Intensive support for EO in Africa

Development of EO capabilities and the research community in Africa

Today we are starting a new ESA project called 'EO Africa R&D Facility', targeting the African EO research community. The overarching goal of the 'EO Africa R&D Facility' is to set up and maintain an African-European R&D collaboration enabling an active research community and creative innovation processes for a continuous development of EO capabilities in Africa.

Africa is facing challenges in food security and the sustainable management of environmental resources, including water. It is predicted that climate change will increase the frequency and magnitude of droughts, and water scarcity on the continent. Since smallholder farming systems in Africa are almost exclusively rainfed, and these farming systems support approximately 70% of the livelihoods in Africa. The impact of climate change will be the biggest for them, but their success is vital to Africa's future growth and sustainable development. As such, research on agriculture, food security and water is key for a sustainable future.

Data, tools, capacity and training

We need data and tools that inform researchers, practitioners, and community stakeholders in Africa, so that they can intervene to prevent the worst possible consequences of climate change.

Besides, Africa needs human capacity to utilize these data and tools and the African EO teams need training to be able to make full use of the EO opportunities to the benefit of agriculture and thus food security.

In our role as capacity development and research partner for food security and agricultural data sets, we are looking forward to collaborate intensively with the project lead UTwente/ITC, our consortium partners, TU Vienna, CS-Group and CS Romania, Serco and the teams in Africa (AARSE, AGRHYMET, RCMRD, ICPAC, SADC, GMES and Africa, AfriGEO,….).