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• Continuous supply of its satellite data and products free

of charge via the EUMETCast dissemination service

• Providing AMESD with support in the maintenance and

upgrading of receiving stations and equipment

• Continuing its training programmes for African National

Meteorological and Hydrological Services personnel

• Providing managerial support to the committee in charge

of supervising the project

• Offering, through its biennial African User Forum, an

opportunity for the African user community to meet,

discuss and exchange information and ideas about AMESD

and EUMETSAT data and products.

AMESD’s plan for securing sustainable development

The AMESD programme has four main areas of focus:

• Providing the African user community with better access

to Earth observation, field and ancillary data, as well as

the infrastructure, local capacity and services necessary

to sustain long-term environmental monitoring

• Setting up operational regional information services to

support and improve decision-making in environmental

management. AMESD will focus on five themes as

requested by the Regional Economic Communities:

– Water resources management in the region of the

Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l’Afrique

Centrale (CEMAC)

– Crop and rangeland management in the region of the

Southern African Development Community (SADC)

– Land degradation and desertification mitigation, and

natural habitat conservation, in the region of the

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)

– Marine and coastal management in the region of the

Indian Ocean Commission (IOC)

– Agricultural and environmental resource management

in the region of the Economic Community of West

African States (ECOWAS).

• Establishing national, regional and continental environmental

information processes, frameworks and activities enabling

African governments to meet their obligations regarding

international environmental treaties more effectively and

participate in strategic global environment surveillance

programmes such as Europe’s Global Monitoring of the

Environment and Security (GMES) initiative and the Global

Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

• Organising specialised training and staff exchange

programmes to maintain the technical capability of African

AMESD stakeholders in the long-term, with the aim of

ensuring self-sufficiency.

AMESD: a continued support from the European

Commission

The European Commission is supporting the use of Earth

Observations technologies for the operational monitoring of the

Environment in Africa since many years. Following the funding

of the PUMA project in 2001, the European Commission will

finance AMESD at a level of 21 Millions of Euro from the

European Union’s European Development Fund (EDF).

AMESD’s key players

The programme’s principal partners include the European

Commission, EUMETSAT, the Commission of the African Union,

the five participating African Regional Economic Communities

(CEMAC, SADC, IGAD, ECOWAS and IOC) and the Secretariat

of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP).

AMESD will be presided over by a programme steering

committee, which will supervise the initiative’s implementa-

tion. This will be comprised of representatives of the regional

economic communities, the ACP Secretariat, the delegated

regional authorising officer nominated by the Commission of

the African Union and his/her deputy, as well as representa-

tives of the European Commission, the World Meteorological

Organization and EUMETSAT.

The Meteosat Transition Programme (MTP) control centre in EUMETSAT headquarters, Darmstadt, Germany