The GDEST 2008 Conference on Geospatial Sciences for Sustainable Development in Africa will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from March 17 to 19, 2008.  The aim of the Global Dialogues on Emerging Science and Technology is to increase partnerships and networking among scientists and experts in the United States and across other world regions by building upon and reinforcing existing networks among international partner scientists and governments.  The conference will highlight challenges, opportunities, and potential steps toward the effective use of geospatial science for sustainable development in Africa.

The South African government is now in a better position to address the food security situation across the country. This is after research was done on establishing a Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information Management System (FIVIMS) in the Greater Sekhukhune district municipality. Ultimately, the purpose of FIVIMS is to enable government to identify high priority areas at the community level where appropriate interventions can be implemented.

Statistics South Africa and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) launched the publication "Using the 2001 census - approaches to analysing data". The Statistician General, Mr Pali Lehohla, emphasized the importance of census information in entrenching democracy and developing the capacity of people within South Africa. The CEO of the HSRC, Dr Olive Shisana, said the publication would empower both emerging and established researchers and that the census information is key to the HSRC conducting its national socio-economic research. Mr Craig Schwabe, Director of the HSRC’s GIS Centre said that census information is one of the most important layers of information that a country can collect. He said that this is because it gives an understanding of the distribution of the population and their socio-economic characteristics.

Although Haiti is ranked as the most corrupt country in the world, followed by Myanmar and Iraq, Africa still has the largest block of countries ranking highly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI). The CPI is calculated having obtained perceptions from various business people and country analysts working in the different countries. Guinea in West Africa is considered the most corrupt country on the African continent followed by Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chad. On the other side of the scale the country’s that are considered to have the least amount of corruption are Finland, Iceland, New Zealand and Denmark. Botswana in 37th place is the country in Africa that is considered to have the least amount of corruption. Mauritius follows in 42nd place and South Africa in the 51st position.

Developments within the remote sensing and geospatial technologies fields have enabled human rights organizations more effectively to investigate, monitor and contest atrocities and other human rights violations around the world. Notably, the establishment of a constellation of high-resolution observation platforms are allowing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) the ability to detect and respond to human rights violations as never before. Properly equipped, NGOs can complement formal responses from national governments and international bodies to the full range of human rights violations.

Peace and sustainability are the cornerstones of humanity’s survival in the 21st century. The major challenges facing humanity today are global – climate change, accessible fresh water, ever decreasing bio-diversity and over population. Problems that call for global solutions and these solutions will require co-operation on a global scale unparalleled in history. Peace is the essential prerequisite, for, without peace, how can the major nations of the world co-operate to solve these issues?

A recent study on the African continent has identified the 30 fundamental geo-spatial datasets for Africa.  Besides identifying these, a catalogue was also conducted to determine what is the status of these datasets in each country.  The findings are in line with international thinking and puts Africa on the map for conducting such a comprehensive study.

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is leading a worldwide effort to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) over the next 10 years.  The GEOSS vision, articulated in a 10-Year Implementation Plan, represents the consolidation of a global scientific and political consensus:  the assessment of the state of the Earth requires continuous and coordinated observation of our planet at all scales.

Imagine clearly seeing where the world’s malnourished children live, where children don’t go to school, where women are largely absent from the workforce, and which countries are most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.

The 6th International Conference of the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE).

Water information systems are a key factor for improving water governance and to implement successfully Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) action plans. Today, in many African countries, policies and management decisions are based on sparse and unreliable information.  In 2000, the UN General Assembly included among the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a task to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.  During the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the Heads of States and delegations called on all countries to develop Integrated Water and Resources Management (IWRM) and water efficiency strategies.  In response to WSSD, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the TIGER initiative in 2002, as a CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation satellites) contribution to assist African countries to overcome water-related problems and to bridge Africa's water information gap using satellite data.

The African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF) was conceived as a unified and modern geodetic reference frame for Africa to be the fundamental basis for national and regional reference networks fully consistent and homogeneous with the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) Standards.

The 9th International Conference of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association was conducted in Santiago, Chile from November 6-10, 2006. The conference theme focused on the use of spatial data and affiliated information technologies and infrastructure for addressing poverty issues. The conference attracted over 400 registrants representing 62 nations. It featured over 193 presentations and 53 posters in 58 technical sessions, 8 workshops, 6 round tables, and many business meetings. The venue was the historic and beautiful Chilean Military History Museum.

The Turkana people of northwest Kenya give names to the increasingly frequent droughts that hit them. The latest, in 2005/06, is called "Atiaktiak ng'awiyei" - "the one that divided homes" - because so many families split up, migrating to towns and relief camps to survive.

One of the primary intentions of AGIRN is to share knowledge on geoinformation in Africa with as wide an audience as possible.