GAF starts Service Production in Western Madagasca

International financial institutions (IFI) provide financial support and professional advise for development activities on local to regional scale in developing countries. Their activities are generally organized in dedicated projects financed by long-term loans or grants covering social and economical development aspects in a wide range of fields. For certain fields EO (Earth Observation) products and services have been identified as a useful tool to support the monitoring and management of IFI projects, to improve the efficiency of the investments made and finally to assess the impact and social benefits of the financed development activity.ESA, as part of its Value Adding Element (VAE) programme, has been interacting with the IFI and their stakeholders to understand their working environment and information requirements in particular for EO services. This process has resulted in service specifications for one specific user UN-IFAD (UN International Fund for Agricultural Development), which have been put out for tender. The main purpose of the procurement is to demonstrate and validate the utility of currently available EO information services in support of selected IFI projects.GAF has been awarded with Service Trial 2, which is directly driven by the requirements of the supported IFAD project and its local stakeholders (the AD2M project, www.ad2m.mg ). For an area of about 14 000 km² in Western Madagascar (Menabe region), GAF will provide dedicated state of the art EO products which have been customised to meet the specific user requirements of UN-IFAD best possible. Including products such as Land Cover Maps or Digital Elevation Models, the specified EO-service will deliver products which will be validated together with the service performance by UN-IFAD and local stakeholders. The benefit of the information service will be assessed relatively to the objectives of the project as well. Project activities started in June 2010 and will be concluded in November 2010. About UN-IFAD â Italy The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. IFAD is dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries.Working with rural poor people, governments, non-governmental organizations and many other partners, IFAD focuses on country-specific solutions to improve agriculture production, which can involve increasing rural poor peoples\' access to financial services, markets, technology, land and other natural resources.Since 1979, IFAD has funded 13 rural development projects in Madagascar for a total of US$156.9 million.About ESA / ESRIN â ItalyESRIN, known as the ESA Centre for Earth Observation, is one of the five ESA specialised centres situated in Europe. Located in Frascati, a small town 20 km south of Rome in Italy, ESRIN was established in 1966 and first began acquiring data from environmental satellites in the 1970s. Since 2004, ESRIN has been the headquarters for ESA\'s Earth Observation activities.ESRIN acts as an interface between ESA and those who use its services. The centre has close links with European industry, the European Union and the civil protection, agriculture and environment ministries within ESA Member States. ESRIN also cooperates with international organisations including UN agencies and the European Commission, and plays an important role in many international projects. About GAF AG â GermanyGAF AG, an e-GEOS, Telespazio company, is globally active and has an international reputation as a competent provider of project design, management and implementation services in the fields of geo-information, satellite remote sensing and spatial IT consultancy to private and public clients. Within the past 24 years, GAF has been active in more than 100 countries throughout Europe, Africa, South-America and Asia.

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