Future of Regional co-operation in African Space policies, governance and legal tools.
- Paper number
IAC-16,E7,7-B3.8,6,x35760
- Coauthor
Ms. Nomfuneko Irene Majaja, South Africa
- Year
2016
- Abstract
Recently, the African Union (AU) has adopted the African Space Policy as the first of the concrete steps to realise an African Space Programme. The Policy is one of the flagships for the AU Agenda and as such also serves as one of a series of instruments to formalise regional cooperation and enhance coordination of the Africa space arena. The challenge identified is the existence of fragmented initiatives with pockets of excellence that have a regional dimension, needing to be brought together to create programmatic synergies and complementarities to foster collective actions towards Africa’s development. Amongst the key policy principles is adopting good governance and management of space activities including regulations for African space activities in order to guarantee attainment of strategic objectives. A regional regulatory environment is thus necessary to usher the future of legal framework for regional cooperation. This will be created to allow industrial entities to access space technology and promote African commercial private sector participation in the space arena according to the national, continental and international laws and regulations. During this very period, South Africa’s primary legislation; the Space Affairs Act No 84 of 1993 is currently under review and regional legal co-operation will be one of the cornerstones of the new legislation to enhance better management of regulation of current and future regional programmes The paper will focus on outlining the importance of regional co-operation in Space policies and mechanisms to ensure good governance through the creation of a regulatory environment that is suitable for the space entities to participate in the space arena. It will also highlight the manner through, which South Africa intends to implement the policy through the review of the national legislation
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)