›AfricaNeedSpace

Context

Space under the influence of technologies has entered a new era imposing itself as an alternative to solving global, regional and sub-regional challenges in many crucial areas such as meteorology, telecommunications, navigation, resource management natural resources, maritime security, prevention and management of natural disasters, medicine, etc.

For Africa, with an area is 30.41 million km2, rich in natural resources with a population estimated at 2.5 billion in 2050. The greatest challenges facing Africa concern the improvement of the living conditions of its populations and the preservation of the natural resources on which depends the survival of millions of its inhabitants. Space through its applications, data, patents, and technologies offers services to monitor the vast expanses of natural resources and the changes taking place, to predict risks and mitigate disasters, to plan territories by involving citizens in a process of resilience.

The African Union by the will of its Heads of State, has adopted a Space Policy from which results the creation of the African Space Agency which directs and coordinates the development of Space activities in Africa for the achievement of Agenda 2063 objectives in particular and the Sustainable Development Goals in general. In this regional dynamic, a window opens for Space entrepreneurship and the emergence of small and medium-sized enterprises.

OBJECTIVES

The Workshop organized as a videoconference prior to the AFRICA NEEDS SPACE conference will make it possible to popularize and promote Space with the general public and all stakeholders (pupils, students, researchers, entrepreneurs, job seekers, local authorities, state institutions, civil society etc.) in order to present the interest and potential of Space as an alternative for the diversification of the economy, the creation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and the structuring of the Space and entrepreneurial ecosystem .
Placed under the high patronage of the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises, Social Economy and crafts of Cameroon, the workshop aims at giving directions for the organization of the conference AFRICA NEEDS SPACE which will be held during the year 2020. This conference will allow Cameroon to define the activities to develop in order to benefit the opportunities offered by Space and create new economic services.

CONCEPT

The workshop for this very first edition aims to:

1. Promote and popularize the African Space Policy drawn up by the African Union Commission,
2. Present the actors involved in Space in Africa
3. Encourage the Networking of actors in the Space ecosystem for sharing and collaboration in order to boost the African economy
4. Propose, strategic avenues for the implementation of Space activities in Central Africa sub-region
5. Share experiences and success stories of space supported economic and social development in a changing climate.

INTEREST

In view of its great geographical, climatological, ecological, mining diversity and its situation on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean plus an ever-growing, young and dynamic demography, Cameroon must face development issues and challenges at the ecological, economic, social and environmental levels.

 

Its strategic position in the Central African sub-region obliges Cameroon to put in place mechanisms to facilitate socio-economic integration, ensure food, health and military security in this sub-region while focusing its educational system on theoretical and practical training of human resources resolutely geared towards progress and innovation.

Tweets by spaceagenda