Rwanda has been invited to join the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), an international organisation that provides surveying, mapping, remote sensing and geographic information systems services to its member states.

By joining the organisation, Rwanda will receive Geo –information and allied ICT products and services in environmental and resource management to facilitate sustainable development in the country.

"We want more countries in Africa to get involved because it will greatly enhance utilisation of, particularly, land resources in the country. The Centre has had an informal relationship with Butare University by providing training but we would like to have this relationship formalised,” said Hussein Farah, Director RCMRD in an interview Wednesday with The New Times.

He added that the centre would provide services that include, drawing detailed maps of disaster prone areas to assist the government to quickly and effectively respond to natural disasters.

RCMRD, members this week convened in Kampala for its 42nd meeting, since its formation in 1957. In a joint communiqué issued by the meeting, delegates resolved that more member states of the African Union join the organization.

That this would help to solve cross –border conflicts in the region which were a result of poor colonial border demarcations.

The RCMRD meeting also highlighted the need to strengthen and harmonise the fragmented regional and African data using accurate geodetic GPS techniques and research into the field and data processing methodologies.

Based in Nairobi, Kenya under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and African Union, the organisation currently has only fifteen member countries namely: Botswana, Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

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