For over 10 years, EIS-AFRICA has played a guiding role in the formation of environmental information systems at national and sub-national levels on the African continent. As a pan-African network organisation, EIS-AFRICA has been particularly successful in creating awareness about the need for stakeholders to work together within and among countries, and share common data architecture and information resources. Specific milestones in EIS-AFRICA’s history include:
In Madagascar, Tanzania, and Ghana fully functional training units have been established to meet the acute and perennial need for trained personnel.
Madagascar and Ghana have also created a complete series of environmental datasets.
In Uganda, environmental information systems operations have become an integral part of a State of Environment reporting process founded on national legislation.
Benin has developed an platform for sharing environmental and geospatial data on the Internet (known as SISEI in French), as part of a virtual clearing-house mechanism in support of the implementation of its National Environmental Action Program (NEAP).
In Cote d’Ivoire applications were extended to support national-level investment and tourism promotion, as well as tax collection at the local level.
The Gambia, EIS-AFRICA supported the development of the Greater Banjul Master Plan to identify waste disposal sites for the city of Banjul.
In Burkina Faso, activities led to the adoption of a common classification scheme for 1:200,000 scale land use land cover maps, as a first step towards the standardisation of geo-information production in the country, and the emergence of a national network for environmental data management (Programme National de Gestion de l’Information sur le milieu PNGIM).
Along the way, EIS-AFRICA has convened the biennal AFRICA-GISTM conferences, which have provided geo-information professionals opportunities to network, share their research, and learn about the latest developments in geospatial technologies.