The Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum will hold its 28th session (APRSAF-28) in Hanoi, Vietnam from 15 November to 18 November 2022 under the theme “Bridging Space Innovations Opportunities for Sustainable and Prosperous Future”. APRSAF-28 is jointly organised by the Vietnam National Space Center (VNSC), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Paolo Manunta, ESA representative at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Edward Anderson, Senior Technology and Resilience Specialist at the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), World Bank (WB), will participate in the “International Organizations reports” session taking place on 17 November 2022. This session aims at introducing latest space activities in international organisations, including policies to promote and support the creation of space innovations and commercialisation to meet evolving needs. Alex Chunet, ESA Representative at the World Bank, will also take part in the discussion as well as other participants from the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
The World Bank, one of the main partner of ESA through the Global Development Assistance programme (GDA), will introduce its partnership with Space Agencies. In particular, Edward Anderson will present the activities deployed by the Digital Earth Partnership (DEP) and Alex Chunet will complement with a presentation of GDA. Both of these interventions will highlight the need for a coordinated and combined GDA-DEP approach to generate the sustainable integration and adoption of earth observation technologies in development finance and, by extension, developing countries.
