Direct beneficiaries of the AMESD project will be various actors involved in decision and policy making on LDM and NHC. These include the IGAD as a REC that coordinates national and regional trans-boundary issues; national institutions and other stakeholders whose mandate is in the management, assessment and monitoring of land resources; the partner who will derive value-added information from EO data for LDM and NHC; and the RIC. The results and best practices related to information and decision support services delivery will be disseminated in IGAD to enable widespread usage of well-proven and compatible techniques for better decisions.

Target groups are those who will directly benefit from the programme. These are IGAD and national institutions including: national environmental authorities; national meteorological services; national disaster management institutions; ministries of agriculture; and ministries and institutions responsible for water resources, forest and wildlife and biodiversity conservation. Other target groups will include mapping and remote sensing agencies, and institutions of higher learning.

Final beneficiaries of the programme will include policy and decision makers addressing specific issues in sustainable land management as well as general environmental issues in central and local governments, NGOs, protected areas administrations, private institutions; the general public; agriculturalists; agro-pastoralists; nomadic pastoralists; and vulnerable populations exposed to natural hazards; and rural communities. They will benefit from the project in the long term.

Key beneficiaries of the land degradation assessment services will be:

• National Ministries (and their related Departments) of Environment,

• Natural Resources conservation institutions, Agriculture and Livestock institutions, Disaster Management institutions,

• Meteorological services,

• IGAD Secretariat,

• Regional institutions dealing with conservation and early warnings,

• Researchers, etc.

Key users for the natural habitat assessment services will be:

• National Ministries in charge of Environment - (environmental authorities, forestry and wildlife),

• Natural Resources conservation institutions,

• IGAD Secretariat,

• Research and conservation organizations (IUCN, WNF etc).

The overall objective of the AMESD programme in the IGAD sub-region is to enhance the assessment and monitoring of land degradation and natural habitats for sustainable land management. 

Five (5) expected results have been formulated from the above objective:

1. Management capacity for the successful implementation and communication strategies for circulation of information and awareness raising.

2. Improved access to existing basic EO, field and ancillary data to IGAD users is ensured.

3. Operational information services are established in the field of land degradation and natural habitat conservation to improve policy and decision-making processes.

4. Political and policy frameworks strengthened to ensure active and sustainable participation of IGAD member states in the global environmental surveillance initiatives.

5. Adequate technical capacity of major stakeholders in IGAD is reached. 

The general objective of ICPAC as the regional implementing centre (RIC) in IGAD will be to contribute towards the achievement of the above objectives by coordinating all actors to ensure the successful implementation of the action. 

Specific objectives for the RIC are to:

i. Assess and strengthen existing networks and institutions related to the theme "Land degradation mitigation and natural habitat conservation" in order to constitute the regional thematic network. The actors of the network will include (i) the regional thematic partner, (ii) the collaborating associate institutions (iii) the target groups and (iv) the end-user community. The regional thematic partner will contribute to the elaboration and management of information to and from associates, target groups and end-users. The purpose of the network will be to achieve an efficient and easy means for sharing information/data, and to promote the participation of its members to the development and execution of the thema objectives.

ii.  Carry out needs assessments of AMESD services by means of regular network workshops and continuous follow-ups.

iii.  Define and develop methodologies related to the application of satellite data to land degradation and assessment and monitoring.

iv.  Design, develop and operate operational geo-information services aiming at the production and distribution to the key beneficiaries of the project of a number of specific products assessing land   degradation and changes in natural habitat areas in the IGAD region.

v. Ensure access to basic EO data (climate and vegetation products e.g. NDVI) for the regional theme partner, associates, target groups and end-users, through the Eumetcast receiving stations. Data will be collected, formatted and checked for quality and then use the data to generate intermediate/final products and thereafter, archive, exchange and share them within the network.

vi.  Ensure the sustainability of the AMESD services through adequate trainings and human capacity building. Training will be organized for experts/trainers as well as for end users in the functioning of the receiving stations, application of the delivered services and products, general thematic topics related to remote sensing, GIS, database management, land degradation, natural habitat conservation, and environmental policy.

vii. Ensure that information and services are delivered to and used by policy and decision makers at sub-regional, national and local levels through training, demonstrations and awareness raising initiatives.