## 6 Challenges and Opportunities for EO Capacity Building in Africa  
Perhaps the most significant challenge experienced by emerging space agencies in Africa is the relatively low level of investment in space-related activities. This is evidenced by the relatively small number of missions launched by African space agencies since the beginning of the 21 st century when compared to other developing nations in Asia, South America and India. Although initiatives such as the African Resource Monitoring Constellation (ARMC) exist [93, 94], the requirement to contribute at least one satellite to the constellation in order to have access to the data from the other African missions such as from SumbandilaSat and ZaCube-1 (South Africa), Nigsat-1 and 2 (Nigeria), AlSat-1, Al-Sat 2A, and Al-Sat 2B (Algeria), EgyptSat-1 and 2 (Egypt) prohibits wider utilization of data, development of human capacities in the continent, and progress towards a self-reliant Africa. Lower investments also deter the emerging space agencies' progress towards developing required hardware infrastructure to archive, process and distribute terabytes to petabytes of data and convert the existing wealth of data into information for supporting implementation, monitoring and reporting, as well as policy- and decision-making at various levels. Although cloud computing platforms such as GEE remove the need for expensive processing computers, their full exploitation is limited by the knowledge of programming using Python and JavaScript, and their sustainability and free availability in the future cannot be guaranteed. In addition, exporting of large files in GEE requires fee-based Google Cloud Storage. African institutions should leverage international funding opportunities to increase hardware capabilities and other instrumentation requirements. Capacity building in Africa has been largely dominated by face-to-face workshops, classes, conferences and seminars. This traditional means of training is essential for developing deeper relationships with users, networking between instructors, participants and facilitators, information, knowledge and multi-sectoral experiences exchange, etc. However, it is only limited to a few participants (mostly between 20 and 25 participants) due to logistical constraints (such as venue capacity and budget available), and resources (such as lab computers). In addition, lectures are only available to those attending, unless recorded and published online. In fact, online distance learning offers prospects for addressing many of the challenges of traditional face-to-face training, by reaching hundreds to thousands of participants at once, in various locations, essential for accessing participants beyond organization's geographical reach. Several variously successful distance learning resources exist, such as NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET, [[https://arset.gsfc.nasa.gov/](https://arset.gsfc.nasa.gov/)]([https://arset.gsfc.nasa.gov/](https://arset.gsfc.nasa.gov/))), ESA Earth Online ([[https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/eo-education-and-training](https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/eo-education-and-training)]([https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/eo-education-and-training](https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/eo-education-and-training))), ESA/University of Jena's EO-College ([[https://eo-college.org/](https://eo-college.org/)]([https://eo-college.org/](https://eo-college.org/))), affording participants an experience as close as possible to traditional face-to-face training through live webinars and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). These platforms allow binge-watching of EO content, as well as live lectures through webinars that offer active participation by writing comments directly to the course instructors and fellow students, with the ability to receive feedback, complete assignments and, upon completing the course, receive certificates of completion endorsed by the respective institutions offering the course.