regional organizations that utilize remote sensing and GIS technologies for specialized applications. DLCO monitors soil, climatic, and crop conditions in order to both predict insect infestations and implement control measures when infestations occur. ILRI, being the

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main livestock development coordinating agency in Africa, is concerned about soil erosion, vegetation cover, vegetation conditions, carrying capacity, tse-tse infestations, land tenure and other factors relating to the development and maintenance ofa livestock industry. Since much ofILRI's research and management is land oriented, remote sensing and GIS are vital tools.

4.7 Other Regional Organizations and Projects

Other types of organizations operating at the African regional level include AOCRS and AARSE which are primarily professional affiliations of remote sensing scientists, Included in this grouping might be the Programme on Integrated Information Systems on environment (IISE) which sponsors Africa GIS, a biannual symposium on GIS utilization. IISE itself is sponsored by a number of national and international organizations including CNTIG, SSO, UNITAR, UNSO and WRL

Multinational corporations, particularly petroleum and mining companies, are also

involved in African development and are frequent users of the technology. Because remote sensing is an exploration tool and exploration information is generally confidential, their utilization of the technology is internal and seldom contributes directly to improving the technological base of the host countries.

Finally there is a multiplicity of projects which use remote sensing and GIS technology. These are national and international in scope and may be sponsored by any of the above organizations or frequently by non-governmental organizations. These range in scope from major international projects such as Africover sponsored by FAO and FEWS sponsored by USAID to very small projects managed be one or two persons.

4.8 The ECA-Sponsored Regional Remote Sensing Centres

The three centres are supported financially be member states which pay dues allocated along the lines of a system developed by the Organization for African Unity (OAU). Additional financial support comes from training cost reimbursement, reimbursable technical assistance, donor contributions and participation in donor funded projects.

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Both RECTAS and RCSSMRS were founded initially to provide training and technical services

Both RECTAS and RCSSMRS were founded initially to provide training and technical services