| By
Mercy Wambui, 13 April 2006
The
ad hoc committee of the African Organization for Cartography
and Remote Sensing (AOCRS) is holding its third meeting at
ECA, hosted by the Development Information Services (DISD),
from 11-13 April 2006.
AOCRS
is an intergovernmental institution established under the
auspices of the former Organization for African Unity (OAU)
and ECA in 1989 through the merger of the African Remote Sensing
Council (ARSC) and the African Association for Cartography
(AAC). It is based in Algiers, Algeria and has 23 member States,
namely: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Cote
d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana,
Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco,
Niger, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Togo and Uganda.
The
objectives of AOCRS are to promote, encourage, coordinate
and harmonize member States policies in the field of surveys,
mapping and remote sensing (understood in their widest terms,
nowadays referred to as Geoinformation). As such, AOCRS, along
with the regional centres in Nairobi and Ile-Ife, works closely
with ECA in implementing geoinformation activities and serving
on working groups of the geoinformation subcommittee of ECA's
Committee for Development Information (CODI).
"We
expect to finalize the review of the organization's constitution",
said Chukuwdozie Ezigbalike, DISD Geoinformation Team Leader,
adding, "the review of the constitution has become necessary
due to several factors, principally: geoinformation technologies
have changed immensely, the OAU has been replaced by the African
Union and ECA has redefined relations with regional development
institutions".|
"One
option is to make the organization an organ of the AU Commission
for Human Resource, Science and Technology," said Dr.
Anwar Siala, Secretary General, AOCRS commenting on a proposed
way forward.
In response to this proposal, the AU Commisioner for Human
Resource, Science and Technology, Prof. Nagia Essayad assured
the meeting of her office's support for the new direction.
For more information on the meeting, please contact Chukuwdozie
Ezigbalike (cezigbalike@uneca.org).
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