AU Call for Proposals: Global Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa

The African Union is inviting applicants for its “Global Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (GMES & Africa)” programme which is managed on daily basis by a programme management unit (PMU) located within the African Union Commission (AUC) Headquarters in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia.

GMES & Africa initiative is the crystallization of the longstanding cooperation between Africa and the European Union in the area of space science & technology and a key priority under the EU-Africa partnership.

Objectives

• General Objectives:
  • Maintaining, improving and sustaining local, institutional, human and technical capacities for accessing and using EO data and services for sustainable socio-economic development,
  • Contributing to the implementation of the African Space Policy and Strategy, in particular on Earth Observation,
  • Providing decision-makers with information and tools needed for the implementation of sustainable socio-economic development at the continental, regional and national levels through their RECs and RICs.
• Specific Objectives:
  • Consolidating, extending and developing applications for the Water and Natural Resources and the Marine & Coastal Areas Services to adequately provide information to policymakers, scientists, businesses and the public on real time basis,
  • Strengthening regional and national capacities to generate and apply EO-based and in-situ information for Water and Natural Resources and the Marine & Coastal Areas Services,
  • Raising public awareness on the critical role of Earth Observation in sustainable development,
  • Developing a framework for promoting intra-African collaboration and open access to data for Water and Natural Resources and the Marine & Coastal Areas Services.

Grant Areas

• Water & Natural Resources service
• Marine and Coastal Areas service

Grant Information

• For Water and Natural Resources:
  • Minimum amount: €1,000,000
  • Maximum amount: €2,000,000
• For Marine and Coastal Areas:
  • Minimum amount: €1,000,000
  • Maximum amount: €2,000,000

Geographic Regions

North Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Sahrawi Republic

West Africa: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cape Verde, Mali, Burkina, Niger

Central Africa: Chad, Central Africa, Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville, Congo RDC, Burundi, Sao Tome & Principe

Southern Africa: Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi

East Africa: Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros

Eligibility Criteria

• Be an African institution with at least five years of demonstrated experience in implementing large-scale EO projects spanning in at least three countries
• Have at least a 5-year record in the formulation and/or implementation of Earth Observation activities applied to Water & Natural Resources and/or Marine & Coastal Areas in Africa
• Be an institution coordinating and working directly with at least three national institutions from three different countries to deliver on EO projects
• Have a regional (or also continental or global) mandate, e.g. beyond the national boarder of the Applicant
• Be legally registered locally or regionally (the applicant will have to provide the relevant legal documents)
• Be able to demonstrate their experience and capacity to manage activities corresponding in scale and complexity to those for which a grant has been requested
• Demonstrate stable sources of finance to ensure the continuity of their organisation throughout the implementation of the proposed action
• The Applicant must act as the lead organization in a partnership and, if selected, as the contracting party (the ‘Beneficiary’)
• Applicants must operate within a partnership and act with partner organisations as specified hereafter.
• Partnerships must involve at least five African organisations including the Applicant, three national institutions and one academia, all from different countries.

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted via postal mail at the address given on the website.

For more information, please visit Call for Proposals.