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PDF Integrated Space For African Society Legal and Policy Implementation of Space in African Countries Annette Froehlich Ebook Full Chapter
PDF Integrated Space For African Society Legal and Policy Implementation of Space in African Countries Annette Froehlich Ebook Full Chapter
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Southern Space Studies
Series Editor: Annette Froehlich
Integrated Space
for African Society
Legal and Policy Implementation
of Space in African Countries
Southern Space Studies
Series Editor
Annette Froehlich , University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
Advisory Editors
Josef Aschbacher, European Space Agency, Frascati, Italy
Rigobert Bayala, National Observatory of Sustainable Development,
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Carlos Caballero León, Peruvian Space Agency, Lima, Peru
Guy Consolmagno, Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo, Vatican City State
Juan de Dalmau, International Space University, Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France
Driss El Hadani, Royal Center for Remote Sensing of Morocco, Rabat, Morocco
Dirk Heinzmann, Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, Hamburg, Germany
El Hadi Gashut, Regional Center For Remote Sensing of North Africa States,
Tunis, Tunisia
Peter Martinez, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
Francisco Javier Mendieta-Jiménez, Mexican Space Agency, Mexico City, Mexico
Félix Clementino Menicocci, Argentinean Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sias Mostert, African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment,
Muizenburg, South Africa
Val Munsami, South African National Space Agency, Silverton, South Africa
Greg Olsen, Entrepreneur-Astronaut, Princeton, NJ, USA
Azzedine Oussedik, Algerian Space Agency, Alger, Algeria
Xavier Pasco, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, Paris, France
Alejandro J. Román M., Paraguayan Space Agency, Asunción, Paraguay
Kai-Uwe Schrogl, International Institute of Space Law, Paris, France
Dominique Tilmans, YouSpace, Wellin, Belgium
Jean-Jacques Tortora, European Space Policy Institute, Vienna, Austria
The Southern Space Studies series presents analyses of space trends, market
evolutions, policies, strategies and regulations, as well as the related social,
economic and political challenges of space-related activities in the Global South,
with a particular focus on developing countries in Africa and Latin America.
Obtaining inside information from emerging space-faring countries in these
regions is pivotal to establish and strengthen efficient and beneficial cooperation
mechanisms in the space arena, and to gain a deeper understanding of their rapidly
evolving space activities. To this end, the series provides transdisciplinary
information for a fruitful development of space activities in relevant countries
and cooperation with established space-faring nations. It is, therefore, a reference
compilation for space activities in these areas.
Integrated Space
for African Society
Legal and Policy Implementation
of Space in African Countries
123
Editor
Annette Froehlich
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch, South Africa
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword
Most people do not realise or appreciate the role played by space in their daily lives,
or the importance of space-related data and technologies. As if to symbolise this,
apart from a fortunate few, most of the world’s population have never had any
direct, personal experience of space, especially in Africa. For this reason, I am
pleased to share my own personal experiences with students in South Africa as
often as I can, both because space is vital for Africa’s future, but also to motivate
the upcoming generation of professionals and entrepreneurs to seize the opportu-
nities which present themselves, and persevere in the pursuit of their dreams, since I
have learned that if you work really hard and do not give up, success will eventually
follow. This book, Integrated Space for African Society—Legal and Policy
Implementation of Space in African Countries, symbolises that idea well and
summarises the latest developments in the African space area.
My connection to South Africa goes back to 1971–1972 when I did a post-doc at
the University of Port Elizabeth (now Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University),
Physics Department under Profs. Koos Vermaak and Hennie Snyman. I performed
electron microscope studies on thin metal films with metallurgical applications and
taught several classes.
After returning to the USA, I worked at a semiconductor research laboratory
(RCA Laboratories) and developed lasers and photodetectors for fibre optic
applications. Many of my innovations were based on scientific work that I had
performed in South Africa. I also frequently returned to South Africa, visiting
research laboratories and continuing professional relationships.
After 11 years at RCA, I spun off my first high-tech business called EPITAXX
which made devices for fibre optic systems. After selling this business, I started my
second company called Sensors Unlimited which developed and manufactured
infrared cameras for military night vision and industrial sensing applications. The
sale of this second company gave me the resources to realise my dream of owning a
wine farm near Cape Town and also to think about travelling in space as a private
citizen, much as (South African) Mark Shuttleworth had done. I purchased Olsen
Wineries in Paarl at about the same time (2003) that I began my efforts to fly in
space.
v
vi Foreword
My journey into space with the Russian Space Agency was a long tale, with a
number of setbacks described in my book By Any Means Necessary. I launched
from Kazakhstan aboard Soyuz TMA-7 with Russian Cosmonaut Valeri Tokarev
and NASA astronaut Bill McArthur. After spending eight days on the International
Space Station, I came back down to Earth on Soyuz TMA-6 with Cosmonaut
Sergey Krikalev and Astronaut John Phillips. All four men have been to my farm in
Paarl, travelled the country extensively, and all delighted in seeing the Cape of
Good Hope which they all had photographed from space! The picture shown is one
of such photographs of Cape Town, taken from space.
I have thousands of photographs and hours of video from my journey, and I have
visited many organizations, universities and elementary schools giving talks about
my visit to space and trying to encourage students from all walks of life to explore
science, math and engineering. Amongst these is the University of Cape Town,
where the Spacelab offers its multi-disciplinary research-based Master’s degree in
Space Studies. I believe that this book, produced by participants from the Spacelab,
is a valuable contribution to the literate on African space activities, and I hope it
will encourage further interest in space affairs on the continent, including from
investors. As I have said before, timing is everything, and Africa’s space sector is
currently making rapid strides. Be ready!
This report consists of a thorough and critical investigation into all African
space-related activities, policies, local and international law and its social impli-
cations against the goals set by the African Union and the United Nations related to
sustainable development, with the objective to identify how space technology can
be embedded and applied to achieve those goals. Therefore, a breakdown of the
continent’s leading space actors and their roles and the African Union’s Space
Policy and Strategy (ASPS) is reflected upon within the context of the African
Union’s Agenda 2063 (Agenda 2063) goals and the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) set by the UN in 2015. A range of qualitative methods is deployed to
identify and convey the overall challenges, progress and solutions available to the
African continent, as a collection of individual space actors with differing capa-
bilities, to meet and achieve the Agenda 2063 and SDG objectives.
The investigation herein starts out firstly by delving into the most significant
challenges faced by the African continent and the tactics, as a subset of the strategy
arising from the ASPS, through which space technology can effectively assist
governments in confronting them. Globally, as informed by the SDGs, the chal-
lenges have been identified as those underlying sustainable development in the form
of the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and social goals and backed by
the fourth goal of proper governance to ensure effective implementation. Whilst
Africa shares these challenges overall, the continent shares a disproportional burden
of global poverty, climate change impacts and social disruption that allows for a
reinterpretation of its own goals. As a result, the challenges for Africa for the
purposes of this study are predominantly situated in the domains of climate change
and environmental concerns (that impacts on economic and social goals), popula-
tion and urbanisation (that is taking place at unprecedented levels and impacts upon
rural life and agriculture), as well as the disruptive influence of breaches in national
security (that is a growing phenomenon with a global impact). It is acknowledged
that these challenges are emergent from a complex interlinked societal and natural
system and deserve a response that takes this into account. In this regard, correct
information to assess the scope of the problem and to plan strategically is of the
This Executive Summary is authored by Sean Woodgate, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch,
South Africa, swoodgate4@gmail.com.
vii
viii Executive Summary
were then analysed in terms of their individual embedded systems and capabilities,
as well as their political, national and international dedication towards space-related
activities. The space activities of each country are examined by considering the
background of the selected country with regards to space, its relevant challenges
and development goals and finally how it is setting out to meet those challenges and
goals with space applications, policy and law (the latter two being prerequisites to
embed space applications). Countries such as Algeria, South Africa, Morocco,
Egypt and Nigeria were identified as the major actors in the African space com-
munity, with others such as Kenya, Angola, Namibia, Ghana, Sudan, Zambia,
Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia furtively expanding their sectors. Whilst many
of these countries that own satellites acquired them via international procurement
processes, the training and knowledge gained by many of their citizens during the
acquisition process has allowed for more internal development and research. From
Algeria’s range of Alsat satellites to Nigeria’s goals to become a launching state,
the South African Square Kilometre Array alongside heavy investment into
Angolan national satellite infrastructure, there are many examples of space-related
developments across the continent as a whole—yet not nearly enough. The vast
opportunities and possible space applications leave Africa’s space progress want-
ing, and it will take multiple collaborations in both the public and private sectors to
change this.
A case by case investigation is then used to identify areas of common ground,
where possible linkages can be created for benefit sharing, and to create new
opportunities for the adoption of space applications. All African countries,
including those already investigated, are then sorted into visualised tables, matrixes
and graphs—depicting a formalised overview of the international treaties entered
into collaborations, engagement and technological status of each. A formalised
rating system was devised to depict the standing of the African countries in terms of
space-readiness and progression and is expressed in the form of an extensive
weighted table, normalised space score diagram and a colour-based geographical
map, reflecting the scores singularly and cumulatively. Whilst the data reflects little
correlation between geographical location and space development, parallels can be
drawn between international treaty signatory countries and space-readiness—indi-
cating that international space awareness seems to be linked with practical space
development. The use of African-owned satellites in Earth observation, commu-
nication and science is similarly compared alongside a selection of user needs
experienced by different national sectors. The sector demand versus resolution or
service is overviewed within the same matrix, with the active African space
countries depicted within their respective fields of operation.
The report proceeds to investigate and explain the concepts and methodology
through which space-originated services and value is embedded in society at var-
ious levels. A concise overview is given as to how one approaches the concept of
something being “embedded” within a country or society. Based on this approach,
examples ranging from the monitoring of the environment to urban development
form the basis of the following section which addresses the fundamental prereq-
uisites required in order to embed a space application. These prerequisites are
x Executive Summary
possibilities exist and can be created if a supportive environment is fostered with the
appropriate cooperation and dedication.
In conclusion, the processes and logic that was used in this report are discussed
and a qualitative reflection upon the findings is made. There is no doubt that
addressing the challenges this continent faces lies in the hands of all Africans, and
especially when governments, tertiary institutions, like universities, and ordinary
citizens begin to realise the true power and value of space technology the continent’s
full potential will be realised. It is already clear that African societies are utilising
space technologies in innovative ways, but now is the time to expand on these with a
collective and collaborative mindset to give effect to the ASPS, achieve the goals
of the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the SDG’s and ultimately achieve prosperity.
Contents
xiii
xiv Contents
12 Ghana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Mchasisi Gasela
13 Angola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Sean Woodgate
14 Ethiopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Adebayo Olutumbi Ogunyinka
15 Sudan and South Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Barbara Ojur
16 Tanzania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Anton Alberts
17 Uganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Okeletsang Mookeletsi
18 Zambia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Alexander Gairiseb
19 Zimbabwe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
André Siebrits
Abstract
Space-derived information and data have revolutionised our understanding of
our planet, and our impact upon it. It has also allowed us to see how this impact
relates to the series of environmentally-related critical challenges now
confronting us all. For this reason, a strong focus has been placed on sustainable
development in recent times, including in responses to the challenges
confronting the African continent. This chapter provides an overview of these
challenges in areas such as the environment, population growth and urbanisa-
tion, and security. It follows this up with a discussion of Africa’s response to
these challenges in the form of Agenda 2063. The chapter concludes with an
overview of supportive space applications in Africa speaking to sustainable
development.
1.1 Background
Space technology has been seen by both the public and private sectors in Africa as a
potential contributing factor to these states’ long-term development, despite the plethora of
obstacles to their economic, social, and political development. However, a deficit of
modern technology is not among them. Even in the relatively poor countries of Africa,
space-based technologies increasingly play a part in socioeconomic development schemes.
—Harding1
The information gleaned from space has allowed humanity to consider the
challenges facing us in a more coherent, informed, and holistic manner. Space
applications in various fields, such as remote sensing and Earth observation,
communications, global positioning and navigation, and disaster monitoring and
emergency response, have given us new understandings of the impact of human
activities on the planet, its capacity to absorb the human-made and natural impacts,
and the enormity of the collective challenges we face in the coming decades.
In the realm of the natural environment, Sachs observes some of the “many
overlapping crises” facing humanity.2 These include the destruction of habitats and
ecosystems, decreases in biodiversity, high levels of pollution (including nitrogen
and phosphorus-based fertiliser runoff), ocean acidification, depletion of fossil fuel
resources, decreasing food and feed grain productivity, and the change of the
Earth’s climate due to greenhouse gas emissions. The reason for emphasising these
environmental challenges is because, in recent decades, there has been an
increasing awareness around “planetary boundaries”—that the Earth and its
resources can only be exploited up to a point before becoming permanently
degraded. As Sachs explains, planetary boundaries revolve around the “idea that
human activity is pushing critical global ecosystem functions past a dangerous
threshold, beyond which the Earth might well encounter abrupt, highly non-linear,
and potentially devastating outcomes for human wellbeing and life generally”.3
As a consequence, the many other challenges we face today—poverty, hunger,
rapid population growth, unemployment, inequality, gender disparity, discrimina-
tion, lack of education and medical care, poor governance, lack of clean water,
rapid urbanisation, conflicts and security threats, record numbers of refugees and
displaced persons, and many others—cannot be addressed in isolation from each
other, or from environmental sustainability. As a result, sustainable development
has entered the global lexicon, and is characterised by “a shared focus on economic,
environmental and social goals [which] … represents a broad consensus on which
the world can build”.4 This, in turn, constitutes one definition of sustainable
development—“the so-called triple bottom line approach to human wellbeing”—
although this is necessarily reliant on a fourth factor, namely good governance,
which will determine the world’s ability to achieve the triple bottom line of sus-
tainable development.5 In 1987, a United Nations (UN) report entitled Our
1
R. C. Harding, Space Policy in Developing Countries: The search for security and development
on the final frontier (Oxon: Routledge, 2013), 165.
2
J. D. Sachs, “From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals,” Lancet
379, no. 9832 (2012): 2207. http://thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)60685-
0/fulltext?_eventId=login (accessed March 3, 2017).
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid., 2206.
5
Ibid., 2206–2209.
1 Introduction 5
Common Future, provided another definition: “development that meets the needs of
the current generations without compromising the needs of future generations”.6
Accordingly, at the global level, the UN passed Resolution A/RES70/1 in
September 2015 to formally adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as
part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the successor to Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), to guide global development efforts for the next
15 years, 2015–2030.7 It has often been lamented that progress on the MDGs,
while substantial, was uneven, and Nhamo notes: “[a]lthough progress has been
made towards attaining the MDGs, there still remains a lot of work to be done in
respect of certain goals, particularly in Africa”.8 The SDGs, like the MDGs before
them, are also dependent for their success on “data that are accurate, timely, and
available to managers, policy makers, and the public”.9
It is within this context that this study was produced to showcase how integrated
space applications can, when informed by the SDGs, the African Union Agenda
2063, as well as the African Space Policy and Strategy, assist in not only meeting
this need for timely and reliable data, but also in meeting the many shared chal-
lenges faced by African societies in the 21st Century. Accordingly, selected African
countries and their national space activities will be analysed, in addition to enabling
legislation and policies. In each case, factors including geopolitics, international
partnerships, and participation in space fora, will also be considered. First, however,
a broad discussion of African challenges is necessary to contextualise the analysis,
since African space activities are being, and should further be, utilised to address
these challenges.
This section will consider three of the main interlinked challenges facing the
African continent today as a subset of the triple bottom line of challenges, where
integrated space applications can contribute, and which will have to be grappled
with if Africa is to meet its development goals. These are climate change,
population growth and urbanisation, and security challenges and threats.
6
United Nations, Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our
Common Future (New York: United Nations, 1987), 41. http://www.un-documents.net/our-
common-future.pdf (accessed March 4, 2017).
7
United Nations, Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (New
York: United Nations, 2015). http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1
(accessed February 28, 2017).
8
Godwell Nhamo, “New Global Sustainable Development Agenda: A Focus on Africa,”
Sustainable Development 25, no. 3 (2016): 3.
9
Sachs, “From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals,” 2210.
6 A. Siebrits and M. Gasela
One of the most far-reaching challenges facing Africa in the coming decades is the
expected impact of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, in their Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), identify that “[n]ear surface
temperatures have increased by 0.5 °C or more during the last 50 to 100 years over
most parts of Africa” and that the continent will experience a further increase in
temperature in the 21st Century that is beyond the global average.10 Thus, while
Africa’s contributions to greenhouse gas emissions have been small in relation to
the rest of the world, it will nevertheless have to bear a disproportionate burden.11
While the consequences of climate change are expected to be widespread, some of
the more severe identified impacts include changes in precipitation and weather
(including extreme weather events), ecosystems and biodiversity, water resources,
agriculture and food security, human health, and sea-level.
While Africa is heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture (in sub-Saharan Africa
98% of agriculture is rain-fed), mean annual precipitation by the middle of the
century is “very likely” to decrease over northern and southern Africa, while it is
“likely” to increase over central and eastern Africa.12 More frequent heat waves are
expected in the north and south of the continent as well, and there is already a trend
of more extreme cycles of heavy rains and droughts over eastern Africa, with more
heavy rainfall events expected in future.13
Concerning biodiversity and ecosystems, climate change, together with
increased human pressures on land use, will likely produce three main trends:
expansion of deserts, a decrease in natural vegetation, and changes in the distri-
bution and makeup of remaining areas of natural vegetation.14 Ocean and coastal
ecologies will also be affected, not only by ocean acidification and temperature
fluctuations of currents, but also by ‘upwellings’ of low-PH and high CO2 levels,
which will have a significant impact on fishing, since “[African] fisheries mainly
depend on either coral reefs (on the eastern coast) or coastal upwelling (on the
western coast)”.15 At the same time, it is predicted that a 500% increase in aqua-
culture production will be necessary to meet the demand for fish in Africa over the
coming decades.16 Existing challenges around pollution and overexploitation of
ocean resources will also compound this challenge.
Similarly, water resources will come under increasing strain in the future, but the
impact of climate change is expected to be modest when compared to the direct
10
I. Niang et al., “Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability,” in Part B: Regional
Aspects. Contribution of Working Group, ed. D. J. Dokken et al. (Cambridge, United Kingdom
and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 1206.
11
African Union Commission, Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want—Popular Version (Addis
Ababa: African Union Commission, 2015), 3-4.
12
Niang et al., “Change 2014,” 1210-1212.
13
Ibid., 1210-1211.
14
Ibid., 1213.
15
Ibid., 1216.
16
Ibid., 1220.
1 Introduction 7
human impacts of population growth and urbanisation, and land use change and
increases in demand for irrigation. However, the impact of climate change on
agriculture and food security is expected to be high, with an overall reduction in
yields of especially major cereal crops, diminishing distribution of suitable
agro-climatic zones, coupled with pressures on livestock due to degradation and
fragmentation of grazing land and more variability in the water supply.17
Apart from changes and potential increases in agricultural and livestock diseases
and pests, human health can also be severely impacted by changes in the distri-
bution of diseases like malaria, and as an example, the East African highlands are
expected to suffer an increase in malaria epidemics due to higher temperatures,
which will make the area more hospitable for mosquitoes.18 While the full range of
potential health impacts cannot be discussed here (they include food- and
water-borne diseases, tick-borne diseases, schistosomiasis, and meningococcal
meningitis), an example of projected malnutrition in Mali illustrates the severity and
urgency of the problem, since climate and demographic change projections up to
2025 “suggest approximately 250,000 children will suffer stunting, nearly 200,000
will be malnourished, and more than 100,000 will become anemic”.19 The problem
could become so severe that by 2080 “it is likely that 75% of the African population
will be at risk of hunger”.20 Sharp price spikes in foodstuffs will also most dra-
matically affect the urban poor.21 The risks of famine and malnourishment are thus
very high, especially when considering the interplay between extreme climate
events, freshwater pressures, increasing demands on agricultural land, and changing
pest and disease distributions.
Regarding sea level rise, not only will this negatively impact coastal freshwater
aquifers, but coastal ecosystems will be damaged, for example through the flooding
of river deltas, but when combined with storm swells severe damage to coastal
settlements can occur.22 This vulnerability is expected to be compounded by more
urbanisation, including migration towards coastal settlements.
In order to meet the challenges posed by these potentially dire and interlinked
impacts of climate change, it is vital to stress that the “uncertainties in the African
context mean that successful adaptation will depend upon developing resilience in
the face of uncertainty”.23 While the African Union’s Common African Position
(CAP) on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (2014) prioritises environmental
sustainability, natural resource and disaster risk management, it has been noted that
“Regional policies and strategies for adaptation, as well as transboundary adapta-
tion, are still in their infancy”.24 In contrast, national climate change adaptation
17
Ibid., 1218–1219.
18
Ibid., 1223.
19
Ibid., 1222.
20
United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, “Climate Change: Paris Agreement,”
http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/advocacy/climate.shtml (accessed April 15, 2017).
21
Niang et al., “Change 2014,” 1221.
22
Ibid., 1216–1218.
23
Ibid., 1226.
24
Ibid., 1227.
8 A. Siebrits and M. Gasela
programmes and response strategies are better established, but despite “progress in
mainstreaming climate risk in policy and planning, significant disconnects still exist
at the national level, and implementation of a more integrated adaptation response
remains tentative”.25 A key facet of successful adaptation on a governmental level
is that it is necessary to make progress in “replacing hierarchical governance sys-
tems that operate within silos with more adaptive, integrated, multilevel, and
flexible governance approaches, and with inclusive decision making that can
operate successfully across multiple scales”.26
In terms of national climate change risk reduction, efforts include Disaster Risk
Reduction (DRR) platforms, Early Warning Systems (EWS), and governmental
social protection, while on a community level livelihood diversification is a strategy
“long used by African households to cope with climate shocks, [which] can also
assist with building resilience for longer term climate change by spreading risk”.27
Non-Governmental Organisations such as the Africa Climate Change Resilience
Alliance (ACCRA), active in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Uganda, are also making
contributions to “enhanced gender-responsive climate resilience by improving
governance and planning processes through a multi-sector collaborative process”.28
In 2015, the UN estimated that Africa’s population numbered just over 1.1 billion,
making it the continent with the second largest population after Asia.29 One of the
significant challenges the African continent will have to grapple with is the
expectation that it will have more than half of the global population growth between
2015 and 2050, totalling about 1.3 billion additional people.30 More sobering
perhaps, is that a “rapid population increase in Africa is anticipated even if there is a
substantial reduction of fertility”.31 Additionally, much of the growth will be
concentrated in the poorest and least developed countries—what Nhamo calls
“surely a ticking time bomb that cannot be left unchecked if we wish to be sus-
tainable, silence the guns, diffuse the bomb and have peace”.32 The UN echoes this
view:
25
Ibid., 1228.
26
Ibid.
27
Ibid., 1230–1231.
28
Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA), “What is ACCRA?,” 2017, http://
community.accraconsortium.org/.59d669a8/about.html (accessed April 15, 2017).
29
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, “World
Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables,” 2015, 1, https://
esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Publications/Files/Key_Findings_WPP_2015.pdf (accessed March 1, 2017).
30
Ibid., 3.
31
Ibid.
32
Nhamo, “New Global Sustainable Development Agenda,” 13.
1 Introduction 9
The concentration of population growth in the poorest countries will make it harder for
those governments to eradicate poverty and inequality, combat hunger and malnutrition,
expand education enrolment and health systems, improve the provision of basic services
and implement other elements of a sustainable development agenda to ensure that no-one is
left behind.33
Another UN report highlights the impact this population growth will have on
cities and urbanisation. With just over half of the global population living in cities
in the middle of the 2010s, by 2050 an additional 2.5 billion people will be added to
the burgeoning urban population, of which over 90% will be concentrated in Africa
and Asia.34 All existing challenges around overcrowding, provision of adequate
employment opportunities, health care and education, pollution, water provision,
refuse disposal, energy generation, transport and many others already experienced
in African cities, will thus inevitably be compounded in coming decades. Indeed,
unlike in the 20th century when most of the world’s largest cities were found in the
developed countries, “today’s large cities [and those of the future] are concentrated
in the global South, and the fastest-growing agglomerations are medium-sized cities
and cities with 500,000 to 1 million inhabitants located in Asia and Africa”.35
The UN recognises that these urbanisation challenges are “integrally connected
to the three pillars of sustainable development: economic development, social
development and environmental protection”.36 Because the challenges of urbani-
sation are cross-cutting and inseparable from sustainable development to this end:
Sustainable urbanization requires that cities generate better income and employment
opportunities, expand the necessary infrastructure for water and sanitation, energy, trans-
portation, information and communications; ensure equal access to services; reduce the
number of people living in slums; and preserve the natural assets within the city and
surrounding areas.37
33
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, “World
Population Prospects,” 4.
34
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, “World
Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision, Highlights,” 2014, 2, https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/
Publications/Files/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf (accessed March 2, 2017).
35
Ibid.
36
Ibid., 3.
37
Ibid., 17.
38
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, “World
Population Prospects,” 7.
10 A. Siebrits and M. Gasela
1.2.3 Security
As further example of the interlinked nature of Africa’s challenges, and the risks
of security and stability challenges, Alexander recalls that the Ebola epidemic in
West Africa occurred “in a part of the world that has suffered from chronic insta-
bility and underdevelopment, conditions that have also given rise to serious
man-made threats, including crime, piracy, terrorism, insurgency, and war”.44 The
breakdown of security and stability, and the emergence of violent factionalism in
Libya also “raised fears that the country may become a failed state evolving into an
all-out civil war”—highlighting again that no development or progress on social,
economic, or environmental fronts can take place without conducive conditions of
political stability and good governance, as was argued by Sachs.45
44
Y. Alexander, “The Current Security Challenges in Africa: Ebola & Extremism: Rising Security
Threats from Natural & Man-made Challenges in Africa,” Potomac Institute for Policy Studies,
2014, 2, http://www.potomacinstitute.org/images/ICTS/ReportonTheCurrentSecurityChallenges
inAfrica.pdf (accessed April 15, 2017).
45
Sachs, “From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals.”.
46
United Nations, Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 2.
47
Sachs, “From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals.”.
48
United Nations, Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 6.
12 A. Siebrits and M. Gasela
peaceful and inclusive societies (Goal 16). The 169 individual targets cannot be
summarised here, but where appropriate, references to these will be made in the
discussion of the initiatives to further embed space applications in African societies.
The UN makes specific reference to the implementation of the SDGs requiring
“taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of develop-
ment”, and emphasises that individual countries are responsible for their own
economic and social development.49 It is also recognised that African countries are
among the most vulnerable, and “deserve special attention”.50 It is thus clear Africa
features quite prominently in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. More-
over, the true measure of Africa’s success in meeting the many challenges facing it
in the coming decades is the extent to which solutions are generated from within
Africa, in partnership between all countries on the continent. Thus, the
49
Ibid., 6, 10.
50
Ibid., 7.
1 Introduction 13
Agenda 2063 represents Africa’s own vision of its future, but the close align-
ment with the broader 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda remains clear. For
example, in an AU-UNECA Joint Ministerial Conference in Addis Ababa in April,
2016, African leaders made it clear that achieving the goals of the 2030 Sustainable
Development Agenda as well as Agenda 2063 could only be possible by adopting
an “integrated and coherent approach to the implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.54 As
a consequence, this “need to harmonize the two development programs” is
embedded in the African Union Commission’s First 10-Year Implementation Plan
51
Nhamo, “New Global Sustainable Development Agenda,” 3.
52
African Union, Common Africa Position (CAP) on the Post 2015 Development Agenda (Addis
Ababa: African Union, 2017).
53
African Union Commission, “AGENDA 2063: The Africa We Want - A Shared Strategic
Framework for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development, First Ten Year Implementation
Plan 2014–2023,” 2015, http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/agenda2063-first10year
implementation.pdf (accessed March 4, 2017).
54
African Union Commission, “AU-UNECA Joint Ministerial Conference concludes with an
urgent call for the Domestication of Agenda 2063 at Continental level aligned to the UN Agenda
2030,” 2016a, https://www.au.int/web/sites/default/files/pressreleases/27507-pr-pr_-_joint_
ministerial_au-uneca_conference_concludes_with_an_urgent_call_for_the_domestication_of_
agenda_2063_at_continental_level_aligned_to_the_un_agenda_2030.pdf (accessed March 4,
2017).
14 A. Siebrits and M. Gasela
Table 1.2 Seven core aspirations of the African Union Agenda 2063
1. A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development
2. An integrated continent, politically united, based on the ideals of Pan-Africanism and the
vision of Africa’s Renaissance
3. An Africa of good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of
law
4. A peaceful and secure Africa
5. An Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, values and ethics
6. An Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people,
especially its women and youth, and caring for children
7. Africa as a strong, united, resilient and influential global player and partner
Source African Union Commission, Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want—Popular Version, 2–9
Table 1.3 Priority areas in the first 10-year implementation plan 2014–2023 for Agenda 2063
• Incomes, Jobs and Decent Work • Democracy and Good Governance
• Poverty, Inequality and Hunger • Human Rights, Justice and The Rule of Law
• Social security and protection, • Institutions and Leadership
including Persons with Disabilities • Participatory Development and Local
• Modern and Liveable Habitats and Governance
Basic Quality Services • Maintenance and Preservation of Peace and
• Education and STI skills driven Security
revolution • Institutional structure for AU Instruments on
• Health and Nutrition Peace and Security
• Sustainable and inclusive economic • Defence, Security and Peace
growth • Fully operational and functional APSA [African
• STI driven Peace and Security Architecture] Pillars
Manufacturing/Industrialisation and • Values and Ideals of Pan Africanism
Value Addition • Cultural Values and African Renaissance
• Economic diversification and resilience • Cultural Heritage, Creative Arts and Businesses
• Tourism/Hospitality • Women and Girls Empowerment
• Agricultural Productivity and • Violence & Discrimination against Women and
Production Girls
• Marine resources and Energy • Youth Empowerment and Children
• Ports Operations and Marine Transport • Africa’s place in global affairs
• Biodiversity conservation and • Partnership
Sustainable natural resource • African Capital market
management • Fiscal system and Public Sector Revenues
• Water Security • Development Assistance
• Climate Resilience and Natural
Disasters preparedness and prevention
• Renewable Energy
• Framework and Institutions for a
United Africa
• Financial and Monetary Institutions
• Communications and Infrastructure
Connectivity
Source African Union Commission, “AGENDA 2063: The Africa We Want—A Shared Strategic
Framework for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development, First Ten Year Implementation
Plan 2014–2023.” 41–42
1 Introduction 15
2014–2023 for Agenda 2063.55 This plan identifies a range of broad priorities for
the period up to 2023 (see Table 1.3).
Initiatives in embedding space applications in African societies should, in the
short-term, be aligned with these priority areas. One of the indicative strategies
required for advancing Africa’s position in global affairs is to “Fully implement all
commitments/agreements required for the establishment of the African Space
Agency, including pooling of resources and sharing of knowledge in space related
areas”, while space-related milestones are identified as: “1. Development and
Adoption of African Space Policy and Strategy is done in 2015; 2. Preparation and
Implementation of Action Plan on African Space Policy starts in 2016; 3. African
Common Position on International Space Agenda is attained by 2018”.56
The African Union Commission has thus recognised the importance of outer
space, and within the Agenda 2063 Framework, outer space is identified as one of
the Flagship Programmes, with the recognition that:
Outer space is of critical importance to the development of Africa in all fields: agriculture,
disaster management, remote sensing, climate forecast, banking and finance, as well as
defense and security. Africa’s access to space technology products is no longer a matter of
luxury and there is a need to speed up access to these technologies and products. New
developments in satellite technologies make these very accessible to African countries.57
The following section will discuss supportive space applications and how they
can aid African societies in meeting the challenges and goals discussed above.
The end of the Cold War era provided a new paradigm shift in space activities that
compels radical transformation country by country, regional bloc by regional bloc
and even at continental level for investment, research and development of more
dedicated space satellites to increase humanity’s capability of solving many
developmental challenges. Satellites have become deeply embedded in societies
and their pervasiveness cannot be ignored anymore. A day without satellites is
doomed. From bank automated teller machines (ATMs), cellular phones, global
navigation satellite systems to general earth observation, are adequate evidence of
prevalent nature of space technology applications. Education, research and devel-
opment, sustainable development goals and scientific experiments have been driven
from space technologies of late. Space technology applications offer a new para-
digm of economy and economic development. Development of space assets
(ground segments and space segments) not only provide this economy shift, but
55
African Union Commission, “AGENDA 2063: The Africa We Want—A Shared Strategic
Framework for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development, First Ten Year Implementation
Plan 2014–2023.”.
56
Ibid., 81.
57
African Union Commission, “Agenda 2063: Framework Document,” 2015, 98, http://www.un.
org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/agenda2063-framework.pdf (accessed March 4, 2017).
16 A. Siebrits and M. Gasela
also, enhances more research and development and offers unique opportunities for
scientific experiments as well. Practical scientific experiments and measurements of
the earth (where human beings and other elements of biodiversity survive on) lean
heavily Earth Observation (EO), Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) and
Satellite Communications (SATCOM) making space technology more relevant in
this modern world. Unfortunately, in Africa, the potential of space technology on
the continent remains unrealised due to limitations in funding, expertise, infras-
tructure, equipment and education. Most of the people in Africa do not realize the
embeddedness and the impact of space technology and the potential it has for
development of this continent.
The extent to which space applications are currently embedded in the African
societies and the benefits to deepen this process can be analysed within the context
of the paradigm shift regarding their use over time. Initially, space applications
were a push demand by militaries for state security at the height of the Cold War, in
the context of international competition and prestige-building.58 It was after the
Russians set Sputnik in orbit that the stage of space activities became so important.
The Americans quickly joined in the race for space mainly in the military, out of
fear of being out-manoeuvred and bombed from space by the communist bloc. With
the fall of the communist bloc in the early 1990s and the end of the Cold War, space
applications shifted from being used as a powerful tool of state security to that of
human security. It became an integral pull demand tool in advancing sustainable
livelihoods of humankind.
The importance of space applications currently embedded in African societies
cannot be over-emphasised, given the important role they play in improving human
lives, particularly in the current era of the information revolution. Space applica-
tions have been used to churn out timely, reliable, disaggregated, bigger, faster,
more current and detailed data than ever before, which is critical especially in the
developing countries (most of which are found in Africa).59 These are vulnerable to
poverty, famine and hunger, conflict and extremism, natural disasters, gender
inequality, high illiteracy, poor health care and climate change, to mention but a
few.60 These data are critical to development agents for supporting goal setting,
optimising investment decisions and progress measuring. The African continent
therefore cannot afford to ignore space applications given their power and role
towards the direction of the challenges faced. It can be said, therefore, that to a
larger extent, the space applications are currently embedded in African societies so
as to ensure human security through meeting sustainable development needs.
The African continent is grappling with a large and fast growing population.
Larger portions of this ballooning population live under acute levels of poverty.
Meeting of basic needs such as food, water, housing, healthcare, and education
remain a challenge. Furthermore, challenges such as poor agricultural yields,
58
R. C. Harding, “Introduction: Space policy in developing countries,” Space Policy 37, (2016): 1–2.
59
United Nations, Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
60
M. Simpson, “Space Assets and Sustainable Development Goals,” Secure World Foundation in
Cooperation with Krystal Wilson, 2016, http://swfound.org (accessed February 28, 2017).
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