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).