“The foundation of all life is in the ocean.”
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Who we are
The Marine and Coastal Areas Management in North and West Africa (MarCNoWA) consortium is providing marine and coastal operational Earth Observation (EO) services to eighteen (18) coastal countries in North and West Africa.
The project is part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES and Africa) continental wide programme to provide human, infrastructure and technical resources to allow beneficiary countries to utilize EO technologies for natural resource management and environmental sustainability.
Through a network of national stakeholders, regional fisheries and environmental bodies, academia, private sector and researchers, the project is to impact decision making in the beneficiary countries. The GMES and Africa Programme is co-funded by the African Union Commission and the European Union.
What we do
The MarCNoWA consortium is lead by the Regional Marine Centre of the University of Ghana. The objective of the Action is to provide decision-makers with EO information and tools that would support effective marine and coastal resources management in North and West Africa. This is being achieved through delivering EO services that will enhance the formulation of marine, fisheries and environmental policies to support decision-making at the national and regional level.
The consortium is made up of eleven (11) institutions vested in marine, coastal, capacity building issues in North and West Africa. They work together to implement this project, with the help of key institutions such as EUMETSAT and Joint Research Commission (JRC).
The MarcNoWA initiative, which is part of the GMES & Africa programme Phase II is a follow up to the Marine and Coastal Areas Managmenet in Western Africa inititive in Phase I (2018-2021).
MarCNoWA provides a unique opportunity to consolidate achievements from previous projects and to establish its sustainability. Special focus is on Gender and Youth under the Phase II.
Twelve (12) ECOWAS coastal countries, namely Benin, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo and six (6) countries in North Africa, namely Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Libya are beneficiaries of the six services provided by the consortium.
The project is co-founded by the African Union Commission and the European Commission.
Meet the Team
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Professor Boateng Onwona‐Agyeman
DIRECTOR
He is the Provost of the College Of Basic And Applied Sciences (CBAS) and the Director of the GMES and Africa Project at the University of Ghana.
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Dr. Kwame Adu Agyekum
COORDINATOR OF THE CONSORTIUM
Kwame is a lecturer and the Coordinator of the MarCNoWA consortium and lead the implementation of the project together with the Partners.
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Dr. Omar Elbadawy
MarCNoWA PROJECT MANAGER
Omar is an expert in Land and Water resources management at the Centre for the Environment for Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE) in Egypt.
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Mrs. Sonia Kammoun
MarCNoWA PROJECT MANAGER
Sonia is the Head of Research and Innovation division at the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche des Télécommunications (CERT) - Tunisia
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Dr. Ndiaga Thiam
MarCNoWA PROJECT MANAGER
Thiam is the Director of the Centre for Oceanographic Research of Dakar-Thiaroye (CRODT) based in Senegal.
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Dr. Mobio Abaka Brice Hervé
MarCNoWA PROJECT MANAGER
Hervé is a Senior Lecturer, Director of the Remote Sensing and GIS Laboratory (LaTSIG) of the Centre Universitaire de Recherche et d'Application en Télédétection (CURAT) of the Felix Houphouët-Boigny University of Cote d'Ivoire.
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Mr. Joseph Tetteh Portuphy
MarCNoWA PROJECT MANAGER
Joseph is the Acting Director Synoptic Meteorology and Forecasting at the Ghana Meteorological Agency.
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Dr. Regina Folorunsho
MarCNoWA PROJECT MANAGER
Regina is the Director of Marine Meteorology and Climate Department at the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) - Nigeria
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Dr. Sohou Zacharie
MarCNoWA PROJECT MANAGER
Zacharie is the Director of the Institut de Recherches Halieutiques et Océanologiques du Bénin (IRHOB) - Benin
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Prof. Kamal Labbassi
MarCNoWA PROJECT MANAGER
Kamal Labbassi is a full Professor, Director of the BDAR_International Centre of Excellence EO-AWARE at the Chouaib Doukkali University (Morocco) and the President of the African Association of Remote sensing of the Environment.
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Prof. George Wiafe
FOUNDER EDENWAY FOUNDATION
George is the Founder of Edenway, an NGO dedicated to providing the youth with access to technology training by utilizing the strength of open-source tools and methods for creative solutions to solve day-to-day problems.