AGIRN -

Recognizing the great opportunity provided by geospatial information for use in development in Africa;

Aware of the progress that has been made in the development and use of GIS in Africa over the past two decades;

Building on the experiences and lessons learned from previous AFRICAGIS conferences held in Tunisia (1993), Cote d’Ivoire (1995), Botswana (1997), Ghana (1999), Kenya (2001), and Senegal (2003);

Looking forward to AFRICAGIS 2007 and excited about building on the lessons learned from this conference and the work of our colleagues throughout Africa;

Recommend the following actions be taken:

Delivery of services. The delivery of services for people and households – water connections, waste management, electricity and transportation, schooling and health provision, accessible markets, and security – should be greatly expanded and enhanced in most of rural and urban Africa with the use of geospatial information and systems, linking places where people live and the conditions they live under with access to resources and services they need to improve their quality of life.

Decision making, science, and information. Every country should participate in an earth observation system that will create and make available timely, authoritative, and useful data for use in decision-making at local, national, sub-regional, and regional levels. These data include core data sets including information on boundaries, geographic names, land and water forms, ecosystem services, livelihoods and poverty, governance, human health, and built and human capital.

Communities of Practice. Africans, at relevant levels of government and society, should develop “GIS Communities of Practice” composed of geospatial data providers, spatial data infrastructure (SDI), software and hardware, and user needs. Champions of GIS for African development should be encouraged and recognized. A special effort needs to be made to reach decision-makers on a timely basis through the use of “social-ware” such as inexpensive and fast Internet access, CD availability, low-cost publications, open media, etc. Africa cannot afford not to be GIS driven.

Geo-Information and Disaster Management. Accurate geospatial information is crucial for effective prevention and response to disasters. Every country should have an up-to-date register of places, digital maps of infrastructure including all major transportation and communication facilities and systems, and well-documented history and maps of disaster events. High probability disaster locations should be mapped and the data made available to the public and decisions-makers.

Access to data. To increase accessibility of information to the public, governments should modify laws and regulations to make all publicly collected core data available at the marginal cost of duplication and distribution, with appropriate restrictions to protect the identity of individuals, households, or businesses, and in rare cases of national security. In some cases this means demilitarizing fundamental geospatial data.

Spatial Data Infrastructure in Africa. The geo-spatial community needs to convince policy makers that effective development in Africa includes development of both geo-information and Spatial Data Infrastructure. Example efforts include: 1. Building on the Durban Statement on Mapping Africa for Africans; 4. Strengthening the Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) Commission on Development Information (CODI) and the Geo-information Working Group on Fundamental Geospatial Data Sets; 5. Helping African countries to benefit from global and regional data sets; 7. Recognizing countries that are making progress in developing and applying SDI; 8. Communicating success via CDs, videos, conferences; and 9. Creating opportunities for political leaders to share their success in forums such as African Ministerial Committee on the Environment (AMCEN) and the New Economic Plan for African Development (NEPAD).

Geospatial Partnerships. We recommend that the geospatial community in all African countries develop partnerships with businesses, government, academia, the public, the ICT community, and other key stakeholders to create a vision for common products and processes. At issue is the development of core geospatial data sets, spatial data infrastructure, and information policies such as pricing and licensing, copyright, freedom of information, proprietary rights, etc.