# Towards the Development of Agenda 2063 Geo-Portal to Support Sustainable Development in Africa
###### Abstract
Considering Africa's huge landmass and diverse geography, the accomplishment of the Agenda 2063 goals requires systematic spatial planning and data collection, monitoring, evaluation, and consolidation. The aspirations, goals, priority areas, and targets articulated in the Agenda 2063 strategic blueprints are inherently geographic in nature as they all occur in space (location) and time. To this end, geographical information science (GISc), particularly geographic information systems (GIS), earth observation, and global navigation satellite systems can play a fundamental role in supporting the attainment of the Agenda 2063 targets through data collection, storage, integration, evaluation, and reporting. Since the dawn of human civilization, geographical information tools such as maps and compasses have played a fundamental role in guiding mankind's developmental agenda. Given that location plays a critical role in spatial and public infrastructure development planning, maps have played an integral role in territorial planning, cooperation, navigation, and conflict resolution for many centuries. Historically, maps were also used extensively in the discovery of new territories and natural resources. In the last few decades, the rapid and simultaneous technological developments in computer science, satellite communication, navigation, and earth observation systems have widened the scope of the usage of GISc in many areas of sustainable development [9; 10]. For many decades now, many countries have been exploiting GIS for regional and spatial planning [11; 12], although in a siloed manner. It is widely acknowledged that location plays a central role in integrating information about the society, the economy, and the environment [13; 14]. In addition, cross-border challenges such as climate change, disasters, peace and security, and quality of the environment can only be solved through coordinated global and regional efforts [2; 15; 16]. In recognition of the power geographical locations and geospatial information play in development planning, the United Nations Statistical Commission endorsed a work program in 2013 to develop a statistical spatial framework that would become an international standard for the integration of statistical and geospatial information [17]. This endorsement comes following the pioneering work done by the UN Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) since 2011 to create a framework and define protocols to integrate statistics and geoinformation data processes [18]. The critical role played by timely and consistent geographic information in supporting sustainable development is widely acknowledged by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Committee of Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) through their dedicated efforts in coordinating earth observation initiatives globally and advocating for the use of open and free satellite data. The role played by earth observation technology in supporting sustainable development goals is well described in many publications [19; 20; 21]. The practical implementation of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 blueprint is squarely contingent on the efficient and effective execution of this ambitious and transformative strategic plan. Notably, the strength of any strategic plan lies in its execution capability. Monitoring and evaluation systems play a critical role in collecting, recording, storing, integrating, and evaluating and tracking performance information in the implementation of longer-term strategic plans. Monitoring is the continuous assessment of a plan in relation to the set implementation schedule that is used to provide continuous feedback to management on the implementation progress of the set programme to enable managers to take timely decisions based on identifying successes and constraints. The evaluation uses the data and information provided by a monitoring system to facilitate the analysis of trends and impacts of the programme.