The ongoing 36th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, themed the Acceleration of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Implementation, is part of the Union’s aim to advance partnerships between African governments, agencies, Regional Economic Communities (REC), and organisations to advance the socioeconomic advantage on the continent.

On the sidelines of the summit, the Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (ESTI), Professor Mohammed Belhocine, presented on “Transforming Education in Africa, progress on Pan African University (PAU) and African Space Agency (AfSA),” highlighting the Union’s plans and framework for strengthening Africa’s education sector. 

Furthermore, Professor Mohammed highlighted the PAU’s part in promoting and progressing African education. According to the Commissioner, the AU approved the framework for a continental-wide space sector development strategy in 2016. The framework involved establishing the Pan African University (PAU), a network of postgraduate research programmes (doctoral and postdoctoral) in five African regions. To this end, PAU has trained 2,000 doctoral candidates and 500 postgraduate candidates from 51 African countries. 

The candidates are admitted based on merit and funded by member states’ scholarship programmes. The Pan-Africanism outlook of the institution ensures that students are tolerant of different cultures and promote peacekeeping initiatives and integration on the continent.

While speaking on AfAS’s role in Africa’s development, Professor Mohammed disclosed that AfSA had established some programmes to foster the peaceful use of outer space and space science for sustainable development. In addition, he explained that AUC is currently implementing the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES & Africa) in more than 40 African states in partnership with more than 150 institutions. 

The GMES and Africa Programme is one of the flagship programmes of the AU, funded by the European Union (EU), that centres on utilising Earth Observation (EO) applications, tools and services to foster long-term environmental prosperity and ensure socio-economic transformation of the continent. The programme’s first phase ended in 2021 and focused on designing, analysing, implementing, and promoting sustainable management of natural resources through earth observation tools. Furthermore, the programme’s first phase focused on managing water and natural resources, coastal management and marine areas to meet the continent’s and global needs. 

The second phase of the GMES and Africa programme, slated to end in 2025, focuses on enabling the African Space Policy and Strategy framework, meeting the continent’s water and natural resources needs, marine and coastal management, ensuring civil security and advancing sustainable environments. To foster the success of GMES and Africa’s projects, the African Union has, at various levels, implemented workshops, organised seminars and conferences with stakeholders to co-design tools for development and organise capability-building programmes.

“In collaboration with the European Union (EU), the programme’s first phase just elapsed its first four years; we are in the second phase, which will run for another four years. The programme’s second phase will focus on increasing women’s participation in space and giving them access to high-technical programmes at the country and continental levels.” Professor Mohammed commented.

In addition, the commissioner stated that in partnership with the relevant Egyptian authorities, the phase to begin operationalising the African Space Agency is in progress. Furthermore, having signed the host agreement, the Egyptian government will provide the necessary framework to ensure the success of the Agency.

In 2016, during the 26th African Union Summit, the African Heads of State adopted the African Space Policy and Strategy framework to ensure the actualisation of the AU-2063 mandate and establish the appropriate organisation for promoting space activities on the continent. To this end, in 2018, the AU announced the bid to select AfSA’s host nation. In 2019, the Commissioner for Human Resources Science and Technology (HRST),  H.E Professor Sarah Anayang Agbor, announced Egypt, Ethiopia and Nigeria as the short-listed countries, shortly after which Egypt was declared the host country after fulfilling all the political and technical requirements. 

Then on the grounds of the newly completed structure for the African Space Agency (AfSA), domiciled within Egypt’s Space City, the African Union Commission and the Egyptian government, represented by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, signed an agreement on 25 January 2023 to inaugurate and declare AfSA open and operational formally.

“AfSA, upon operationalisation, will be the focal point of Africa’s collaboration with Europe and other non-African partners, and to ensure its smooth operation, we will recruit competent staffs who will work together to bring all African member states to leverage space for sustainable development on the continent,” Professor Mohammed concluded.