The 19th session of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory’s Executive Board will be held in Cairo, Egypt, on May 4th 2015 at the invitation of the Arab Republic of Egypt. In 2007, Egypt hosted the 9th session of the Executive Board.
Egypt is one of the founding members of the organization. As part of the set-up of ROSELT –a regional network of environmental observatories in the Sahara-Sahel region--, OSS worked closely with Egyptian governmental and research institutions, including the Desert Research Centre and the University of Alexandria, and coordinated monitoring activities in two observatories: Marsa-Matrouh and Omeyade. OSS has also a tradition of cooperation with Egypt-based CEDARE as part of its regional Water Programme focusing on transboundary basins.
The annual Executive Board meeting examines the technical and financial reports and the programme of activities submitted by the OSS Secretariat. The organization’s work is guided by Strategy 2020, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 2012, with two main scientific and technical programmes on sustainable Land and Water management in the Sahara-Sahel region underpinned by cross-cutting thematic axes on climate change and populations.