esri – the innovator and world leading company offering Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – knows that GIS do make a difference in society. esri’s confidence in GIS is built on the belief that geography matters – it connects our many cultures and societies and influences our way of life. GIS leverages geographic insight to ensure better communication and collaboration – and that’s what a knowledge-based society is all about. Esri has been supporting GIS projects in Rwanda for many years partnering with various Ministries and Institutions of Higher Education. In 2009 Esri decided to go beyond supporting GIS-projects from abroad and registered Esri Rwanda Ltd. on August 19th, 2010 in Kigali. Since then, Esri Rwanda provides mapping services and GIS solutions to government agencies, international organizations, NGOs and the private sector in the region. Esri strongly supports the education sector, builds GIS capacity at all levels and helps mapping the Region of Africa’s Great Lakes. Esri Rwanda has a staff of seven, six GIS professionals and one administrative assistant. For projects requiring special non-GIS knowledge, Esri Rwanda collaborates with external domain matter experts while assuming the overall responsibility for high standards of quality and timely delivery.

In its4land, seri plays a crucial integration and development role across the three phases. Specifically, ESRI takes part in WP2,3,4,6 and 8 and is supporting the project services on site in the Region of the African Great Lakes. Having a permanent presence in Rwanda for a good 5 years, Esri knows the local situation regarding spatial data, GIS and mapping intimately. Esri has been working with available local geodata, has cleaned and improved it and has captured data where none existed before. In the context of the project, Esri will provide links to local data where needed, facilitate missions, analyse data captured etc.