Final Report Summary - SAGA-EO (Support action to GMES-Africa on Earth observation)
Executive summary:
Study profile
The SAGA-EO project consists in a feasibility study to design, set up and assess dedicated multi-thematic networks of actors in individual African countries. Each network is organised according to a model called horizontal model for pooling and exploiting the common means (Earth observation (EO)-based information, infrastructure or knowledge) of its constituting thematic. SAGA-EO supports the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and Africa initiative on the cross-cutting issue 'Infrastructure framework' by enhancing the capacity of national actors on the use of EO-based information for environment and resources management.
The onsortium of 8 partners in 7 countries is led by Thales Alenia Space France: TAS/FR, GEOSAT/FR, GAF/GE, ANACIM/SN, BNETD-CCT/CI, GMET/GH, ANAC/CG and INAM/MZ.
Work achieved
In each of the five countries, a network has been set up with ten to twelve institutions from various sectors and coordinated by the SAGA-EO consortium national partner. Their needs have been collected that led to the design of both an organisational model and a technological platform. To highlight the benefits of this organisation, two generic scenarios were adopted by the five national networks: Food security (monitoring of agricultural season) and Flood (monitoring of water level).
A physical platform has been defined with a special focus on GMES, Preparation for Use of Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) in Africa (PUMA) and African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) interfacing and a SAGA-EO toolbox that encompass existing tools was assembled to help to prove the proposed organisation and technology. This was achieved during a 10-day session in each country called horizontal model assessment (HMA) sessions where the national network members played the two scenarios and assessed concepts.
By playing the HMA sessions in 5 African countries, during 50 days, with 65 actors representing 55 national institutions which are in 15 sectors, and according to the user feedback analysis (more than 4 500 answers) and the formal recommendations elaborated, we can consider that the horizontal model proposed by SAGA-EO is relevant to support the implementation of a national EO user network.
Following this major milestone, and to conclude the study, documents on the methodology for the implementation of an operational network where drawn up on the network organisation technology definition (platform and services).
Outcomes
The outcomes of the project are outlined on one hand through the key issues to be taken into account when implementing an operational network and the benefits of this paradigm; and on the other hand through the recommendations for implementing the national networking dimension towards the national authorities and the GMES and Africa coordination team.
As a conclusion, it can be said that the multi-thematic network approach is the most direct way for increasing the National EO capacities with the weakest effort and as such it prepares the ground for GMES and Africa, including Monitoring of Environment and Security in Africa (MESA).
Project context and objectives:
Context
An Africa-EU Join Strategic Partnership was signed on Science, Information Society & Space. Then African and European policymakers and stakeholders got together in Lisbon in December 2007, calling for an action plan on GMES and Africa. Space applications such as EO or satellite communications have been recognised as a central tool to support Africa in its sustainable economic and social development. To support the preparation of the action plan, the European Commission (EC)-funded few projects among which SAGA-EO.
Project context and objectives:
Context
An Africa - European Union (EU) joint strategic partnership was signed on science, information society and Space. Then African and European policymakers and stakeholders got together in Lisbon in December 2007, calling for an action plan on GMES and Africa. Space applications such as EO or satellite communications have been recognised as a central tool to support Africa in its sustainable economic and social development. To support the preparation of the action plan, the EC funded few projects amongst which SAGA-EO.
Concept and objectives
SAGA-EO is based on a sound experience of both European and African projects (GMES, PUMA, AMESD), dealing with environment monitoring based on information derived from EO data. The main finding driving the concept is that no project tackles the EO field as a global approach (technological, organisational and institutional).The SAGA-EO project consists in a feasibility study to design, set-up and assess dedicated multi-thematic networks of actors in individual African countries. Each network is organised according to a model named horizontal model for pooling and exploiting the common means (EO based information, infrastructure or knowledge) of its constituting thematic. SAGA-EO supports the GMES and Africa initiative on the cross-cutting issue 'Infrastructure framework' by enhancing the capacity of national actors on the use of EO based information for environment and resources management.
8 partners in 7 countries
Consortium led by Thales Alenia Space France
All along the project duration, information was shared with potential European data, services and expertise providers, African stakeholders, users or partners, but above all with the GMES and Africa coordination team and the SAGA-EO advisory board. The visibility material encompassed meetings, conferences, booth, television shows, papers, poster, leaflet, newsletters, but also: website: http://www.sagaeo.eu/ email: pascal.lazaridis@thalesaleniaspace.com
Work achieved during the first period
In each of the five countries, a network has been set up with 10 to 12 institutions from various sectors and coordinated by the SAGA-EO consortium national partner. Their needs concerning the network organisation and the pooling and exploitation of common means have been collected through workshops. The analysis of those requirements, together with the analysis of the existing initiatives in terms of EO data and service providing mainly in Africa and Europe, led to the design of both an organisational model and a technological platform that have been discussed and adopted during a one week workshop with the project members.
The horizontal model based on the political willingness is built on political layers (national data policy, business model and statute) with four pillars (structure, roles, resources including the technological platform and the processes) in order to improve the National capacities in EO through networking.
To highlight the benefits of this organisation, various thematic scenarii were proposed by the five African partners according to their major national stakes. Finally, two generic scenarios to be played during future assessment sessions were adopted by the five national networks:
- Food Security: monitoring of agricultural season.
- Flood: monitoring of water level in risky areas.
Work achieved during the second period
After a survey of the technological constraints existing in Africa regarding Information and communication technology, a physical platform to support the EO network processes has been defined with a special focus on GMES, PUMA and AMESD infrastructures and data interfacing. The system definition includes the future operational technological system, but also a subset of functions, which will help to prove the proposed concepts in terms of organisation and technology. So, a SAGA-EO toolbox that encompass existing tools was assembled.
The major event of the project consisted in the ten days session of the HMA in each of the five countries. All the national network members attended to the following activities:
(a) presentation of the technological toolbox;
(b) creation of metadata and of a data catalogue;
(c) sharing the data and products within the network;
(d) playing food security and flood scenarios;
(e) dissemination of the study results to high level governmental and institutional representatives;
(f) filling of questionnaires;
(g) writing of resolutions and recommendations.
By playing the HMA sessions in 5 African countries, during 50 days, with 65 actors representing 55 national institutions which are in 15 sectors, and according to the user feedback analysis (more than 4 500 answers), we can consider that the horizontal model proposed by SAGA-EO is relevant to support the implementation of a national EO user network.
Following this major milestone, and to conclude the study, documents on the methodology for the implementation of an operational network where drawn up: one on the network organisation and the other one on the technology definition (Platform and Services). Finally, the outcomes of the project are outlined on one hand through the key issues and the benefits of the SAGA-EO paradigm and on the other hand through the recommendations for implementing the national dimension towards the National authorities and the GMES and Africa initiative, and MESA.
Key issues to implement the network
- It is crucial to institutionalise the network.
- Decision rules have to be clearly defined.
- Data and information quality needs to be improved (because of sharing).
- Standardised data model (e.g. ISO 10115/19139 for catalogue) needs to be implemented, because of data sharing.
- Collaborative tools (videoconference, wiki, forum, blog) are of utmost importance.
- Network shall include the academic actors (students, teachers, researchers).
- National networks shall benefit from existing institutional organisations.
- National networks shall be connected to EO information providers: PUMA, AMESD, GMES, satellite receiving stations (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Gabon).
Expected benefits at National level
(a) improvement of the efficiency and quality of the mission of each network member and of the network as a whole; (b) actors emulation: improvement of motivation and stimulation through customer/ supplier relationship;
(c) increased synergy and cross-fertilisation between thematic areas and improvement of the national EO capacities; (d) economy of scale: through pooling of means, data (ex: PUMA, AMESD) and knowledge; (e) sustainability rely on network institutionalisation, actors critical mass and participation of academic actors.
Expected benefits for GMES and Africa
- Blowing-up of the EO user community.
- The approach is complementary to the thematic model implemented in GMES, AMESD.
- It provides structured networks of motivated actors; with an organisation and suitable means.
- The horizontal network actors are key actors for vertical networks though smoothing the AMESD thematic extension (regional, trans-regional, continental) foreseen in MESA.
- The horizontal networks are ready to host cross-cutting thematic like climate change or risk management.
Main recommendations towards nations
- The national network members ask to continue, after the end of the feasibility study, their activities through a phase of national ownership.
- Recommend to the directorate of their national coordinator:
(a) to continue to coordinate their national network;
(b) to ensure proper operation acting as operational liaison between their national network and their governmental authority; %l (c) to request their government to endorse or support any action (institutional, financial, technical, etc.) in order to implement a sustainable network.
- Recommend to the directorate of the national institutions:
(a) to confirm their commitment to join the network;
(b) to help their National Coordinator in its actions for the network operational implementation.
Main recommendations towards GMES and Africa, including MESA
- to give a practical answer to the request for implementation of the SAGA-EO concept from the five countries involved in the SAGA-EO support action project;
- to organise, at regional level, workshops in order to extend or to strengthen the awareness of the concept to all countries;
- to develop at continental or regional level an operational technological platform, including African partners;
- in order not to lose the SAGA-EO study momentum, it is recommended to setup as soon as possible;
- a first set of national network, at least three, into the mesa program;
- and to extend the networking to other African countries with a specific regional or continental programme, with the active participation of the RECs, funded by new GMES and Africa funds;
The multi-thematic network approach is the most direct way for increasing the national EO capacities with the weakest effort and as such it prepares the ground for GMES and Africa, including MESA.
Project results:
The first activities consisted in setting-up the SAGA-EO national networks, identification of the existing networks involved in environment management based on EO products, inventory data and products relevant to the project and define an network organisation model and scenarios to assess the model.
Regarding the SAGA-EO networks setting-up, it was essentially oriented into the selection of national actors, involved in the handling of EO data and technologies, to be part of the (horizontal) proposed African national EO user network. The GMES Africa action plan and in particular the 8 thematic areas and 3 cross-cutting areas where taken into account to select the network actors. After the selection of the SAGA-EO members by the AFNC, we have had several workshops in Congo, Ghana, Mozambique, Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire in order to collect the user needs.
Concerning existing networks, the activity was oriented on the compilation of information on the existing European and African networks producing, diffusing and exploiting EO data and products; this, in order to understand the feasibility of synergies between them and the proposed African national EO user network and to establish a direct contact with some of them to participate to the proposed HMA.
Concerning data and products derived from EO a survey has been achieved on sensors and service providers already existing either in Europe, Africa or elsewhere. However only some of them are fully relevant to the African national EO user network the SAGA-EO project intends to study.
In parallel to the user needs survey, we launched the study regarding the best and suited network organisational model (eventually with variants due to country specificities) at national level, based on common needs and integrating the institutional, contractual and technological aspects of the potential operational African national EO user networks. The proposed organisation is a combination of the African national EO user networks needs and the lessons learnt from previous experiences in Africa (PUMA, AMESD) and the significant European background from the GMES projects concerning geo-information operational services development and implementation.
The global structure (or organisation chart) of the network organisation shows the way the functions of the organisation are broken-down, allocated, organised and gathered into structures. Each element of the structure represents an elementary function that has to be fulfilled by the organisation in order to be efficient. A function corresponds to a job or profession and belongs to a structure gathering several functions. This will be described in more details in the hereunder paragraphs. The global structure below is a functional view that should not be confused with the following structures, which could be different on some points:
(a) people structure connecting functional entities to people;
(b) institutional structure connecting functional entities to institutions;
(c) physical structure connecting functional entities geographical premises.
The global structure is divided into three main structures that are the pilotage (or coordination) structure, the support structure and the operational structure that implements the 'actual and visible' activities of network.
The pilotage and support structures have to be created from scratch, even if in the implementation phase, these functions could be supported by existing organisations.
Concerning the operational structure, one part has to be created:
- On one hand, the operation and development coordination and the network common services.
- On the other hand, in each member body, a small entity that implements the interface with the common services.
The other part of the Operational structure dealing with specific services (which may be termed 'business services': e.g. mapping, weather forecast) already exists because those services are the day to day job of the network members. However, this is one of the major goals of the networking to provide those services, as much as possible, to any of the network member. And so, this is why a small dedicated entity has to be set-up in each network member body.
Pilotage structure
The pilotage structure is the highest level organisational instance guiding strategically the network and controlling its operations, ensuring that at any time it is on the good track, as a policy implementation instrument. In this regard, it is accountable for the achievement of the policy objective consisting of a widespread use of EO data and EO-based added-value information products and services (AVIPS) in all development sectors of the national economy. It is composed of the following entities:
(a) a steering committee equivalent to a legislative organ taking policy decisions and controlling and overseeing the action of the executive body;
(b) a technical committee in charge of technical and scientific orientations for the development of sustainable solutions to the various issues submitted to the network;
(c) the network coordination in charge of the overall coordination of executive actions of the network.
Support structure
This component of the network structure is responsible for the support necessary for the management of the network. It corresponds to the usual administrative and financial department of a common institution.
The Support structure comprises bodies in charge of the following sectors:
(a) legal;
(b) finance;
(c) communication;
(d) resources mobilisation.
The Legal organ is in charge of ensuring that the network is operating in line with the law and regulations of the country, while meeting the legal requirements of international scope.
The Finance organ ensures an efficient use of the financial resources mobilised for the operation of the network. It is also responsible for the implementation of the business model on which the network is based on.
The communication organ is in charge of giving visibility of the network action in the country and outside. It ensures inter alia that the outputs of the network are known to the users and that the needs and aspirations of the latter are made known to the management of the network.
The resources mobilisation organ is in charge of identifying the potential sources of human, financial and technologic support to the network, of negotiating the conditions for the mobilisation of these resources, and organising the effective acquisition of these resources.
Operational structure
The operational structure is responsible for taking all necessary actions allowing the network to meet all the information needs of its members and its community of users at large. It is the scientific and technological arm transforming the EO raw data into AVIPS for the various information needs identified. The composition of this structure is as follows:
(a) services implementation and maintenance;
(b) service quality;
(c) common service operation;
(d) network operation.
This structure operates on the basis of Operational Teams composed of member institutions grouped for the purpose of delivering specific AVIPS. Their number depends on the operational scope of the network. The wider the variety of AVIPS targeted by the network, the higher the number of operational teams.
The services implementation and maintenance is meant to ensure the sustainable operation of all the network components concurring to the delivery of the various AVIPS and their maintenance over time.
The service quality organ looks at the quality of the services and products delivered and controls that the production standards are met.
The common services operation is in charge of pooling the AVIPS production chain common to all the members of the network. It ensures efficiency in the application of the resources sharing principle.
The network operation organ supports the members of the network in whatever is necessary for their qualitative contribution to the networks operation. Its role is to analyse constantly the functioning of the network and provide the necessary adjustments where appropriate in order to ensure a sustainable and quality operation of the network.
HMA
In order to validate the concept defined by SAGA-EO, we have designed the more relevant scenarios to assess the concepts issued from this phase. In first time, the scenarios were chosen in accordance to each country major thematic and to national policy priorities concerning development and environment. The concerned thematic are the following:
(a) food security driven by ANAMS in Senegal;
(b) monitoring coastal erosion driven by GMET in Ghana;
(c) flood forecasting and early warning driven by INAM in Mozambique;
(d) agriculture impact on forest cover driven by BNETD in Côte dIvoire;
(e) water shortage impact on river navigation driven by ANAC in Congo.
Each African national coordinator led their national network and local workshops were organised for building their scenario in a collaborative way. Then, after validation, these scenarios were consolidated, tuned by the other work package contributors.
In a second time, the consortium decided to select two scenarios which will be played in each country. In that way, we were be able to compare with the same reference scenario the results from each country.
Finally, the selected scenarios were:
(a) food security;
(b) flood forecasting and early warning.
They have been tuned according to data and technological components available for the project.
In order to play these scenarios and according to the user needs collected from each African network, we integrated existing components provided by SAGA-EO members in a HMA platform.
We also integrate interfaces for AMESD and PUMA stations which allow building metadata using ISO metadata profile (ISO19115). Thanks to these interfaces, all products built by these stations where automatically published to a catalogue. Then, the SAGA-EO catalogue was able to harvest each of one in order to propose these products to SAGA-EO community.
In that case, we allow each institution to organise their data which can be raster, vectors as well as documents like word, excel, pdf data formats in intranet system, and to share them with a SAGA-EO internet system.
HMA results
We analysed all questionnaires filled by the users who played the scenario that represents more than 4 500 answers, for 5 African countries, with 65 actors representing 55 national institutions in 15 sectors.
Synthesis on organisational considerations
From a purely organisational point of view, the model has been positively valued (over 7 test areas covered by 10 questions) by a minimum of 81 % and a maximum of 96% of the users (see summary below).
Synthesis on technical considerations
On the technical side, in relation with the use of the platform to strengthen the functionality of the model, the following results have been achieved, as shown on the table below: The model can be translated into a functional reality thanks to the incorporation of functions for the three levels of the structures (Strategic management or Pilotage' - admin / managerial or 'Support' - operational) on the platform for a majority of users ranging from 70 to 85 % of the population surveyed.
Conclusion on organisational and technical considerations
From the facts exposed above, and summarised on the two tables above, the results of the HMA on the organisational component side lead to the conclusion that the model is valued by the users who had the opportunity to test it to a level above 70 % of their population. The impact of the technological platform or HMA Tool is an invaluable source of enhancement of the operationally of this organisational model, as some of the bureaucratic burden can be taken in charge directly online. However, for an extended and operational deployment of this model, it seems necessary to devote more time to explain and sensitise the communities of potential users on the content of the various functions composing the three basic structures. It is also necessary to stay open and ready to allow a debate to take place on some specific issues related to the content of the structures, in order to allow for the country-specific-context to influence the final option to be implemented in a given nation. These are going to be slight and adaptive measures without a significant impact on the architecture of the model.
Theme-oriented analysis
The theme-oriented analysis is aimed at looking for possible correlations between the structures identified in each part of the Organisational model and the countries where the Assessment took place. In other word, this specific analysis is aiming at finding what is common to all countries (the core behaviour) and what is specific to a particular country (the specific behaviour). It is only performed over the structures of the organisational model, as these are at the heart of the innovation in the area or organisation developed by the SAGA-EO project.
To this end, figures were drawn from the results of the assessment and analysed based on the relative values (percentage of the sample choosing the answer under review). This type of figure, while showing again the core behaviour, illustrates also the residual behaviours regarding the other possible choices selected as answers to the question under review, and therefore gives the relative strength of the alternative answers recorded, characterising the specific behaviour.
The sample of the population surveyed is chosen to correspond to that of a country, which allows drawing conclusions based on the behaviour of this countrys users. The threshold used to trigger a deeper analysis of a given specific behaviour was set to a value of 20 %. In other words, whenever a specific behaviour equal to, or beyond this value is detected, an effort is put into looking for the cause(s) of that specific behaviour. All other values below this reference level are deemed negligible, and therefore of no significant influence on the content of the organisational structure analysed.
Final results
Technological implementation methodology
Before to propose a way to implement a technological tool like a SAGA-EO platform, we have from the knowledge of the HMA activities and users feedback, updated the design of the HMA platform for a potential operational implementation.
Finally, we design a physical architecture regarding the deployment of such system. After having defined the platform to be developed to cope with the national network members requirements, we presented the work program to be done to implement the platform, up to the operational - or exploitation - phase. The figures presented are based on the design analysis. However this gives mean values that can help to build a development plan for setting-up the next steps to an operational phase.
From this WBS, we proposed a detailed work plan with schedule, an organisation team with the profile of each position, and finally, a detail of each work package with their objectives, and their tasks.
Key issues for the platform implementation
Some key issues have been identified during the proposal of the SAGA-EO study. Those preliminary key issues have been consolidated, added or cancelled following the HMA sessions.
The four major key issues dealing with the technological platform are:
(a) data and information quality needs to be improved (because of sharing);
(b) Standardised data model (ex. ISO 10115/19139 for catalogue) needs to be implemented (because of data sharing: PUMA, AMESD);
(c) collaborative tools (videoconference, wiki, forum, blog) are of utmost importance;
(d) national networks shall be connected to EO information providers: PUMA, AMESD, GMES, satellite receiving stations (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Gabon).
Other important issues have also been evidenced:
- For an operational system, it is really important to propose an application with a friendly GUI, and to pay attention not to have too much information grouped in a same screen. The better way should be to allow the user to personalise its portal pages.
- For an operational system, the point regarding the business processes customisation is very important, because the functioning rules depends on the national geospatial data policy that will probably be different from a country to another. The implementation of a service oriented architecture supported by a workflow management application allows this feature through separating the application from the business processes. So this point is already implemented by the proposed platform architecture.
- Regarding the standardisation, it is important to notice that most of actors of the HMA sessions do not have any system to classify their data. Thus, a catalogue could support each network member to apply international standards in its institution by cataloguing its data and products. Then, a master catalogue could aggregate their metadata. This solution is not intrusive and allows a good level of flexibility. Those two requirements are fulfilled through the splitting of the architecture into primary node and secondary nodes having a common set of functions for the catalogue and the repository.
Organisational implementation methodology
From the HMA activities, we were able to propose rules to set up and consolidate national EO User networks in Africa. Such national networks aim at ensuring easy access to, use and sharing of EO data and EO-based added-value information products and services (AVIPS) for sustainable development purposes. The set of rules proposed hereunder in this organisational methodology are rooted in the outcome of upstream activities undertaken in the frame of the present SAGA-EO research and development project. Data have been collected, user needs have been identified, analysed, and confronted with a conceptual framework developed in the Network Organisational Model, Scenarios have been used to assess the appropriateness and applicability of the organisational model in five pilot countries in Africa, namely Congo Brazzaville, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mozambique and Senegal.
The methodology, as mentioned above, is based mainly on the outcome of the HMA undertaken in the five pilot countries. But it also draws on the general knowledge of the SAGA-EO member institutions in the areas related to the development and operation of a technology-based system, including the organisational, sociologic and cultural environment considerations involved.
The methodology also makes use of the EU overall approach to project management. Indeed, developing a network and consolidating it is comparable to initiating an important project and running it from formulation to final evaluation. Thus, the idea of developing a national EO user network has been broken down into the following work packages as shown on the diagram below:
The methodology to develop a national EO user network follows three main phases:
(a) an initial strategic decision phase;
(b) an institutional and technological development phase;
(c) an operational phase.
The initial strategic decision phase has to do with the political decision to undertake the development of the national network, and to define at the same time the coordination institution.
The institutional and technological development phase is the period during which the network is developing into a legal entity, with a clear organisation and a solid technological backstopping infrastructure.
The operational phase covers the actions related to the full optimisation of the networks operation and its maintenance, whereby the initial strategic objectives and operational targets are reached.
These phases are incorporated into the methodology structure below.
Below this line, the National EO User Network organisational methodology is presented as a project using the EU format of project management. Only the key features of the description of work are developed to enhance the understanding of the methodology.
Like the technological methodology, we detailed each work packages with their objectives and tasks for an implementation of EO user network in African countries.
Important recommendation areas
Following are some important areas from which recommendations emerge as a result of the field work done during the first period and during the HMA sessions in the concerned countries.
In the field of national context
As mentioned above, the national context varies from country to country, and it is very important to constantly adapt the organisational model. this fact is a the origin of the national Context study and Analysis set as a work package in this project formulation for the application of the EO User Network organisational methodology.
In the field of organisational model
As mentioned earlier, the horizontal model has two components; the organisational component and the technological component. The two go together and are equally important, but most importantly they are inseparable.
In the field of Technological platform
The technologic Platform as mentioned above was a tool that shod how the collaborative work can be done with benefit for the community of users, by sharing the scarce resources (human, data, equipment, finance). It is for this reason that a strong recommendation from the African countries is to have the opportunity to use it on a day by day basis, and to deploy the capacity of the whole model with their implication in the MESA programme.
In the field of generic methodology
This generic methodology is meant to facilitate the implementation of the SAGA-EO network in a country to share efficiently EO data and their related added-value information products and services (AVIPS). Despite the proven feasibility of all the concepts built in the SAGA-EO project, this methodology has to be used critically and be adapted to each country's national context.
Conclusion
The HMA undertaken in the five countries showed that the horizontal model test was largely applicable, with a few exceptional difficulties of application in two countries due to the national context. However the methodology proposed summarises the way to use best the key results of the SAGA-EO project to develop an EO User network in a country. Its extended application should contribute to the objective of the GMES Africa initiative.
Conclusions
By playing the HMA sessions in 5 African countries, during 50 days, with 65 actors representing 55 national institutions which are in 15 sectors, and according to the user feedback analysis (more than 4 500 answers) and the formal recommendations elaborated, we can consider that the horizontal model proposed by SAGA-EO is relevant to support the implementation of a national EO user network.
Potential impact:
The expected benefits are manifold:
(a) significant economies of scale on resources (human, material and financial) through the pooling of means;
(b) improvement of the efficiency and quality of the mission of each member; each member being concentrated on its core job that is to say that:
(i) It does not implement annex tasks, better implemented by another member or the common dedicated structure.
(ii) And it makes other members benefit from its skills and experience.
(c) increased synergy and cross-fertilisation, between thematic areas and also technical skills, through the sharing of EO based data whether raw or added-value information;
(d) introducing capacity building based on local and south-south capacities;
(e) creation of a coherent population of actors (lobby) at the national level to safeguard the interests of the African National EO user network and its members, but also to follow up policy implementation by policy makers;
(f) adding the education and research actors to the African national EO user network, a key element for the rise in knowledge, sustainability and autonomy of the countries, and therefore beneficial to Africa;
(g) prepare the ground for cross-cutting thematic topics like global climate change, which affects various environmental thematic such as agriculture, navigation, biodiversity;
(h) the actors of horizontal networks constitute potential key players (with improved capabilities in EO applications) of vertical networks, mainly for the implementation of the GMES and Africa initiative, including MESA.
Regarding the main dissemination activities
The national workshops organised to set up the national user networks in each of the five countries were a good opportunity to communicate. Each African partner has published a paper in the national newspaper and / or presented the SAGA-EO project in a national TV show.
We presented SAGA-EO at the 9th EUMETSAT Users Forum in Ouagadougou (Burkina-Faso). We have had a strong interest from the attendees, and the representative of IGAD Regional Economic Community was very disappointed not to be represented in the SAGA-EO consortium. It was also the occasion to see other potential SAGA-EO associated network like EAMNET.
Together with the 2 other support action to GMES Africa (EAMNET and GARNET), SAGA-EO was presented to EC DG ENTER Space conference in Budapest in May 2011.
The SAGA-EO concept and first results were also presented at the 2nd AMESD Forum held in Mauritius on 20 - 24 July 2011 and we participated to a round table on 'networking approach' that highlighted the National approach as the one to be improved shortly. This finding has been included as recommendation for the forum.
The SAGA-EO concept was presented at the Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM) meeting at the UNECA premises (Addis Ababa the 9 of august 2011). The audience was composed on Directors of Mapping agencies and the main International and Intergovernmental Institutions of Africa involve in the Geo-spatial information domain.
We also presented our project for:
- the Toulouse Space Show / 4th Intrnational Conference on Space Applications / Session 'Africa: mirror of global challenges', 25 - 28 June 2012, Toulouse/France,
- the training Session for AMESD users, 16 - 20 July 12012, Abidjan/ Côte d'Ivoire,
- the Second International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS II), 5 - 7 September, 2012, in Brussels, Belgium,
- the 10th EUMETSAT User Forum in Africa, Addis Ababa, 1 - 5 October 2012.
We participated to the 10th EUMETSAT User Forum in Africa with a booth during 4 days, where we presented our HMA platform with live demonstrations, video, posters and roll-up stand.
We also presented our project during the HMA sessions in a specific timeslot reserved for the dissemination results to stakeholders, national institutions, NGOs where often, the national TV was invited and relayed our results at national level to citizens.
But we also disseminate our results via our public website (see http://www.saga-eo.eu online) and several newsletters (papers and electronic format).
List of websites: http://www.SAGA-EO.eu
This is the final report of the SAGA-EO project which received funding under the EC's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). SAGA-EO aimed to study, design, set up and assess dedicated multi-thematic networks of actors in individual African countries. The report firstly covers a general overview of the project and then refers to the project context and objectives. A detailed overview of the scientific and technical results as well as of the final results is presented. The potential impact and the main dissemination activities and exploitation of results are reported.
Study profile
The SAGA-EO project consists in a feasibility study to design, set up and assess dedicated multi-thematic networks of actors in individual African countries. Each network is organised according to a model called horizontal model for pooling and exploiting the common means (Earth observation (EO)-based information, infrastructure or knowledge) of its constituting thematic. SAGA-EO supports the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and Africa initiative on the cross-cutting issue 'Infrastructure framework' by enhancing the capacity of national actors on the use of EO-based information for environment and resources management.
The onsortium of 8 partners in 7 countries is led by Thales Alenia Space France: TAS/FR, GEOSAT/FR, GAF/GE, ANACIM/SN, BNETD-CCT/CI, GMET/GH, ANAC/CG and INAM/MZ.
Work achieved
In each of the five countries, a network has been set up with ten to twelve institutions from various sectors and coordinated by the SAGA-EO consortium national partner. Their needs have been collected that led to the design of both an organisational model and a technological platform. To highlight the benefits of this organisation, two generic scenarios were adopted by the five national networks: Food security (monitoring of agricultural season) and Flood (monitoring of water level).
A physical platform has been defined with a special focus on GMES, Preparation for Use of Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) in Africa (PUMA) and African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) interfacing and a SAGA-EO toolbox that encompass existing tools was assembled to help to prove the proposed organisation and technology. This was achieved during a 10-day session in each country called horizontal model assessment (HMA) sessions where the national network members played the two scenarios and assessed concepts.
By playing the HMA sessions in 5 African countries, during 50 days, with 65 actors representing 55 national institutions which are in 15 sectors, and according to the user feedback analysis (more than 4 500 answers) and the formal recommendations elaborated, we can consider that the horizontal model proposed by SAGA-EO is relevant to support the implementation of a national EO user network.
Following this major milestone, and to conclude the study, documents on the methodology for the implementation of an operational network where drawn up on the network organisation technology definition (platform and services).
Outcomes
The outcomes of the project are outlined on one hand through the key issues to be taken into account when implementing an operational network and the benefits of this paradigm; and on the other hand through the recommendations for implementing the national networking dimension towards the national authorities and the GMES and Africa coordination team.
As a conclusion, it can be said that the multi-thematic network approach is the most direct way for increasing the National EO capacities with the weakest effort and as such it prepares the ground for GMES and Africa, including Monitoring of Environment and Security in Africa (MESA).
Project context and objectives:
Context
An Africa-EU Join Strategic Partnership was signed on Science, Information Society & Space. Then African and European policymakers and stakeholders got together in Lisbon in December 2007, calling for an action plan on GMES and Africa. Space applications such as EO or satellite communications have been recognised as a central tool to support Africa in its sustainable economic and social development. To support the preparation of the action plan, the European Commission (EC)-funded few projects among which SAGA-EO.
Project context and objectives:
Context
An Africa - European Union (EU) joint strategic partnership was signed on science, information society and Space. Then African and European policymakers and stakeholders got together in Lisbon in December 2007, calling for an action plan on GMES and Africa. Space applications such as EO or satellite communications have been recognised as a central tool to support Africa in its sustainable economic and social development. To support the preparation of the action plan, the EC funded few projects amongst which SAGA-EO.
Concept and objectives
SAGA-EO is based on a sound experience of both European and African projects (GMES, PUMA, AMESD), dealing with environment monitoring based on information derived from EO data. The main finding driving the concept is that no project tackles the EO field as a global approach (technological, organisational and institutional).The SAGA-EO project consists in a feasibility study to design, set-up and assess dedicated multi-thematic networks of actors in individual African countries. Each network is organised according to a model named horizontal model for pooling and exploiting the common means (EO based information, infrastructure or knowledge) of its constituting thematic. SAGA-EO supports the GMES and Africa initiative on the cross-cutting issue 'Infrastructure framework' by enhancing the capacity of national actors on the use of EO based information for environment and resources management.
8 partners in 7 countries
Consortium led by Thales Alenia Space France
All along the project duration, information was shared with potential European data, services and expertise providers, African stakeholders, users or partners, but above all with the GMES and Africa coordination team and the SAGA-EO advisory board. The visibility material encompassed meetings, conferences, booth, television shows, papers, poster, leaflet, newsletters, but also: website: http://www.sagaeo.eu/ email: pascal.lazaridis@thalesaleniaspace.com
Work achieved during the first period
In each of the five countries, a network has been set up with 10 to 12 institutions from various sectors and coordinated by the SAGA-EO consortium national partner. Their needs concerning the network organisation and the pooling and exploitation of common means have been collected through workshops. The analysis of those requirements, together with the analysis of the existing initiatives in terms of EO data and service providing mainly in Africa and Europe, led to the design of both an organisational model and a technological platform that have been discussed and adopted during a one week workshop with the project members.
The horizontal model based on the political willingness is built on political layers (national data policy, business model and statute) with four pillars (structure, roles, resources including the technological platform and the processes) in order to improve the National capacities in EO through networking.
To highlight the benefits of this organisation, various thematic scenarii were proposed by the five African partners according to their major national stakes. Finally, two generic scenarios to be played during future assessment sessions were adopted by the five national networks:
- Food Security: monitoring of agricultural season.
- Flood: monitoring of water level in risky areas.
Work achieved during the second period
After a survey of the technological constraints existing in Africa regarding Information and communication technology, a physical platform to support the EO network processes has been defined with a special focus on GMES, PUMA and AMESD infrastructures and data interfacing. The system definition includes the future operational technological system, but also a subset of functions, which will help to prove the proposed concepts in terms of organisation and technology. So, a SAGA-EO toolbox that encompass existing tools was assembled.
The major event of the project consisted in the ten days session of the HMA in each of the five countries. All the national network members attended to the following activities:
(a) presentation of the technological toolbox;
(b) creation of metadata and of a data catalogue;
(c) sharing the data and products within the network;
(d) playing food security and flood scenarios;
(e) dissemination of the study results to high level governmental and institutional representatives;
(f) filling of questionnaires;
(g) writing of resolutions and recommendations.
By playing the HMA sessions in 5 African countries, during 50 days, with 65 actors representing 55 national institutions which are in 15 sectors, and according to the user feedback analysis (more than 4 500 answers), we can consider that the horizontal model proposed by SAGA-EO is relevant to support the implementation of a national EO user network.
Following this major milestone, and to conclude the study, documents on the methodology for the implementation of an operational network where drawn up: one on the network organisation and the other one on the technology definition (Platform and Services). Finally, the outcomes of the project are outlined on one hand through the key issues and the benefits of the SAGA-EO paradigm and on the other hand through the recommendations for implementing the national dimension towards the National authorities and the GMES and Africa initiative, and MESA.
Key issues to implement the network
- It is crucial to institutionalise the network.
- Decision rules have to be clearly defined.
- Data and information quality needs to be improved (because of sharing).
- Standardised data model (e.g. ISO 10115/19139 for catalogue) needs to be implemented, because of data sharing.
- Collaborative tools (videoconference, wiki, forum, blog) are of utmost importance.
- Network shall include the academic actors (students, teachers, researchers).
- National networks shall benefit from existing institutional organisations.
- National networks shall be connected to EO information providers: PUMA, AMESD, GMES, satellite receiving stations (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Gabon).
Expected benefits at National level
(a) improvement of the efficiency and quality of the mission of each network member and of the network as a whole; (b) actors emulation: improvement of motivation and stimulation through customer/ supplier relationship;
(c) increased synergy and cross-fertilisation between thematic areas and improvement of the national EO capacities; (d) economy of scale: through pooling of means, data (ex: PUMA, AMESD) and knowledge; (e) sustainability rely on network institutionalisation, actors critical mass and participation of academic actors.
Expected benefits for GMES and Africa
- Blowing-up of the EO user community.
- The approach is complementary to the thematic model implemented in GMES, AMESD.
- It provides structured networks of motivated actors; with an organisation and suitable means.
- The horizontal network actors are key actors for vertical networks though smoothing the AMESD thematic extension (regional, trans-regional, continental) foreseen in MESA.
- The horizontal networks are ready to host cross-cutting thematic like climate change or risk management.
Main recommendations towards nations
- The national network members ask to continue, after the end of the feasibility study, their activities through a phase of national ownership.
- Recommend to the directorate of their national coordinator:
(a) to continue to coordinate their national network;
(b) to ensure proper operation acting as operational liaison between their national network and their governmental authority; %l (c) to request their government to endorse or support any action (institutional, financial, technical, etc.) in order to implement a sustainable network.
- Recommend to the directorate of the national institutions:
(a) to confirm their commitment to join the network;
(b) to help their National Coordinator in its actions for the network operational implementation.
Main recommendations towards GMES and Africa, including MESA
- to give a practical answer to the request for implementation of the SAGA-EO concept from the five countries involved in the SAGA-EO support action project;
- to organise, at regional level, workshops in order to extend or to strengthen the awareness of the concept to all countries;
- to develop at continental or regional level an operational technological platform, including African partners;
- in order not to lose the SAGA-EO study momentum, it is recommended to setup as soon as possible;
- a first set of national network, at least three, into the mesa program;
- and to extend the networking to other African countries with a specific regional or continental programme, with the active participation of the RECs, funded by new GMES and Africa funds;
The multi-thematic network approach is the most direct way for increasing the national EO capacities with the weakest effort and as such it prepares the ground for GMES and Africa, including MESA.
Project results:
The first activities consisted in setting-up the SAGA-EO national networks, identification of the existing networks involved in environment management based on EO products, inventory data and products relevant to the project and define an network organisation model and scenarios to assess the model.
Regarding the SAGA-EO networks setting-up, it was essentially oriented into the selection of national actors, involved in the handling of EO data and technologies, to be part of the (horizontal) proposed African national EO user network. The GMES Africa action plan and in particular the 8 thematic areas and 3 cross-cutting areas where taken into account to select the network actors. After the selection of the SAGA-EO members by the AFNC, we have had several workshops in Congo, Ghana, Mozambique, Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire in order to collect the user needs.
Concerning existing networks, the activity was oriented on the compilation of information on the existing European and African networks producing, diffusing and exploiting EO data and products; this, in order to understand the feasibility of synergies between them and the proposed African national EO user network and to establish a direct contact with some of them to participate to the proposed HMA.
Concerning data and products derived from EO a survey has been achieved on sensors and service providers already existing either in Europe, Africa or elsewhere. However only some of them are fully relevant to the African national EO user network the SAGA-EO project intends to study.
In parallel to the user needs survey, we launched the study regarding the best and suited network organisational model (eventually with variants due to country specificities) at national level, based on common needs and integrating the institutional, contractual and technological aspects of the potential operational African national EO user networks. The proposed organisation is a combination of the African national EO user networks needs and the lessons learnt from previous experiences in Africa (PUMA, AMESD) and the significant European background from the GMES projects concerning geo-information operational services development and implementation.
The global structure (or organisation chart) of the network organisation shows the way the functions of the organisation are broken-down, allocated, organised and gathered into structures. Each element of the structure represents an elementary function that has to be fulfilled by the organisation in order to be efficient. A function corresponds to a job or profession and belongs to a structure gathering several functions. This will be described in more details in the hereunder paragraphs. The global structure below is a functional view that should not be confused with the following structures, which could be different on some points:
(a) people structure connecting functional entities to people;
(b) institutional structure connecting functional entities to institutions;
(c) physical structure connecting functional entities geographical premises.
The global structure is divided into three main structures that are the pilotage (or coordination) structure, the support structure and the operational structure that implements the 'actual and visible' activities of network.
The pilotage and support structures have to be created from scratch, even if in the implementation phase, these functions could be supported by existing organisations.
Concerning the operational structure, one part has to be created:
- On one hand, the operation and development coordination and the network common services.
- On the other hand, in each member body, a small entity that implements the interface with the common services.
The other part of the Operational structure dealing with specific services (which may be termed 'business services': e.g. mapping, weather forecast) already exists because those services are the day to day job of the network members. However, this is one of the major goals of the networking to provide those services, as much as possible, to any of the network member. And so, this is why a small dedicated entity has to be set-up in each network member body.
Pilotage structure
The pilotage structure is the highest level organisational instance guiding strategically the network and controlling its operations, ensuring that at any time it is on the good track, as a policy implementation instrument. In this regard, it is accountable for the achievement of the policy objective consisting of a widespread use of EO data and EO-based added-value information products and services (AVIPS) in all development sectors of the national economy. It is composed of the following entities:
(a) a steering committee equivalent to a legislative organ taking policy decisions and controlling and overseeing the action of the executive body;
(b) a technical committee in charge of technical and scientific orientations for the development of sustainable solutions to the various issues submitted to the network;
(c) the network coordination in charge of the overall coordination of executive actions of the network.
Support structure
This component of the network structure is responsible for the support necessary for the management of the network. It corresponds to the usual administrative and financial department of a common institution.
The Support structure comprises bodies in charge of the following sectors:
(a) legal;
(b) finance;
(c) communication;
(d) resources mobilisation.
The Legal organ is in charge of ensuring that the network is operating in line with the law and regulations of the country, while meeting the legal requirements of international scope.
The Finance organ ensures an efficient use of the financial resources mobilised for the operation of the network. It is also responsible for the implementation of the business model on which the network is based on.
The communication organ is in charge of giving visibility of the network action in the country and outside. It ensures inter alia that the outputs of the network are known to the users and that the needs and aspirations of the latter are made known to the management of the network.
The resources mobilisation organ is in charge of identifying the potential sources of human, financial and technologic support to the network, of negotiating the conditions for the mobilisation of these resources, and organising the effective acquisition of these resources.
Operational structure
The operational structure is responsible for taking all necessary actions allowing the network to meet all the information needs of its members and its community of users at large. It is the scientific and technological arm transforming the EO raw data into AVIPS for the various information needs identified. The composition of this structure is as follows:
(a) services implementation and maintenance;
(b) service quality;
(c) common service operation;
(d) network operation.
This structure operates on the basis of Operational Teams composed of member institutions grouped for the purpose of delivering specific AVIPS. Their number depends on the operational scope of the network. The wider the variety of AVIPS targeted by the network, the higher the number of operational teams.
The services implementation and maintenance is meant to ensure the sustainable operation of all the network components concurring to the delivery of the various AVIPS and their maintenance over time.
The service quality organ looks at the quality of the services and products delivered and controls that the production standards are met.
The common services operation is in charge of pooling the AVIPS production chain common to all the members of the network. It ensures efficiency in the application of the resources sharing principle.
The network operation organ supports the members of the network in whatever is necessary for their qualitative contribution to the networks operation. Its role is to analyse constantly the functioning of the network and provide the necessary adjustments where appropriate in order to ensure a sustainable and quality operation of the network.
HMA
In order to validate the concept defined by SAGA-EO, we have designed the more relevant scenarios to assess the concepts issued from this phase. In first time, the scenarios were chosen in accordance to each country major thematic and to national policy priorities concerning development and environment. The concerned thematic are the following:
(a) food security driven by ANAMS in Senegal;
(b) monitoring coastal erosion driven by GMET in Ghana;
(c) flood forecasting and early warning driven by INAM in Mozambique;
(d) agriculture impact on forest cover driven by BNETD in Côte dIvoire;
(e) water shortage impact on river navigation driven by ANAC in Congo.
Each African national coordinator led their national network and local workshops were organised for building their scenario in a collaborative way. Then, after validation, these scenarios were consolidated, tuned by the other work package contributors.
In a second time, the consortium decided to select two scenarios which will be played in each country. In that way, we were be able to compare with the same reference scenario the results from each country.
Finally, the selected scenarios were:
(a) food security;
(b) flood forecasting and early warning.
They have been tuned according to data and technological components available for the project.
In order to play these scenarios and according to the user needs collected from each African network, we integrated existing components provided by SAGA-EO members in a HMA platform.
We also integrate interfaces for AMESD and PUMA stations which allow building metadata using ISO metadata profile (ISO19115). Thanks to these interfaces, all products built by these stations where automatically published to a catalogue. Then, the SAGA-EO catalogue was able to harvest each of one in order to propose these products to SAGA-EO community.
In that case, we allow each institution to organise their data which can be raster, vectors as well as documents like word, excel, pdf data formats in intranet system, and to share them with a SAGA-EO internet system.
HMA results
We analysed all questionnaires filled by the users who played the scenario that represents more than 4 500 answers, for 5 African countries, with 65 actors representing 55 national institutions in 15 sectors.
Synthesis on organisational considerations
From a purely organisational point of view, the model has been positively valued (over 7 test areas covered by 10 questions) by a minimum of 81 % and a maximum of 96% of the users (see summary below).
Synthesis on technical considerations
On the technical side, in relation with the use of the platform to strengthen the functionality of the model, the following results have been achieved, as shown on the table below: The model can be translated into a functional reality thanks to the incorporation of functions for the three levels of the structures (Strategic management or Pilotage' - admin / managerial or 'Support' - operational) on the platform for a majority of users ranging from 70 to 85 % of the population surveyed.
Conclusion on organisational and technical considerations
From the facts exposed above, and summarised on the two tables above, the results of the HMA on the organisational component side lead to the conclusion that the model is valued by the users who had the opportunity to test it to a level above 70 % of their population. The impact of the technological platform or HMA Tool is an invaluable source of enhancement of the operationally of this organisational model, as some of the bureaucratic burden can be taken in charge directly online. However, for an extended and operational deployment of this model, it seems necessary to devote more time to explain and sensitise the communities of potential users on the content of the various functions composing the three basic structures. It is also necessary to stay open and ready to allow a debate to take place on some specific issues related to the content of the structures, in order to allow for the country-specific-context to influence the final option to be implemented in a given nation. These are going to be slight and adaptive measures without a significant impact on the architecture of the model.
Theme-oriented analysis
The theme-oriented analysis is aimed at looking for possible correlations between the structures identified in each part of the Organisational model and the countries where the Assessment took place. In other word, this specific analysis is aiming at finding what is common to all countries (the core behaviour) and what is specific to a particular country (the specific behaviour). It is only performed over the structures of the organisational model, as these are at the heart of the innovation in the area or organisation developed by the SAGA-EO project.
To this end, figures were drawn from the results of the assessment and analysed based on the relative values (percentage of the sample choosing the answer under review). This type of figure, while showing again the core behaviour, illustrates also the residual behaviours regarding the other possible choices selected as answers to the question under review, and therefore gives the relative strength of the alternative answers recorded, characterising the specific behaviour.
The sample of the population surveyed is chosen to correspond to that of a country, which allows drawing conclusions based on the behaviour of this countrys users. The threshold used to trigger a deeper analysis of a given specific behaviour was set to a value of 20 %. In other words, whenever a specific behaviour equal to, or beyond this value is detected, an effort is put into looking for the cause(s) of that specific behaviour. All other values below this reference level are deemed negligible, and therefore of no significant influence on the content of the organisational structure analysed.
Final results
Technological implementation methodology
Before to propose a way to implement a technological tool like a SAGA-EO platform, we have from the knowledge of the HMA activities and users feedback, updated the design of the HMA platform for a potential operational implementation.
Finally, we design a physical architecture regarding the deployment of such system. After having defined the platform to be developed to cope with the national network members requirements, we presented the work program to be done to implement the platform, up to the operational - or exploitation - phase. The figures presented are based on the design analysis. However this gives mean values that can help to build a development plan for setting-up the next steps to an operational phase.
From this WBS, we proposed a detailed work plan with schedule, an organisation team with the profile of each position, and finally, a detail of each work package with their objectives, and their tasks.
Key issues for the platform implementation
Some key issues have been identified during the proposal of the SAGA-EO study. Those preliminary key issues have been consolidated, added or cancelled following the HMA sessions.
The four major key issues dealing with the technological platform are:
(a) data and information quality needs to be improved (because of sharing);
(b) Standardised data model (ex. ISO 10115/19139 for catalogue) needs to be implemented (because of data sharing: PUMA, AMESD);
(c) collaborative tools (videoconference, wiki, forum, blog) are of utmost importance;
(d) national networks shall be connected to EO information providers: PUMA, AMESD, GMES, satellite receiving stations (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Gabon).
Other important issues have also been evidenced:
- For an operational system, it is really important to propose an application with a friendly GUI, and to pay attention not to have too much information grouped in a same screen. The better way should be to allow the user to personalise its portal pages.
- For an operational system, the point regarding the business processes customisation is very important, because the functioning rules depends on the national geospatial data policy that will probably be different from a country to another. The implementation of a service oriented architecture supported by a workflow management application allows this feature through separating the application from the business processes. So this point is already implemented by the proposed platform architecture.
- Regarding the standardisation, it is important to notice that most of actors of the HMA sessions do not have any system to classify their data. Thus, a catalogue could support each network member to apply international standards in its institution by cataloguing its data and products. Then, a master catalogue could aggregate their metadata. This solution is not intrusive and allows a good level of flexibility. Those two requirements are fulfilled through the splitting of the architecture into primary node and secondary nodes having a common set of functions for the catalogue and the repository.
Organisational implementation methodology
From the HMA activities, we were able to propose rules to set up and consolidate national EO User networks in Africa. Such national networks aim at ensuring easy access to, use and sharing of EO data and EO-based added-value information products and services (AVIPS) for sustainable development purposes. The set of rules proposed hereunder in this organisational methodology are rooted in the outcome of upstream activities undertaken in the frame of the present SAGA-EO research and development project. Data have been collected, user needs have been identified, analysed, and confronted with a conceptual framework developed in the Network Organisational Model, Scenarios have been used to assess the appropriateness and applicability of the organisational model in five pilot countries in Africa, namely Congo Brazzaville, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mozambique and Senegal.
The methodology, as mentioned above, is based mainly on the outcome of the HMA undertaken in the five pilot countries. But it also draws on the general knowledge of the SAGA-EO member institutions in the areas related to the development and operation of a technology-based system, including the organisational, sociologic and cultural environment considerations involved.
The methodology also makes use of the EU overall approach to project management. Indeed, developing a network and consolidating it is comparable to initiating an important project and running it from formulation to final evaluation. Thus, the idea of developing a national EO user network has been broken down into the following work packages as shown on the diagram below:
The methodology to develop a national EO user network follows three main phases:
(a) an initial strategic decision phase;
(b) an institutional and technological development phase;
(c) an operational phase.
The initial strategic decision phase has to do with the political decision to undertake the development of the national network, and to define at the same time the coordination institution.
The institutional and technological development phase is the period during which the network is developing into a legal entity, with a clear organisation and a solid technological backstopping infrastructure.
The operational phase covers the actions related to the full optimisation of the networks operation and its maintenance, whereby the initial strategic objectives and operational targets are reached.
These phases are incorporated into the methodology structure below.
Below this line, the National EO User Network organisational methodology is presented as a project using the EU format of project management. Only the key features of the description of work are developed to enhance the understanding of the methodology.
Like the technological methodology, we detailed each work packages with their objectives and tasks for an implementation of EO user network in African countries.
Important recommendation areas
Following are some important areas from which recommendations emerge as a result of the field work done during the first period and during the HMA sessions in the concerned countries.
In the field of national context
As mentioned above, the national context varies from country to country, and it is very important to constantly adapt the organisational model. this fact is a the origin of the national Context study and Analysis set as a work package in this project formulation for the application of the EO User Network organisational methodology.
In the field of organisational model
As mentioned earlier, the horizontal model has two components; the organisational component and the technological component. The two go together and are equally important, but most importantly they are inseparable.
In the field of Technological platform
The technologic Platform as mentioned above was a tool that shod how the collaborative work can be done with benefit for the community of users, by sharing the scarce resources (human, data, equipment, finance). It is for this reason that a strong recommendation from the African countries is to have the opportunity to use it on a day by day basis, and to deploy the capacity of the whole model with their implication in the MESA programme.
In the field of generic methodology
This generic methodology is meant to facilitate the implementation of the SAGA-EO network in a country to share efficiently EO data and their related added-value information products and services (AVIPS). Despite the proven feasibility of all the concepts built in the SAGA-EO project, this methodology has to be used critically and be adapted to each country's national context.
Conclusion
The HMA undertaken in the five countries showed that the horizontal model test was largely applicable, with a few exceptional difficulties of application in two countries due to the national context. However the methodology proposed summarises the way to use best the key results of the SAGA-EO project to develop an EO User network in a country. Its extended application should contribute to the objective of the GMES Africa initiative.
Conclusions
By playing the HMA sessions in 5 African countries, during 50 days, with 65 actors representing 55 national institutions which are in 15 sectors, and according to the user feedback analysis (more than 4 500 answers) and the formal recommendations elaborated, we can consider that the horizontal model proposed by SAGA-EO is relevant to support the implementation of a national EO user network.
Potential impact:
The expected benefits are manifold:
(a) significant economies of scale on resources (human, material and financial) through the pooling of means;
(b) improvement of the efficiency and quality of the mission of each member; each member being concentrated on its core job that is to say that:
(i) It does not implement annex tasks, better implemented by another member or the common dedicated structure.
(ii) And it makes other members benefit from its skills and experience.
(c) increased synergy and cross-fertilisation, between thematic areas and also technical skills, through the sharing of EO based data whether raw or added-value information;
(d) introducing capacity building based on local and south-south capacities;
(e) creation of a coherent population of actors (lobby) at the national level to safeguard the interests of the African National EO user network and its members, but also to follow up policy implementation by policy makers;
(f) adding the education and research actors to the African national EO user network, a key element for the rise in knowledge, sustainability and autonomy of the countries, and therefore beneficial to Africa;
(g) prepare the ground for cross-cutting thematic topics like global climate change, which affects various environmental thematic such as agriculture, navigation, biodiversity;
(h) the actors of horizontal networks constitute potential key players (with improved capabilities in EO applications) of vertical networks, mainly for the implementation of the GMES and Africa initiative, including MESA.
Regarding the main dissemination activities
The national workshops organised to set up the national user networks in each of the five countries were a good opportunity to communicate. Each African partner has published a paper in the national newspaper and / or presented the SAGA-EO project in a national TV show.
We presented SAGA-EO at the 9th EUMETSAT Users Forum in Ouagadougou (Burkina-Faso). We have had a strong interest from the attendees, and the representative of IGAD Regional Economic Community was very disappointed not to be represented in the SAGA-EO consortium. It was also the occasion to see other potential SAGA-EO associated network like EAMNET.
Together with the 2 other support action to GMES Africa (EAMNET and GARNET), SAGA-EO was presented to EC DG ENTER Space conference in Budapest in May 2011.
The SAGA-EO concept and first results were also presented at the 2nd AMESD Forum held in Mauritius on 20 - 24 July 2011 and we participated to a round table on 'networking approach' that highlighted the National approach as the one to be improved shortly. This finding has been included as recommendation for the forum.
The SAGA-EO concept was presented at the Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM) meeting at the UNECA premises (Addis Ababa the 9 of august 2011). The audience was composed on Directors of Mapping agencies and the main International and Intergovernmental Institutions of Africa involve in the Geo-spatial information domain.
We also presented our project for:
- the Toulouse Space Show / 4th Intrnational Conference on Space Applications / Session 'Africa: mirror of global challenges', 25 - 28 June 2012, Toulouse/France,
- the training Session for AMESD users, 16 - 20 July 12012, Abidjan/ Côte d'Ivoire,
- the Second International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS II), 5 - 7 September, 2012, in Brussels, Belgium,
- the 10th EUMETSAT User Forum in Africa, Addis Ababa, 1 - 5 October 2012.
We participated to the 10th EUMETSAT User Forum in Africa with a booth during 4 days, where we presented our HMA platform with live demonstrations, video, posters and roll-up stand.
We also presented our project during the HMA sessions in a specific timeslot reserved for the dissemination results to stakeholders, national institutions, NGOs where often, the national TV was invited and relayed our results at national level to citizens.
But we also disseminate our results via our public website (see http://www.saga-eo.eu online) and several newsletters (papers and electronic format).
List of websites: http://www.SAGA-EO.eu
This is the final report of the SAGA-EO project which received funding under the EC's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). SAGA-EO aimed to study, design, set up and assess dedicated multi-thematic networks of actors in individual African countries. The report firstly covers a general overview of the project and then refers to the project context and objectives. A detailed overview of the scientific and technical results as well as of the final results is presented. The potential impact and the main dissemination activities and exploitation of results are reported.
