Kick off ESA Global Development Assistance

Earth Observation to support of International Development Assistance for Fragility, Conflict and Violence situations

We are proud to announce the kick off of a new project ‘Global Development Assistance (GDA) – Fragility, Conflict and Security’ in which we will use Earth observation to support International Development Assistance. This project, initiated by ESA, builds on the ESA EO4SD (Earth Observation for Sustainable Development) experiences. The long-term objective is to ‘mainstream’ and ‘operationalize’ the use of Earth Observation (EO) - based information for international Development Aid projects and activities in partnership with International Financial Institutions (IFI). In this project we will focus on Fragility, Conflict and Security situations in developing states.

In order to support these activities, the project will focus on the development and implementation of enhanced EO thematic information products that go beyond what is routinely available today, and to evaluate these developments together with the IFI teams in the framework of their operational activities. The process will run via an agile development, focused on a number of use cases that will be defined in coming months together with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

Within each use case, a set of relevant geospatial indicators will be defined, targeting the status, management and future trends of a country critical resources. Within VITO Remote Sensing, we are responsible for the Earth Observation (EO) product development related to Agriculture and Food security. This information will be combined with information with non-EO based sources of ancillary information that identify potential sources of threats or crisis.

The project will be carried out by a consortium led by e-GEOS with the support of VITO, DLR, Hensholdt, Janes & CGI.