GMES & Africa Kick-Off Meeting, Addis Ababa, 13-15 Feb. 2017
Brice Montfraix
15 February 2017
The African Union Commission and the European Union Commission have jointly organized the GMES & africa Support Programme kick-off meeting in AUC Headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 13 to 17 February 2017.  


The first phase of GMES and Africa was officially launched on 26 November 2016, in Brazzaville, Congo, thereby marking  the beginning  of the implementation  process. Overall, GMES & Africa seeks to strengthen institutional, human  and technical capacities  in Africa for access to and exploitation of EO-based services for sustainable development.

The Programme is piloted by the African Union Commission, Department of Human Resources Science and Technology (AUC/HRST), under a Delegation Agreement with the European Commission.

The kick-off meeting aimed to ensure that all the three components
(1) PAGoDA  managed  by AUC,
(2) Service Contract for the Technical Assistance Team (TAT); and
(3) Technical backstopping, both managed  by EC;

worked in synergy towards success of the initiative's  objectives.  The Meeting was also an opportunity to discuss the transition processes from MESA to GMES & Africa.

The GMES and Africa Support Programme Management Unit (PMU), the MESA Programme, the European Meteorological Agency (Eumetsat), the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), were present.

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