As we celebrate our 1st year anniversary today, we cast our minds back to our launch event last year, and reflect on the thoughts of the representatives of Africa’s geo-political and geo-economic institutions.

Dr. Tidiane Ouattara (Space Science Expert and GMES & Africa Coordinator, African Union Commission): “The African Union Space Agency is a huge agenda. We have 55 countries. We have to make sure that every single African country takes advantage of space products and services. This is not easy. And our expectation of ASLI is to advise, from a neutral position, for the interest of Africa.”

Hendrina Chalwe Doroba (Division Manager for Education, Human Capital, and Employment at the African Development Bank Group): “The Bank has invested heavily in infrastructure across Africa, mostly in roads, railways, and airports. While the emphasis has been on infrastructure here on Earth, we as a bank need to show interest in space-based infrastructure, as the services and applications from space are used here on Earth. Transportation, logistics, banking, among others, are some of the economic activities that rely strongly on satellite technology.”

Andre Nonguierma (Chief of the Geospatial Information Section at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa): “Effective development of Space Science and Technology may require the establishment or consolidation of institutional and policy frameworks (including laws, regulations, and policies) that will encourage collaboration, synergy, and networking among all stakeholders using space technology; and that will also ensure that we have a quality vision, purpose, and action, towards an African-led, African-managed, and African-owned space infrastructure.”

We thank these institutions and individuals for their support.

Following Prof. Kai-Uwe Schrogl’s excellent thoughts on the need for Africa’s voice in international space governance and regulation, we had a roundtable discussion on building Africa’s space infrastructure, capabilities and capacity. Many thanks to Dr. Tidiane Ouattara, Dr Peter Martinez, Rose Wanjiku Njogu-Mwangi, Minoo Rathnasabapathy and Tare Brisibe, PhD, for their excellent ideas.

The recording of the launch event is available here.