Capacity Building in Earth Observation: from Outcomes to Impact and Sustainability

Spatial solutions play an increasingly important role in meeting many of humankind's complex challenges, such as climate change, population growth, and related claims for sufficient and secure food, water, energy, health, land and housing provision. Earth observations and geospatial technology are rapidly changing society everywhere - mobile, sensor and internet revolutions are touching Africa and Asia equally forcefully. Entrepreneurship and innovation are new aspects in capacity development activities. Many capacity building efforts focus on individuals while sustainable impact requires focus on organizational change and supranational coordination. Over the past several decades, many regional centers have been established for capacity building in Earth observation in developing countries and emerging economies. ITC of the University of Twente is an international knowledge hub in geospatial sciences, with an emphasis on collaborative educational and research activities in geo-information science and Earth observation and participation of students from around the world. SERVIR is a partnership of NASA, USAID, and leading regional technical organizations that develops innovative geospatial solutions to improve livelihoods and foster self-reliance across a global network in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. In this presentation, ITC and SERVIR will provide examples of and lessons learned from our activities and networks to strengthen the capacity and use of Earth observations in the developing world.