JPO Steering Committee

The First Steering Committee Meeting of the Programme “Support to Satellite Navigation in Africa IV (2025–2027)” took place from April 8 to 9, 2025, in Dakar, Senegal.

The meeting was inaugurated by Mr. Prosper Zo’o Minto’o, new Director General of ASECNA, and chaired by Ms. Jolanda Van Eijndthoven, Head of Unit at DG-DEFIS, European Commission.

The EC delegation was composed as well by Ms Inga Navardauskiene ,Mr Stefano La Terra Bella, Mr. Vincent Brisson, while the SCENIC support team was composed of Ms Karen Boniface, Pr Refaat Chaabouni and myself.

The JPO Steering Committee (SC) which is co-chaired by the EC and the AUC is composed of high-level representatives of numerous African public institutions involved in space policy, air safety such as AFCAC, ICAO, COMESA, IGAD, EAC, ECOWAS, UEMOA, ASECNA…

Over the course of the two-days meeting, SC Members reviewed the achievements of SatNav Africa JPO under the previous Three-Year Programme before addressing the strategic vision and priorities under the new Chapter, the continental Agenda on Satellite Navigation and the Africa-EU Space Partnership Programme. The event was also an opportunity for SC Members to share their views on new services such as Galileo, IRIS 2, AI for GNSS and the GNSS Innovation Hub concept.

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During my mission in Dakar, I was honored to participate as well in the 5th meeting of the Joint GNSS Mixed Committee between ASECNA and the European Union held on Monday, April 7, 2025, at the ASECNA headquarters in Dakar. This meeting was part of the ongoing monitoring of the implementation of the Cooperation Agreement between ASECNA and the European Union, in force since 2018.

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Prosper Zo’o Minto’o, Director General of ASECNA with the participation of Julien Lapie (advisor), while the EU delegation was led by Ms. Jolanda Van Eijnthoven. The discussions strengthened the partnership between the two parties and the commitments made to support the development and use of satellite navigation services in Africa, particularly in connection with the ANGA program.

Next meeting is expected to be held in Bruxelles in 2026.

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