Building Momentum for ''GMES & Africa Action Plan'' (GAAP)
Cunningham, Paul
IIMC International Information Management Corporation Ltd, IRELAND

The ''GMES & Africa'' initiative establishes a long term partnership between European and African stakeholders, accordingly to the Lisbon Declaration, to work together on the development and implementation of Earth Observation (EO) applications based on African requirements. The process is implemented in the wide context of the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership, and in particular, implementation of the Space track of the 8th Africa - EU Srtategic Partners (Science, Information Society, Space) aiming for sustainable development and incremental scientific cooperation. GMES & Africa strengthens Africa's capacity and ownership of EO activities and acknowledges the importance of past and present programmes, recognising the need to coordinate actions to avoid duplication, increase synergies and enhance complementarities. ''Bridging Actions for GMES & Africa'' (BRAGMA) is co-funded under FP7 to support and facilitate the necessary dialogue to implement the GMES & Africa process, through improved coordination, information flows and dissemination. This work is coordinated with the European Commission (DG CNECT, DEVCO, ENTR) and African Union Commission. This paper will focus on sharing results from the first of a series of expert working groups meetings bringing together African and European thematic experts to contribute to the finalization of the GMES & Africa baseline study and endorsement of a GMES & Africa Action Plan through consultation with African Member States. The GMES & Africa Workshop on Marine and Coastal Areas was held in Mombasa, Kenya, 9-10 October 2012.