Brief Historical background

The Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), previously known as Regional Centre for Services in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (RCSSMRS) was established in Nairobi, Kenya in 1975 under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the then Organization of African Unity (OAU). Its founder members are Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Tanzania and Malawi and the Government of the Republic of Kenya hosts it. It is a non-profit intergovernmental organization and currently has 14 contracting member States, namely: Botswana, Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The original objectives of the Centre were:

• To provide services in the fields of surveying and mapping including aerial , photogrammetry, photo-interpretation, first order geodesy, remote sensing, calibration and maintenance of surveying and mapping equipment;

• To provide training for nationals of contracting parties in surveying, photographymapping and remote sensing, and;

• To provide advisory services upon request on problems relating to surveying and mapping to the governments of member States.

Since its establishment, the Centre has been very instrumental in capacity building in resource survey, mapping, remote sensing, GIS and natural resources assessment and management in Africa. It was also instrumental in helping different countries establish their National Mapping Agencies. To date the Centre has trained over 4000 technical officers from its member States and other African countries in the fields of surveying and mapping, remote sensing, GIS and natural resources assessment and management. The Centre has also implemented numerous projects on behalf of its member States and development partners.