On September 19, SERVIR E&SA celebrated its 12 years of existence. Twelve years ago, NASA and the USAID partnered with the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) based in Nairobi, Kenya, to establish SERVIR-Africa. 

The contract was signed on September 19, 2008. Bridging the Americas and Africa, SERVIR-Africa created a unique partnership between the regional centre in Panama at CATHALAC, and the one here in Nairobi (RCMRD). The two centres were working to standardize database management and evaluate common methods for predicting severe weather events, analyze threats from climate change and understand the interactions between health and ecosystems.

In 2016, SERVIR-Africa transformed to SERVIR Eastern and Southern Africa (SERVIR E&SA) and it is still implemented by the RCMRD. The overarching goal of the SERVIR project is to improve environmental management and resilience to climate change. With an eye toward this goal, the SERVIR-E&SA project works to build the capacity of the SERVIR-E&SA regional hub institutions, governments and other key stakeholders to integrate earth observation information and geospatial technologies into environmental decision-making.

Through the use of LandSat satellite imagery; RCMRD & relevant government agencies have been able to come up with accurate Land Use Land Cover (LULC) maps. The process was duly conducted with active collaboration from various government agencies in respective countries and there after conducted an on the job training to enhance the capacities of various government representatives.