The Africa Environment Information Network (AEIN) initiative has evolved as a direct response to political and technical needs expressed by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). A central objective of AEIN is to build capacity for establishing the essential data foundation and information management framework needed to support country-level integrated environmental assessments and reporting, within the broad framework of sustainable development goals and initiatives. A specific short-term objective is to support the implementation of decisions of AMCEN with respect to the Africa Environment Outlook (AEO) preparation process, while strengthening capacity for state of environment (SoE) reporting at the national and sub- regional levels.