Geological Surveys are government agencies legally responsible at national level for the underground space. Topics under their remit include geological inventory, monitoring, knowledge and research.

As a consequence of the broad range of critical topics they are responsible for, the contribution public geological institutions bring to society’s development is invaluable in terms of economic growth, environmental protection and citizens’ safety and security.

For this reason every society, in order to flourish, needs efficient geological administrations. Unfortunately, for different reasons, this is not always the case, and in several areas of the world the geoscientific public sector lacks skills, staff, competence, resources or other key requirements to operate efficiently in the exclusive public interest.

Focusing especially on Africa, the symposium will discuss the importance of large scale international cooperation and of major geoscientific multidisciplinary initiatives to enhance the capacity and role of national Geological Surveys and of public geological administrations, spanning from scientific/technical actions to political and communication ones.

The PanAfGeo project, co-financed by the European Commission, and co-coordinated by the French Geological Survey (BRGM), is the largest ever geoscientific initiative in Africa, involving the National Geological Surveys of two continents, as well as several institutions and international organisations.

A lot of expectations lie behind PanAfGeo. The symposium will also discuss the synergies with other initiatives and geographical areas.