This news update has been taken from the UN-SPIDER website

In the framework of the European Commission – Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection (ECHO), UN-SPIDER is contributing to the project “Providing Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technical support for Disaster Risk Reduction programmes implemented by DIPECHO partners in the South East African and South West Indian Ocean region (Malawi, Madagascar, Comoros, and Mozambique)”. This project is lead by the Italian NGO Cooperazione Internazionale, headquartered in Milano, and partnered with the Centre for GeoInformatics (Z_GIS), University Salzburg, and UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER.

Prior to technical trainings with stakeholders in the different regions all the DIPECHO partners and their local national and sub-national counterparts have been invited to participate in regional seminars, in part co-organised by CARE Madagascar and FAO. Main goal of these meetings were three-folded, namely to

1.) provide an overview and general introduction to GIS and space-based information for risk and disaster management and emergency response,

2.) to describe existing international mechanisms such as the International Charter Space and Major Disasters and further mechanisms such as the Services and Applications For Emergency Response (SAFER) in the framework of the European Initiative: Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), and

3.) to explain the role of UN-SPIDER and its cooperation and coordination with these mechanisms

The first national seminar took place on 12 November in Antananarivo, Madagascar, bringing together delegations from Madagascar and the Comoros. The second meeting took place on 16 November in Lilongwe, Malawi. During both seminars the participants attended to present and to gather information on the technical capacity available in the respective country and they expressed their willingness to cooperate both at the national and international levels. On behalf of the project consortium UN-SPIDER senior expert Dr. Joerg Szarzynski presented a sequence of presentations and lectures in order to help identify potential areas where space-based technology and information could play a greater role, and to propose recommendations on how to improve the countries access to and use of space-based technology and information. During both seminars a specific presentation was given on behalf of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters directly provided by the Charter secretariat. The cooperation with other existing mechanisms or projects such as SAFER or GARNET-E (GMES for Africa: Regional Network for Information Exchange and Training in Emergencies) in the framework of the European GMES programme was presented as well.