The African Union Commission (AUC) has launched the Africa Space Partnership Programme, a four-year initiative aimed at strengthening the strategic partnership in space. The program is part of the Global Gateway Africa – Europe Investment Package, which highlights space technology as a priority under digitalisation, given its high potential in Africa. The launch event was presided over by H.E. Moses Vilakati, the African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment, and H.E. Tidiane Ouatara, President of the African Space Council.
Commissioner Vilakati appreciated the partnership and its alignment with several African Union strategic objectives, including the Integrated African Strategy on Meteorology, the African Union Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy, and the African Regional Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction. The Space Partnership Programme has several key objectives, including enhancing the African institutional and innovation space cooperation framework, increasing the capacity to produce and deliver space-based services and applications for early warning systems related to hazardous weather or climate events, and strengthening the African space private sector ecosystem.
Africa’s strategic space initiative
The programme is structured into three main tasks: Institutional and Strategic Partnership, Space Partnership for Early Warning Systems in Africa (SEWA), and African Space Private Sector Cooperation. The African Space Agency is responsible for the first and third tasks. At the same time, the AUC, through the Directorate of Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy, manages the second task, focusing on Space for Early Warning in Africa. The launch event featured a panel discussion on the objectives, outputs, expected impacts, and roles of different program implementing partners.
The panel included representatives from the AUC, Africa Space Agency, Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar, European Space Agency, and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. The Space Partnership Programme represents a significant step forward in Africa’s efforts to harness space technology for sustainable development and climate resilience. By fostering greater regional collaboration in space science, the initiative is expected to enhance the continent’s overall technological and scientific standing on the global stage.
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