Worldwide, geospatial information had become a multibillion-dollar sector, and is still growing, highlighted UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) Geospatial Information Management Section chief André Nonguierma. But Africa accounts for only 2.7% of the global geospatial information market. (He was addressing a session on the first day of the FIG XXVIII Congress, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, on Monday. FIG is an abbreviation, from its original French name, of the International Federation of Surveyors, founded in 1878 in Paris, and now headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark.)

Uneca had been working with African countries since the 1960s to develop their geospatial capabilities, he reported. Initially, the focus had been upon basic geospatial information, but now it was on building capacity in geospatial management. In this, Uneca was guided by a global framework, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, and a continental framework, the AU Agenda 2063. These created opportunities for the geospatial sector, as geospatial information was essential to fulfil the SDGs and Agenda 2063.

The geospatial sector is moving from technical mapping to becoming a strategic leadership capability. But there is a structural disconnect in Africa.

“There are strong policy commitments but limited implementation capacity,” he pointed out. “This gap is where development outcomes are lost. Closing it must be our priority.”

The geospatial information sector in Africa had to engage with strategic leadership – that is, the political leadership and other decision-makers. To facilitate this, geospatial information had to be “demystified” – in other words, decision-makers had to come to see it as being like other forms of information. And the sector had to be resilient, to keep going, even if it did not get the attention that it should.

The African geospatial sector needed a governance framework that ensured coordination and it needed capacity development to sustain delivery. It also needed financing models that were predictable and aligned.

“No single institution can deliver transformation alone,” he stressed. “We need coordinated systems of collaboration.”

African governments must lead, he affirmed. The private sector must innovate. Academia must inform. And global partners must support coherence.

The sector needed political endorsement, strengthened institutional mandates and the construction of a cooperative data-sharing network. It had to advocate, using evidence, collaborate across institutions, and deliver measurable impact. The responsibility for doing this was collective.