Sharing insights, building impact: ESA’s GDA Knowledge Event inspires collaboration

From 22–24 October 2025, ESA-ESRIN transformed into a hive of ideas and collaboration, as development finance experts, policy-makers and earth observation (EO) specialists convened to bridge the gap between earth observation and global development. 

Hosted under the European Space Agency’s Global Development Assistance (GDA) programme, the Knowledge Event brought together representatives from ESA’s partner institutions including the World Bank, ADB, IFAD, IDB and UNOSSC, alongside country stakeholders from around the world and EO experts from across Europe. Together, they  reflected on how the use of satellite data is strengthening development planning and finance across the full project cycle, from design and investment to implementation and evaluation. EO provides more transparent, timely, cost-effective and evidence-based insights, helping authorities and International Financial Institutions make better-informed decisions at every stage.

Collaboration in action

Rather than a traditional conference, the knowledge event served as a collaborative forum, a space for exchange between technical experts, institutional partners and practitioners around lessons learned from concrete case studies. The sessions highlighted the value of co-design at the heart of ESA’s GDA approach: projects that are developed jointly by European EO industry, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and local counterparts ensure that data products and analyses respond directly to user needs.

A series of ‘triangular’ case study presentations illustrated this in practice, showing how EO information supports project design, monitoring and impact assessment for initiatives financed by the World Bank, ADB and IFAD. These examples demonstrated how technical innovation and institutional collaboration reinforce one another, a central principle to ESA’s long-term vision currently boosted programmatically through the GDA programme. Some of these examples are already featured on the GDA Impact Sphere, the interactive platform that visualises how EO applications take shape and accelerate impact across sectors and countries.

Linking knowledge and capacity

Throughout the three-day programme, participants actively exchanged experiences on how to expand the practical use of EO across the development finance ecosystem. Representatives from the International Financial Institutions also shared their domain-specific knowledge platforms, sparking dialogue on how to connect existing systems and build complementary approaches.

Break-out discussions focused on promoting EO literacy, integrating EO in development project cycles, and supporting digital transformation within partner countries. The variety of perspectives created a clear sense of shared understanding of the importance of collaboration and capacity building in the process of building, using, and fostering sustainable adoption of EO tools. 

This collective spirit was echoed in participant feedback, underscoring the motivation to maintain momentum beyond the event.

Enabling collaboration through shared platforms

As the discussions evolved, attention turned to how knowledge exchange can be transformed into lasting capability. Two cross-cutting GDA tools, the Knowledge Hub and the Analytics and Processing Platform (APP), were presented as practical enablers of this process.

Together, they embody GDA’s broader ambition: to move from demonstration projects to systematic, scalable use of EO in development operations. The Knowledge Hub consolidates EO resources, case studies and training materials to strengthen institutional capacity, while the APP provides a hands-on environment for building and running analytical workflows using EO data.These platforms, developed through user feedback and co-design, illustrate how GDA is translating collaboration into operational solutions that can be adapted and reused across sectors and institutions.

Looking ahead

The Knowledge Event reaffirmed the essence of ESA’s Global Development Assistance programme: partnerships drive progress. By connecting institutions, expertise and data, ESA is laying the ground for a future where Earth Observation is guiding smarter investments and strengthening development operations worldwide.

More information can be found here:
https://knowledge-hub-gda.esa.int/
https://app-gda.esa.int/