Capacity Building and Developing Countries in GEO (summary of workshop discussions) Hilcea Ferreira INPE-Brazil Andiswa Mlisa GEO Secretariat ( Acknowledgement to Workshop Participants) GEO Work Plan Symposium, 5 – 7 May 2015, Geneva, Switzerland

Outline Objectives Participants Food for Thought Infrastructure Development Individual & Institutional Capacity Development Capacity Building in Societal Benefit Areas National and Regional Coordination Resource Mobilization Capacity Building in … –GEO Strategic Plan –Work Programme 2016

Workshop Objectives 1.Outline capacity building plans and activities in GEO for the next decade (2016 – 2025); and 2.Provide inputs to the Implementation Plan Working Group (IPWG) on how GEO can better engage and involve developing countries. Included: Sharing of current capacity building activities Step toward identifying new contributors to capacity building activities

Participants 38 Participants Government National GEOs Regional Training Centers Research Institutions Private Sector UN Agencies Programmes Resource providers

Food for thought Capacity Building or Capacity Development or can we agree in GEO which ever term we use is inclusive of the other? “Lessons Learned” process into a “Lessons Identified” Portal – capture positive and negative lessons learned; Sustainability: –We tend to lose knowledge already gained; –Need to look beyond the pilot projects (+/- 3 year time frames) – capacity built is not maintained and cooperation may be lost; –Funding tends to be finished (or not include) before impact assessment of activities has been done; –Engage next generation (youth and young professionals); –To build sustainable capacity, building trust is a key factor; GEO to consider the 3 “O’s”: Outreach, Outputs, Outcomes;

Food for thought (cont.) Where to focus capacity building and development in the chain from global to individual? Leverage complementary capabilities that go along with technology transfer; Communication GEO to communicate not only with the official delegation – needs time and work to do the connections; Communicating our efforts and value of EO critical – using the right mechanism (such as journalists) to reach policy makers. Ownership Relationship between funders, implementers and beneficiaries need to be informed by a partnership with a goal for ownership. Co-design, co-create and co-usage = we must learn how decision makers make decision and use the tools we provide

Infrastructure Development Systems such as GEONETCast are crucial for capacity building and developing countries; Partnership with local partners to ensure local maintenance of installed infrastructure; We need to integrate the infrastructure for users to get the information and for them to document their requirements – build an infrastructure that builds capacity; Continue with making open source software available; Maintenance and marketing of the GEOCAB – capacity building resources – Portal; GCI to provide a mechanism that enables leveraging of national investments in development information systems; Appreciating the open access policies  is there access to this data, especially with the bandwidth and electricity problems for developing countries = GEO advocates for bandwidth access in Africa;

Individual & Institutional Capacity Development Undertaken at various levels (training workshops, fellowship, undergraduate and post graduate qualifications; professional development courses) by various institutions and organizations through various mechanism (home based, in-service, face-to-face, e-learning etc.); Collaboration between developing and developed countries institutions Built institutional capacity through value proposition that survives political and democratic processes; Universities and research institutions have a key role to play, both for sensitizing governments and engaging the youth  organize annual EO youth conference.

Individual & Institutional Capacity Development (cont.) Move toward consolidated (long-term) approaches for CB (such as encourage post graduate qualifications); Through National and Regional GEOs facilitate collaboration and information dissemination to individual and research groups; EO Capacity Building as a business opportunity - promote small business enterprises; Use and coordination of in-situ data not explicitly addressed;

Capacity Building in Societal Benefit Areas A lot of capacity building is undertaken under SBAs such as in Disasters, GFOI, GEOGLAM, Water etc. Encourage each SBA to have a clear capacity building component CB Task to provide a coordination and support function

National and Regional Coordination National GEO Mechanisms –Number of GEO Members have national GEO mechanisms and establishment of regional mechanisms in process (AfriGEOSS); –Enables identification of national priorities and a strong regional mechanism; –Define capacity development at national level (technology transfer or building capacity for technology to be used for applications) and how it is institutionalized; Need to be strengthened, to further open the conversation – we mostly talk to ourselves; Provides access to the grassroots users, empowering them with capability to use data;  Secretariat provide support and nurture national efforts;

Resource Mobilization Considering the number of occurring activities, lack of funding may not be the major issue, but coordination; Reinforcement by grant and sponsor providers for projects and programs to be contributions to regional coordination mechanisms such as AfriGEOSS; Move towards comprehensive programs approach rather than project approach; Welcomes the proposal for Foundational Task Capacity Building Coordination be resourced through the Trust Fund with Members and PO contributions; –Workshop participants (Members and POs) indicated willingness to contribute to capacity building through their existing programs;

GEO Strategic Plan : Stakeholder Engagement Focus of CB to be broaden, not exclusive on developing countries, rather sharply focused; CB should be present in all implementation mechanisms, especially in initiatives and flagships, with a clear CB component; CB Foundational Task to coordinate and work with all to design and implement the best ways to conduct capacity building; CB has to be feasible for developing countries considering their own languages and cultural features;

GEO Strategic Plan : CB Core Functions Very weak, passive, short-term and reducing the value of work done to date & vision of the existing CB strategy; The core functions must represent the I3 (Individual, Institutional and Infrastructure) concept; How GEO will support the sustainability (and ownership) of the capacity after it is developed; Too much focus on the more technical & scientific CB aspect GEO CB should focus on: –Scientific and non-scientific objectives in order to enable informed decision making to address societal challenges. –Broader sources of knowledge and interactions among a wide range of stakeholders (universities, firms, farmers, government organizations, etc.) through which individuals and organizations learn, put new ways of working to use, and open up new technological pathways) –Involves support for many skills and activities GEO to support development of regional and national Earth Observation plans; build capacity and share best practices to develop the regional and national EO plans;

GEO Strategic Plan : CB Targets Targets would be stronger if they were measurable e.g. "Increase developing country participation in GEO initiatives by 50% by 2020." Proposed target: Strengthen partnerships between GEO and other organizations leading related capacity building initiatives in data science and other areas related to Earth Observations;

GEO Work Programme 2016: FT 15 CB Coordination Current proposal is a good start; Formulation of the Coordination Team (WG) to include representatives from SBAs Reporting mechanism not to be unique to the GEO process but rather useful for contributors elsewhere (e.g. contributors may send Secretariat same report they have sent to funders) Additional activities: –Undertake a SWOT analysis of contributing Members and POs –Partner with RDA and CODATA to establish an ongoing series of generic and specialized data science short courses with a focus on Earth Observations Proposed engagement mechanisms –Host annual EO CB conference –Hold annual CB workshop per SBA per year – organized by the SBA or CoPs –Propose: Infrastructure that creates capacity building side event, during GEO-XII Plenary.

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