The Italy and Kenya space cooperation related to the Broglio Space Centre in Malindi (Kenya) and the development of a Kenyan space workforce

Paper number

IAC-17,E1,5,10,x41717

Author

Ms. Nunzia Maria Paradiso, ASI - Italian Space Agency, Italy

Year

2017

Abstract

In October 2016, Italy and Kenya concluded a new bilateral Agreement on the Broglio Space Centre in Malindi (Kenya), which represents the last step of a cooperation that dates back to the 1960s. The Agreement is accompanied by five implementing arrangements, one of which on education and training. The other implementing arrangements on the establishment of a Regional Centre for Earth Observation, on the support to the Kenya Space Agency, on telemedicine and on access to earth observation and space science data, all provide for Kenyan nationals to be trained in the correspondent disciplines.
Education and training represent in fact the key elements of the cooperation framework drew by the new Agreement. After fifty years, the awareness that space science and technology are important drivers for the socio-economic development led Italy and Kenya to focus the content of their renewed cooperation on space education and training activities, in order to assure long-term sustainability of space activities in both countries and in their respective regions and as the necessary condition for building long-term sustainable relations based on trust and friendship.
Under the framework of the bilateral relation, education and training activities were already carried out even before the new Agreement was concluded. The 1KUNS (1st University NanoSatellite Precursor Flight) project, jointly run by the University of Nairobi and the “La Sapienza” University of Rome represents an emblematic example. The satellite which is being developed under such project was selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, within the United Nations/Japan programme KiboCUBE, to be deployed from the Japanese Kibo module of the International Space Station in 2018. 
This paper will present the educational and training activities that were undertaken before the conclusion of the 2016 Agreement, the methodology applied, the results achieved, and the related lessons learned, as well as the new approach adopted by the 2016 Agreement and the new perspectives that it opens. It will also address the challenges that lie behind the transfer of knowledge from one country to another, when space technology is involved; the opportunities that the investment in the development of a Kenyan space workforce provide not only to Kenya but also to Italy, in a long-term and sustainability perspective; and finally the contribution that such investment brings to the UN 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, the preparation of the UNISPACE+50 Conference and the Space 2030 Agenda.

Abstract document

IAC-17,E1,5,10,x41717.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-17,E1,5,10,x41717.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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