Subject: [AFREF-11] Re: Workshop on AFREF, CODI Meeting
From: "Ruth E. Neilan" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: Claude Boucher:;, Gottfried Konecny <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Christoph Reigber), "Fernando Sanso" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked], [email-masked] (C.C Tscherning), "John L. LaBrecque" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 16:54:41 -0700

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AFREF Mail               27 Jun 16:55:40 PDT 2001      Message Number 11
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Author: Ruth E. Neilan, IGS Central Bureau

June 28, 2001

United Nations
Economic Commission For Africa
Development Information Services Division

Mr. Orlando Nino-Fluck
Senior Cartographic Officer
P. O. Box 3001,
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia
Tel: (251-1) 517200/ 511408 (Direct)
Fax (251-1) 514416/ 510512 (Direct)

Subject: AFREF Interest, CODI Meeting September 2001

Dear Mr. Nino-Fluck,

I thank you very much for your message affirming the intent of the 
Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) to participate and support AFREF, 
the initiative to realize a continental geodetic reference system for 
Africa. The description and background on the Committee on 
Development Information (CODI) is very informative and I appreciate 
much more the role that CODI assumes for the development of Africa. 
It is also notable that that ECA understands the great importance of 
establishing a common reference frame for Africa as the basis for 
development. Unfortunately, the CODI meeting and proposed LIS/AFREF 
workshop planned for this coming August/September conflicts with the 
International Association of Geodesy (IAG) Scientific Assembly in 
Budapest, also September 2-7 see: 
<http://www.sztaki.hu/conferences/iag2001/>

It is at the IAG venue in Budapest that Claude Boucher and I hope to 
highlight the need for the international community to join with the 
emerging AFREF regional initiatives such as NAREF (reported by Mr. 
Benhamouda Fethi, Algeria) and SAREF (Mr. Richard Wonnacott, South 
Africa). The Budapest meeting will draw IAG national representatives 
from throughout the world, and I hope to propose the subject of AFREF 
initiatives as an agenda item for the IAG Executive Board 
consideration. The IAG President, Prof. Fernando Sanso, Italy, has 
already expressed his interest for an AFREF and understands the 
supporting role of the various IAG services (IGS, IERS, BGI, IGeS, 
etc.). Over the last months, a number of people from various 
organizations have expressed great interest as well.

On behalf of IAG and IGS, and despite the conflicting meeting 
schedules, we would very much like to be involved with or help plan a 
session for a CODI related workshop that would bring together the 
geodetic and information experts so that the regional projects can 
interact, common goals and objectives agreed to, methodologies 
devised and potential resources identified.  It may not be possible 
to arrange such an extensive workshop until the next meeting of CODI, 
but the CODI this August seems an excellent opportunity to at least 
attempt to bring some key people together.

The emphasis that you place on participation in the workshops and 
meetings is important and key to the success of such an initiative. 
I should hope that through the initiatives for a continental 
reference system for Africa that we can attract partnerships from 
other agencies and organizations that do result in support, resources 
and sustainable state-of-the-art geodetic technology for Africa. Your 
request for assistance for the national mapping agency 
representatives to attend the CODI meeting is acknowledged, although 
there is little time. Regardless, please send me what ever 
information you have on the travel needs, costs, logistics, etc., and 
I will try to see if there is anything possible from interested 
organizations. As you may know, the IGS Central Bureau does not have 
funds for such allocations (regretfully). I am very dedicated to this 
project, however my office is currently facing budget difficulties 
which hinders my ability to devote the necessary time to this 
activity (at least in the very near term).

You did mention in your letter that the terms of reference for CODI 
and the annotated draft agenda was attached, for some reason, they 
were not. Can you please send again?  If you have the text of the 
recommendation and resolution from the last CODI-GEO meeting in 
June-July 1999, that would be useful to cite.

In terms of the technical details of the workshop, I will contact Dr. 
Konecny and see what  may be accomplished.

With kind regards,

Ruth Neilan
Director, International GPS Service Central Bureau

Cc:
Dr. C. Boucher, IAG/IGS/ITRF
Prof. G. Konecny, GTZ
Prof. Ch. Reigber, IGS
Prof. F. Sanso, IAG
Prof. CC Tscherning, IAG

Text Version of the Letter from ECA for reference
===========================================================================
UNITED NATIONS
ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA

DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION SERVICES DIVISION

Date: 5 June 2001
Ref:  DISD/Let/Geoinfo/01/249

Mr. Claude Boucher
Chair, IAG Commission X, Global and Regional Networks
Head, International Terrestrial Reference Frame, IERS
IERS Representative to IGS Governing Board
Fax: +33(0)1-64153107

Ms. Ruth E. Neilan
Director, IGS Central Bureau
Member, Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Data Services
Fax: 1-818-393-6686

Dear Mr. Boucher,
Dear Ms. Neilan,

Subject: AFREF Interest

	I have the pleasure to refer to your circular letter of 14 
February 2001, inviting us to participate in the AFREF project.  This 
is to accept your invitation and inform you our related ongoing 
activities.

	The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has always accorded 
a great importance to the establishment of a common reference frame 
for Africa. ECA has been implementing activities in geographic 
information acquisition and management for more than four decades in 
its efforts to assist African countries to improve the management of 
natural resources and the environment, as part of the Commission's 
overall mandates aimed at the socio-economic development of the 
region.

	In particular, one important activity has been the 
organization and servicing of the United Nations Regional 
Cartographic Conferences for Africa (UNCRC-Africa), now subsumed by 
the geoinformation sub-Committee of the Committee on Development 
Information (CODI-Geo), one of the new technical committees 
established in 1997 when reviewing the intergovernmental machinery of 
the Commission.

	The long standing issue of a unified geodetic reference frame 
for Africa has been raised practically at every United Nations 
Regional Cartographic Conference for Africa, resulting in a number of 
initiatives and studies conducted by many relevant organizations and 
in particular by the African Association of Geodesy, which carried 
out the ADOS project under the umbrella of the International 
Association of Geodesy.  The first meeting of CODI-Geo, which 
replaced the 10th UNRCC-Africa, held in June-July 1999 in Addis 
Ababa, noted once more "the absence of a homogenous horizontal and 
vertical geodetic datum for Africa" and a general recommendation was 
made in one of the resolutions.  [text or paraphrase of the 
resolution will be useful]

	I would like to underscore the particular and important 
nature of CODI with a dual function that makes it different from 
other regional forums in the continent. On the one hand, it is a 
legislative body of the Commission, giving priority to strategic and 
policy issues. It is an intergovernmental meeting where delegates 
speak on behalf on the member States and adopt resolutions that are 
subsequently endorsed by the African Conferences of Ministers 
responsible for Economic and Social Development, and then by ECOSOC 
[in full].  On the other hand, it is also a discussion forum, open to 
observers, that promotes the exchange of ideas and information on 
experiences, best practices, new developments and trends in 
technologies and methodologies in the various areas of 
geo-information, such as surveying, mapping, remote sensing and 
geographic and land information systems.  It may identify regional 
and sub-regional projects and review existing ones.  A copy of the 
Terms of Reference of CODI is attached for your information.

	The second meeting of CODI has been scheduled from 4 to 7 
September 2001 at the headquarters of ECA in Addis Ababa. A copy of 
the draft-annotated agenda is attached.  I would like to draw your 
attention to agenda item 6.6.1 (a) that foresees the organization of 
a workshop on LIS, supported by GTZ, with a main component devoted to 
AFREF. This item was considered important by the Standing Preparatory 
Working Group of CODI-Geo that met in November 2000 to look at its 
theme, agenda and format.

	You will agree that the CODI meeting, which gathers the heads 
of National Mapping Agencies together with a variety of 
geoinformation specialists, constitute the best place and offers the 
best opportunity to develop the rationale and scheme indicated in 
your statement.  The outcome of the Workshop on LIS (and AFREF) will 
be submitted to the plenary of CODI for discussion . Member States 
are expected to support the AFREF project and to contribute to its 
implementation, once a formal decision is made towards this end.   

	One problem we envisage that may affect the outcome of the 
workshop relates to the degree of participation. The Workshop will 
take place during the preceding week of CODI, and delegates and 
observers, particularly from Africa, may not be in a position to fund 
their sojourn for those days. It is well known that African 
participants find it difficult to attend meetings where their 
governments/institutions must bear the cost of participation. CODI 
being an inter-governmental meeting where delegates represent member 
States, it is not possible for ECA to pay totally or partially travel 
or living expenses.

	In line with the intentions expressed in your communication, 
and in order to facilitate a successful workshop, I wish to request 
your assistance to identify resources to fund the cost of 
participation to the workshop for key officials from some African 
countries. The selection of these  participants would either proposed 
or approved by you. 

	Concerning technical details of this workshop, it will be 
useful if you could liase with Dr. Gottfried Konecny, who is 
coordinating it. I am forwarding a copy of this letter to him. His 
contact details are as follows:

Prof. Dr. Gottfried Konecny
U. of Hannover
Tel: 49 511 762 2481
Fax: 49 511 762 2483
[email-masked]
[email-masked]

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,
Orlando Nino-Fluck
Senior Cartographic Officer

P. O. Box 3001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Tel: (251-1) 517200/511408 
(Direct); Fax (251-1) 514416/510512 (Direct)

>Dear Ms. Neilan, Dear Mr. Boucher
>
>I do not know if you received a fax I sent to you some days ago. Please find a
>copy of it attached.
>
>I would be grateful for your response at your earliest convenience
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Orlando Nino-Fluck
>Senior Cartographic Officer
>Development Information Services Division.
>  Tel: 251-1-510275
>Fax: 251-1-510512
>[email-masked]
>
>(See attached file: letter Boucher & Neilan.doc)
>
>Content-type: application/msword;
>	name="letter Boucher & Neilan.doc"
>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="letter Boucher & Neilan.doc"
>Content-Description: Mac Word 3.0
>
>Attachment converted: Roo's G4:letter Boucher & Neilan.doc 
>(WDBN/MSWD) (00016FC6)

-- 

============================================================================
Ruth E. Neilan                    Telephone:     (818)-354-8330
Director, IGS Central Bureau      FAX:           (818)-393-6686
Jet Propulsion Laboratory         E-mail (IGS):  [email-masked]
MS 238-540                        E-mail:        [email-masked]
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109

IGS Secretary: Mary Ann Hall      Tel:           818-354-2077,
                                   E-mail:        [email-masked]

          IGS Information System:  http://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/
============================================================================