This Action builds on the overall objectives of the GMES and Africa Initiative for a long-term EU-Africa cooperation on space science and technology to enable the two continents to jointly solve and address global challenges and promote sustainable development under the Copernicus programme. 

These objectives are:

• Promoting the development in Africa of local capacities, institutional, human and technical resources for access to and exploitation of EO-based services on operational basis for sustainable development,
• Supporting the implementation of the African Space Policy and Strategy, in particular on Earth Observation,
• Providing decision-makers with information and tools needed for the implementation of sustainable environmental policies at the continental, regional and national levels through their Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Regional Implementation Centers (RICs)
• Maintaining, improving and sustaining access to EO data. 
• The specific objective (outcome) of this Action is to improve African policy-makers' and planners' capacities to design, implement, and monitor national, regional and continental policies and to promote sustainable management of natural resources through the use of EO data and derived information. This action aims at:
• Developing a framework for promoting intra-African collaboration and open access data.
• Supporting the operationalization of the Natural and Water Resources Service and the Marine & Coastal Areas Service to adequately provide information to policymakers, scientists, businesses and the public on real time basis,
• Strengthening regional and national capacities to generate and apply EO-based information,
• Raising public awareness on the critical role of EO Systems and Geo-spatial information in sustainable development