ESA’s Global Development Assistance (GDA) programme has received the 2025 GEO Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Collaboration Award, as announced during the GEO Global Forum 2025 on 7 May in Rome. The award is presented by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) in partnership with the Earth Observations for Sustainable Development Goals (EO4SDG) initiative.
This recognition highlights the collaborative model of ESA’s GDA programme and its role in scaling up the use of Earth observation (EO) across international development practices. The Collaboration Award is one of the special categories of the GEO SDG Awards, acknowledging initiatives that demonstrate outstanding partnerships and integration of EO into sustainable development processes.
Being recognised by GEO and the international community in the special collaboration category of the 2025 GEO SDG award re-emphasises the strong cooperation-oriented nature of the GDA programme approach. ESA has established GDA as a connecting and facilitating effort, bringing together a wide range of partners including more than 80 EO service industry entities, all major IFIs and – crucially – local and national counterparts from more than 75 developing countries. Everyone brings in their individual expertise, motivation and ambition contributing to making this a collective success. This award is for the entire community – and it underlines the impactful foundation ESA has nurtured with our international partners over the years, now feeding into the Earth Action vision and programme moving forward.
Christoph Aubrecht
Read the full press release
More information on the GEO SDG Awards and EO4SDG: eo4sdg.org
