Support for Africa is a priority for many nations and organisations, and capacity building is central to any successful development project. Mitigation of disasters is a major concern, partly because big disasters attract media attention and immediate support from charities and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations). The UK charity MapAction is a prime example, and one directly linked to the geospatial industry. General development goals such as the establishment of a continental Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), an African geodetic reference network (AFREF) and networks to distribute satellite data, such as GEONETcast and DMC, are already in place. Does this then mean that Africa is well prepared for managing a major disaster? Probably not, because the necessary components of capacity building are not in place: people and institutions are lacking.

First the people. At the “Round Table on Surveying and GIS Education in Africa and the Arab Countries” held by FIG during the 2005 Working Week, Holger Magel noted that FIG was much concerned about the problems faced by African countries. The cause he attributed to a lack of students and the closing down of programmes, adding that the situation in Central and South Africa was very problematic. This was at university level; at school level knowledge about geospatial information was extremely poor and hence the low entry into higher education in geomatics. Africa’s brain drain is another problem: 30% of Africa’s university-trained professionals live beyond the borders of the continent, up to fifty thousand Africans with PhDs are working abroad and university Departments of Geomatics are closing or losing staff.

ISPRS, IEEE and OGC have run workshops to inform potential users of the value of GEOSS, but a problem here is getting the right people to attend. One major objective of these workshops is to encourage interaction with users and get feedback on their needs for data, information and infrastructure. The second workshop on “The User and the GEOSS Architecture: Applications for Africa” held in Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa, in October 2005 concluded that more money and better understanding of the problems were required; the latter first involving identification of user groups and their future participation, and then better communication. There was also poor interchange among African governments. Technical problems typically found in Africa include poor infrastructure, low bandwidth and lack of interoperability and metadata (a problem not confined to Africa). Then there was lack of spatial literacy and education about use of GI in schools, and lack of political will. A final conclusion was that basic technology equipment was needed – training is useless without equipment.

Long-term, sustainable, national environmental programmes run by national governments, was one of the solutions proposed. There should also be more networking, and activities should be more regionally relevant and make more use of existing systems and capacity-building efforts. GEOSS could act as a catalyst, listening to end users, particularly non-specialists, to improve communication between scientists, disciplines and policy-makers. Training needs should be subject to long-term commitment, and GEO should be able to provide political clout for outreach to African politicians; institutions are required to educated people and to develop a sustainable basis for operation and research.

As for the institutions in Africa, they too demonstrate insufficient progress. Many of the “people issues” also relate to institutions. African institutions are needed, and ICSU in particular is working towards establishing sustainable institutions. ITC also has an education network. National Mapping Agencies (NMA) could give a lead in supporting sustainable institutions. At the Cambridge Conference in July 2007 it was decided to develop two geospatial knowledge portals for NMAs to exchange information. The first, to be developed by GSDI, will be a global portal to include specific pages for NMAs. The second is an African Portal developed within AGIRN, an initiative of the South African Human Science Research Council (HSRC) and EIS Africa. Participants at the Cambridge Conference, led by Ordnance Survey, agreed to support the portal, and the Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies (JBGIS) leant its support in agreeing to co-ordinate and help to populate it. This is now going ahead and African and non-African NMAs are being asked to provide any reports or papers that might be of use to other NMAs. The same NMAs are also requested to indicate whether expertise and/or surplus equipment is available for the use of others. Participation in these exchanges is via the website www.agirn.org .

Disasters are not only physical; they may occur when potentially valuable initiatives collapse due to inadequate resources. This affects the individuals involved and may have serious repercussions for people who might have benefited. The challenges include:
-establishing and maintaining political awareness which might lead to funding
-maintaining activity through greater co-ordination
-stopping the African brain drain
-building sustainable institutions
-demonstrating the real benefits of efficient use of spatial data.
If we all respond to these challenges we can make a difference in Africa and avoid future disasters.