The EU and the African Union have been cooperating on earth monitoring since 2007 as part of the EU’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme – now called Copernicus. Combining satellites with Earth-based sensors, earth monitoring technology helps countries manage large areas by viewing them from space.

Through the GMES and Africa initiative, the EU shares data and tools with African partners to build a single earth monitoring framework for the continent. Like every good collaboration, it needs a network to share information and a system for choosing priorities – designing both of these was the role of the BRAGMA project.

Project coordinator Ana Morgado of Portugal’s Tropical Research Institute says: “BRAGMA was set up to support good communication for a GMES and Africa Action Plan (GAAP) and contribute to a more open process for choosing policies.”

Started in 2012, the EU-funded project built on earlier EU-Africa collaborations in satellite technology for weather, resource, environmental and security monitoring. With partners from five African and five European states, the two-year project enabled African input and leadership of the GMES and Africa partnership.

By mapping existing GMES and Africa projects, BRAGMA gave decision-makers an overview of duplications and gaps in EU-Africa cooperation, to set sustainable priorities for future investment. It created a network of African experts and established an Africa-led research-planning system based on outcomes from workshops and online discussion groups involving those researching, using and deciding earth monitoring policy.

“The focus was on African priorities,” says Morgado, “and Africa had the last word in choosing these.”

Decision-making dialogue

Key to the action plan was the choice of themes and issues. GAAP identified nine priority themes for future joint projects (marine and coastal areas, water management, natural resources, climate change, natural disasters, food security, infrastructure conflicts and political crises, and health) and five issues that were common to these themes (policies and institutions, infrastructure, capacity building, finance, and monitoring and evaluation).

At the request of African and European stakeholders, BRAGMA supported GAAP in the setting up of workshops on three themes chosen by African experts: marine and coastal areas (Kenya, 2012), water management (Nigeria, 2013), and natural resources (Egypt, 2013).

BRAGMA’s publicity for the workshops and logistical support for experts resulted in good attendance by key stakeholders – identified with help from the African Union Commission, international organisations and academic experts – says Morgado. Over two-day meetings, sub-groups agreed on priorities for using earth observation technology.

Longer term, the workshops kick-started an online network for GMES in Africa. For each of the three themes, the project created online discussion platforms with listings for projects, links and events. These platforms were linked to each other, providing an overview of the wider GMES and Africa initiative.

The BRAGMA workshop and networking process is now mature, says Morgado. The priorities established in the workshops are being implemented – supported by the Pan –African Programme (2014-2020) – while African stakeholders have ranked the remaining six topics by priority for future work.

Although no EU funding is earmarked for a BRAGMA 2, the African Union Commission is planning further workshops and requesting expertise from EU and African states to continue what the project has started.

She says: “The EU’s financial support made a great difference. Now we have to find out how to sustain the networking and communication.”

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