TIGER aims at developing sustainable Earth Observation (EO) information services for integrated water resources management with a focus on Africa. One of the main activities within this initiative is the support to water-related research in the region. Fifty selected projects formed the research component of the programme, carried out by African and north-south research teams. Since September 2006 their work was supported by the TIGER Capacity Building Facility (TCBF), which was responsible for setting up a capacity building and training programme in support of the research.

Working out the detailed programme of the Facility was an iterative process between ITC, ESA and the participating African research groups.

The TIGER Capacity Building Facility aimed at supporting 15 TIGER research projects with tailored capacity building activities. Here, the major objective was to develop human, technical and institutional capacity to use Earth Observation technology within the water management process.

Two advanced training courses were held focusing on the main needs of the selected projects. The first course was held at the University of Western Cape, in Cape Town, South Africa at the end of November 2006 (see Training sessions). A second course was planned to take place mid 2007.

Complementary to the advanced training courses a tailor-made training programme was implemented that consisted of three components:

• Enrolment of project staff on core level remote sensing and GIS e-learning courses;
• Participation of project staff in applied short course modules according to their research topics and needs, both through face-to-face training in ITC and e-learning via World Wide Web; and
• Supporting project research in the form of on-the-job training, focusing on the execution of the research projects by personal tutoring and supervision.

The programme also foresaw initiatives for MSc/PhD research and training, but additional funds were needed for the complete realization.

The available resources permitted the inclusion of participants in the first phase from 15 projects. However, from the very beginning, ITC promoted and encouraged the other TIGER research projects to participate in the activities of the Facility.

The TCBF included also communication and promotion with activities such as a web site with on-line resources and education material, fresh news, the preparation of a special issue on TIGER in an international scientific journal, press releases, and contributions to the TIGER brochure.

Through the mobilization of additional resources by preparing proposals in collaboration with the partners to suitable donors, the core activities like training sessions and tailored capacity building actions were reinforced.

The results of Phase 1 were summarized and a proposal was written on how to proceed with the activities in Phase 2, including the attraction of funding from donor organizations.

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