From 13 to 17 July 2009, UN-SPIDER conducted a technical advisory mission to Togo upon the official request of the Togolese Government to assess the existing use of space-based technology and information for disaster management and emergency response in the country. Following Burkina Faso, Ghana and Namibia this was the fourth UN-SPIDER advisory mission to Africa.
The mission was successful in connecting various organizations involved in disaster management within the country and also within the region and to generate awareness amongst these organizations to undertake collective efforts towards the incorporation of space-based information to support disaster management activities. It also pointed out the need to update national disaster management plans with emphasis on space-based technology and information and boosted efforts to establish a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) in Togo. The mission team succeeded in strengthening the links of Togo with a number of regional organizations which will help the country in developing capacity building plans and in benefiting from advisory support from these regional organizations in the long-term.
Together with UN-SPIDER staff members, a number of different international institutions delegated experts to this mission, among them the UN-OCHA Regional Office West Africa (Senegal), the World Health Organisation, the National Space Research and Development Agency (Nigeria), the Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (Nigeria), and the African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in French Language (Morocco). This broad range of expertise and in-depth knowledge guaranteed a high quality of technical advise and an excellent base for ensuring partnerships and cooperation.
