The South African National Space Agency (Sansa) has been appointed as the Programme Management Office (PMO) for Digital Earth Africa. The latter entity has been established to make Earth observation data easily available and to provide ‘decision-ready’ products to African countries and organisations.

“Sansa has at the heart of its vision the development of an integrated National Space Capability that responds to the socioeconomic challenges in Africa by 2030,” highlighted Sansa CEO Dr Val Munsami. “Now, through the Digital Earth Africa programme office, we can offer even more solutions to our fellow Africans.”

“It has always been fundamental for Digital Earth Africa to become fully operational in Africa, and an Africa-based PMO allows us to tailor our platform even more to the needs of our users,” affirmed Digital Earth Africa establishment team MD Dr Lisa Hall. “The appointment of Sansa as PMO host also signals an important step towards the complete transition of Digital Earth Africa to be owned and run by African organisations and stakeholders.”

Digital Earth Africa supplies its data and products to ‘implementing partners’ across Africa. This support is provided rapidly and at no cost to users, whether governments, scientists, civil society or the private sector. Already, for example, it is being used in Benin to monitor forests, in Chad and Kenya to monitor lakes, and in Senegal to monitor coastlines.

“The appointment of [Sansa] as the host of the Digital Earth Africa [PMO] is a wonderful example of what can be achieved through collaboration between Australia and South Africa in the fields of science and technology,” said Australian High Commissioner Gita Kamath. The Australian High Commission hosted the launch of the Sansa/Digital Earth Africa PMO.

“We would like to thank Sansa, the High Commission and all of our partners across Africa, Australia and the broader international community,” stated Hall. “Digital Earth Africa provides a continental-scale service, and we would invite anyone interested in change detection, Earth observation or a more sustainable future for the African continent to engage with the platform and try it out for yourself.”