On 27th January, 2010 in Dakar – SENEGAL, the Early Warning Directorate (EWD) at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) launched a Cartographic Strategy and has later developed the “ECOWAS Geospatial Data Infrastructure (EGDI)” which has reached an advanced stage of its implementation at the moment.
The development of EGDI has been coordinated by the EWD and has involved the Heads of National Survey and Mapping Agencies and other Experts – resource persons from some Universities, Training Centres, Space Agencies and the Private sector. After the adoption of EGDI Policy and the development of a road map for its implementation, the activities of the group of experts led to the following six (6) working groups:
- Geospatial dataset;
- Nomenclature and Codification;
- Standards;
- Clearinghouse and Metadata;
- Coordination, Communication and Partnership; and
- Capacity building and sustainability.
From 13 to 14 July 2015, a workshop was organised in Lome – TOGO by ECOWAS Early Warning Directorate and was hosted by the Ministry of Urban Planning and Housing of TOGO. The objectives of the workshop, which were to adopt the proposed working groups and the terms of reference of each working group, were highly fulfilled.
It is expected that the successful implementation of EGDI will greatly assist the Early warning Department, the different commissions of ECOWAS and the entire 15 member states of ECOWAS in the implementation of various development projects and programmes in the region.
