The Management of the Centre

Organization

The operations of the Centre are funded in major part by contributions from contracting member States. In addition, development partners support some programs. As regards the management, the Governing Council (GC) which is composed of the officials of the rank of Permanent Secretary or its equivalent representing contracting member States form the main policy and management organ of the Centre. The Governing Council meets every end of the calendar year to assess the progress for that particular year and approve the programme for the following year as well as address any management and policy issues. The Director General is the Chief Executive and is responsible for the general management of the Centre. The current staff compliment of the Centre consists of 26 professionals and technicians and 8 support staff.

The Conference of Ministers is the overall policy and political organ of the centre, which reviews and approves the implementation of the Centre’s 4-year Business Plans as well as promoting its activities at national and regional levels. The meeting of the Conference of Ministers is convened after the end of each of the Business Plan. A minister of Lands and Settlement from each Member State chairs the Conference of Ministers Meeting on a 4-year rotational basis.

The current Director General of the Centre is Dr Hussein O. Farah.  He has over 20 years of working experience in surveying and mapping, natural resources assessment and mapping, and land use planning and mapping and planning. He also has wide experience in the application of Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) in mapping, natural resource assessment and monitoring and database development. He has B.sc Degree in Surveying and Photgrammetry, M.A in Geography and PhD in Applications of remote sensing in Water Resource Surveys. He was appointed to the position of Director General in August 2008.

Dr, Hussein O. Farah Director General RCMRD. From the Desk of the Director General

Organizational Structure

The new structure of the Centre consists of the following Divisions, which are headed by a Director/Senior officer.

• Land Surveys and Management

• Remote Sensing, GIS and Mapping

• Finance and Administration

• Common Services

The Heads of Land Surveys and Management, Remote Sensing, GIS and Mapping are Dr. Hussein Farah and Dr. Tesfaye Korme.

The Centre’s functional programmes have moved away from service technology framework (e.g. remote sensing, geodesy, cartography etc) to problem solving applications in natural resource development and environmental management. The Centre is now providing services on demand driven basis and in a business-like manner and is now moving into the future with confidence guided by the vision to become Africas’ leading Centre for Geo Spatial information. To realize this vision the Centre is striving to live up to its values of upholding highest standards of services to its customers and continuously improving the quality of its services and products. It will continue to strive to be current within the new technological innovations in the fields of ICT.

The Staff and Facilities

The Centre has invested heavily in human resources and IT equipment in order to achieve its mission and objectives. Its permanent staff consists of highly qualified and experienced professionals, technicians and administrators. Currently it has a nucleus staff of 50, which is enhanced, by a group of retained associates in specialized fields. These associates have worked with the Centre for many years. In addition, the Centre has established an extensive network of freelance specialists and partners in all its fields of expertise and mandate, whom it draws on when need arises.

The Centre has modern and adequate facilities (physical infrastructure, hardware, software, instruments and equipment) necessary for execution of its activities .

In order to prepare staff for the implementation of the 2007 -2010 Strategic Plan, the Management organized for the following training workshops at the Centre:

• Leadership and performance training for all staff, 6 – 7 February 2007
• Project Management training for senior and middle level officers, 7- 9 May 2007

Management Activities

The Management of the Centre was responsible for creating an enabling environment for the implementation of the planned activities by different programmes. It was also responsible for public relations and image building. During the year the Management focused on further institutional building through development of the information technology infrastructure, improvement of the physical facilities and staff capacity building.

Information Technology Infrastructure

During the year the following IT and telecommunication improvements were undertaken:

• Completion of the networking of the Blocks A, B, C and D

• Procurement of a new server

• Installation of Voice on Internet Protocol (VOIP)

• Installation of two mobile telephones on our switchboard.

• Procurement of 20 new computers

Physical Infrastructure

The last building block that had remained uncompleted for over ten years was redesigned and completed to offer recreational services and a canteen. The Management also continued to maintain the buildings, other physical infrastructure and vehicles. One saloon vehicle was procured during the year. To improve the environment, the management planted a variety of trees in the Centre’s compound during the year.

Institutional Linkages

During the year the Centre prepared and signed MOUs with the following partners:

• Clarke University in the USA for dealership and Training in IDRISI Kilimanjaro GIS software

• NASA for the establishment of a continuous GPS station at the Centre

• Kenyatta University , Kenya

Financial Management Highlights

In 2007, the Centre generated revenue internally to the tune of USD.699,277.00 as compared to USD.984,324.00 in the previous year. The decline in revenue generation was mainly due to reduction in student enrolments as well as reduction in the number of new projects and consultancies undertaken by the Centre for revenue generation purposes.

However, the situation is expected to improve during the year 2008 in light of new projects which have already been awarded to the Centre and several proposals which the Centre has submitted for consideration.

Attendance to Workshops, Conferences and Seminars

The officers listed below attended the following conferences, seminars and workshops.

Director General

• World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) meeting in Accra , Ghana , 1-5 February 2005

• GSDI and FIG conference in Cairo , 17-21 April 2005.

• CODI-Geo Meeting at ECA, Addis Ababa , Ethiopia , 25-29 April 2005.

• UNOOSA International Conference on Disaster management, Algiers , Algeria , 20-26 May 2005.

• International Cartographic Association ( ICA ) Conference, Coruna , Spain , 8-9-16 July 2005.

• Workshop on African Satellite Constellation Initiative, Cape Town , South Africa , September 2005

• Disaster Risk Management in East Africa Workshop, Makerere University , Kampala , Uganda , 12-15 September 2005.

• Cadastral Solutions Seminar by Oakar Services Ltd, Nairobi , Kenya , 4-5 October 2005.

• AfricaGIS2005 Conference, Pretoria , SA, 29 October to 4 th November 2005 .

Senior Surveyor

• Attended FIG/GSDI conference held in Cairo , Egypt –April

• Attended AFRICA GIS 2005 conference held in Pretoria , South Africa –October/November

• Attended International Steering Committee meeting of Africa Environmental Information Network held in Accra , Ghana -October

• Coordinated and attended Kenya Geodetic Reference Frame meeting, Nairobi Kenya-September

• Attended third country training seminar held in Kenya Institute of Surveying and Mapping-August

Senior Remote Sensing Officer

• Attended workshop and meetings and presented posters at CODI-IV meeting in April, 2005 in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia .

• Gave Seminar on the application of Remote Sensing in Geology, Resource Mapping, Mars Exploration and Morphologic analysis at Nairobi University , Department of Geology in May 2005,

• Poster presentation on 20 th Session of the Governing Council of the UN-Habitat, from 4 th to 8 th of April 2005, Nairobi , Kenya ,

• Presented a paper on Geoland project and VGT4 Africa workshops organized by JRC in Ispra , Italy from May 29 to June 4, 2005

• Participated in a meeting for SIP (Sudan Infrastructure Project) to define the role of main stakeholders, in August 2005, Nairobi , Kenya

• Presented two papers on an International workshop on Earth Observations and Global Environmental Changes, in Dakar , Senegal from 17th to 19th August 2005 ,

• Presented a paper on WFP workshop on the livelihood of Pastoralist in the GHA and food security, September 2005, Nairobi Kenya

• Participated on the 8 th Consultative meeting of CTA’s Observatory on ICTs in Wageningen, the Netherlands from 26 th to 28 th of October.

• Attended two end year workshops at ITC, the Netherlands in December 2005.

Remote Sensing Officer

• Attended a Workshop on the Development of a Geo-Information Sciences Based Education and Research Programme at the National University of Rwanda in Butare, Rwanda in March 2005

• Attended the Ninth Meeting of the Inter-Governmental Committee of Experts in Kigali , Rwanda in March 2005

• Attended and participated in meetings of the National Land Policy Formulation Process in Nairobi , Kenya from January to August 2005

• Attended the Sixteenth Climate Outlook Forum of the Greater Horn of Africa (GHACOF 16) Meeting in Nairobi , Kenya in September 2005.

• Attended the TIGER Workshop in Frascati ( Rome ), Italy in October 2005

• Attended the User and the Global Earth Observation Systems of Systems Architecture II Workshop in Pretoria , South Africa in October 2005

• Attended the AfricaGIS ’05 Conference in Pretoria , South Africa in November 2005

GIS Officer

• Presented a paper on workshop on Participatory GIS held in Nairobi in September 2005

Digital Mapping Surveyor

• Attended United Nation/United States of America (UN OOSA/USA) International GNSS meeting Held at Vienna Austria on 13 th – 17 th December 2005 on the use and application of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)

• Attended and made presentation on AFREF, Establishment of a common and modern African reference frame during the FIG /GSDI meeting held at Cairo Egypt on 16 th -21 st April 2005 .

• Attended and made presentation on AFREF, Establishment of a common and modern African reference frame and on the role of RCMRD to member states during the Third country training seminar at Kenya institute of surveying & mapping held at Nairobi Kenya on 16th -21 st August 2005