GOVERNING COUNCIL MEETING
Conference of Ministers and the Governing Council
The Conference of Ministers, which is the overall policy organ of the Centre, meets every four years to review and approve the implementation of the Centre’s development plans.
The 5 th Conference of Ministers was held at Club Makokola in Mangochi, Malawi from 20 – 21 November 2006. The meeting was preceded by the 40 th meeting of the Governing Council that took place from 16 - 19 November 2005 at the same venue.
During the Conference, the outgoing chairperson, Hon. Jerry Ekandjo, Minister for Lands, Housing and Surveys, Republic of Namibia presented his report which highlighted the achievements made by the Centre since Namibia was elected Chair of the 4 th Conference of Ministers during the meeting held in Namibia in December, 2002. In his report the outgoing Chairperson attributed the phenomenal growth experienced by the Centre in the last four years to the effort made by H.E. the President of Namibia, Hon. Hifikepunye Pohamba, who was then the Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, and Chairperson of the Conference of Ministers until March, 2005 when he was elected President of Namibia. During that time, the Chairperson visited the member States and appealed to them to support the Centre and make use of its expertise and facilities.
Following the Chairperson’s efforts to sensitize member States on the importance of the Centre, coupled with the important role played by Botswana as Chair of the Governing Council, Lesotho resumed active participation in the Centre’s programmes in 2006 after being absent for a period of seven years. During the same period, the Republic of South Africa expressed its interest to become a member of the Centre. This request was formally accepted by the Conference of Ministers in November, 2006.
Owing to the need to review the progress of the implementation of the four year strategic plan, the meeting decided that the Conference of Ministers will be held after every two years instead of the current four years and the host country will become the Chair. Malawi took over the Chair from Namibia and the next meeting will be held in Khartoum, Sudan during the second week of November, 2008.
Review of Operational Structures
As a result of the Centre’s fast growth experienced since its restructuring in 2001, the GC in its 39 th meeting requested the UN Economic Commission for Africa to undertake a review on the current organizational and management structures of the Centre.
This review was aimed at repositioning the Centre for further growth as per its strategic vision and goals to become a centre of excellence in geo-information in Africa . The UNECA team undertook the exercise in August 2006 and presented its report to the GC during its 40 th meeting in November 2006. Following the recommendations of the review team, the GC approved the creation of key positions among them being the establishment of the position of Deputy Director General.
The organizational structure was modified which resulted in the merging of GIS & Cartography Department with the department of Remote Sensing, GIS and Photogrammetry to form a new department known as Remote Sensing, GIS and Mapping while the Resource Mapping Department was renamed Land Surveys and Management.
Other changes made regarding the operation structures were:
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Heads of Departments be designated as Directors
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Finance and Administration to report directly to the Director General
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Human Resource and Administration to be combined as one unit with two sections.
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The name Technical Services be changed to Common Services and the sections be directly under the Deputy Director General’s office
Governing Council Sub-Committee Meeting
GC Sub-committee comprising of Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, ECA and Malawi met at the Centre from 26 – 27 February 2007 to deliberate further on the Human Resource Study report presented by UNECA to the Governing Council in November 2006. One of the major outcomes of the meeting was the advertisement in April 2007 of the position of Deputy Director General.
Past Country Reports :
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report Malawi
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report Namibia
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report Sudan
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report Swaziland
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report Ethiopia
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report Tanzania
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report DRSRS-Kenya
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report SOK-Kenya
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report Uganda
Past Country
Statements
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statement Tanzania
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statement Swaziland
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