About GISAfrica Network >
Charter of partnership
1. Introduction
Mineral resources ( groundwater, energy minerals, metallic and non-metallic minerals, etc) play an important role in the development of numerous countries.
Sustainable development of these resources for the benefit of states and regions requires adoption of common approaches in view of the non-renewable nature of these resources.
To this end, the first step towards building a common approach in addressing Earth Sciences problems in Africa require sharing, improvement and dissemination of knowledge. This is the goal of the African geological information network for a sustainable development (SIGAfrique network).
2. Objectives of the project
The general objectives of the project are :
1.To facilitate access to data and other relevant information regarding African geosciences to the Earth Sciences community.
2.To contribute to the establishment of a common Earth Sciences language in Africa.
3.To create, first a network of African geological surveys and at a later stage create a network between African and European geological surveys and other institutions.
4.To transfer databases at regional level in technical centers (SEAMIC and WAEMU) equipped with servers and other data management and exchange facilities.
3. Duration of the project
SIGAfrique network is a long term initiative.
The pilot phase has been implemented between March 2003 and December 2005
last three years, beginning March 2003.
4. Project funding and budget
The project has been fully funded by the French Cooperation, in addition to technical assistance which will be provided to participating countries and regional centers. This technical assistance is still available.
5. Participating countries
The SIGAfrique network is intended to be Pan-African.
Eleven countries and two regional centers as listed bellow, have participated in the launching phase of SIGAfrique :
Angola
Burkina Faso
Ethiopie
Guinea Conakry
Kenya
Madagascar
Mali
Mauritanie
Niger
Senegal
Tanzanie
WAEMU (Western African Economic and Monetary Union)
SEAMIC (Southern and Eastern African Mineral Center)
6. Coordination
The coordinator of the project has been the International Center for Training and Exchanges in the Geosciences (CIFEG), which will report progress to the decision making organs, the French Cooperation and participating countries and will remain the main link between the project partners.
7. Operator
The operator of the project is the French national geological survey, the BRGM.
8. Activities of SIGAfrique network
Topics and activities
The project will cover the following topics:
regional geology;
regional hydrogeology
mineral occurrences and related socio-economic data.
development indicators relevant to the mineral resources sector.
bibliographical data.
Metadata covering the aforementioned subjects.
geo-information tools (GIS and databases, etc.).
The main activities will take place at two levels:
at the level of participating countries, regional centers and operator, conduct interactive workshops starting early 2004, between experts focusing on the above mentioned topics;
at the level of the Earth Sciences community within each country, the experts had to disseminate and improve knowledge, related to the topics discussed at the regional level through workshops and other relevant fora.
Exchanges being established through Internet and other media.
Duties and responsability of the parties :
For the operator :
define the architecture of data server and establish data management procedures
organize workshops dealing with the above mentioned topics;
elaborate a first synthesis of the geological data and present it for discussion, improvement and validation.
build the databases to be assessed and enriched by the partners.
supply hardware and software to participating countries and regional centers.
promote the network and its accomplishments.
For the participating countries :
appoint the national project coordinator at the level of national director or equivalent
appoint experts with the following profiles (computer-experienced geologist and hydrogeologist) who will participate in the workshops.
make available basic facilities (computers, offices ) for the SIGAfrique project participants.
open and/or maintain an Internet connection.
facilitate scientific interactions at the national level and disseminate the results of the workshops to the various partners involved.
contribute to the databases improvement.
determine data which will be put in the public domain via the server of the project.
For the regional centers :
contribute to sustain the network.
facilitate scientific reflections and exchanges at regional level and make the regional information available to the project.
host the workshop sessions and provide facilities for an efficient organization of the objectives of the network.
9. Transfer of data to regional center servers or to regional mirror sites
The data temporarily hosted by the operator has been transferred before the end of the pilot phase to the regional centers or to regional mirror sites, pending the decision of the steering committee.
10. Outputs
Networking of the geological surveys and other African geo-science institutions and initiatives.
Synthesis of the African stratigraphy at a continental scale.
Geologic syntheses :
Pan-African, at a 1:10,000,000 scale,
regional at a 1:2,000,000 scale.
Establish links with national systems
11. Monitoring, Evaluation and reporting
Le lancement du réseau SIGAfrique a été suivi par un comité de pilotage.Les rapports d’avancement et le rapport final présentés par le coordinateur au comité de pilotage ont été transmis à l’ensemble des partenaires.Une évaluation externe a été réalisée à la fin de la phase de lancement.
12. Extension of the project
Le réseau SIGAfrique est ouvert à tout pays africain qui remplira les conditions énoncées dans la charte.
En fonction de la disponibilité de financements complémentaires le réseau SIGAfrique peut s’ouvrir à d’autres partenaires durant et au-delà de la phase de lancement.
L’ensemble des parties se mobiliseront pour trouver les ressources nécessaires à l’extension du réseau.