The World Bank ‘Digital revolution for sustainable and scalable development’ event took place in Washington on 22 April 2021 and announced the launch of a new global programme, the Digital Earth Partnership (DEP).
It featured WB Vice President on Sustainable Development Juergen Voegele and further senior management alongside case studies from WB operations teams illustrating the impact of EO in development. ESA Acting Director of EOP, Toni Tolker-Nielsen, provided remarks on the long-standing ESA-WB partnership and the strategic linkage points being established through the respective programs.
In a dedicated block, illustrative video contributions prepared by WB task team leaders as well as client country stakeholders representing different regions and sectors highlighted the demand for programmatic integration of satellite EO into WB operational activities. Topics addressed included tracking urbanization and urban development, climate, crisis, and disaster risk finance, operationalizing action for coastal resilience, monitoring and evaluation in conflict settings, improving agricultural monitoring and building sustainable capacity and skills transfer.
A dedicated internal team within the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) was set up to support the event and the resulting follow-up actions. Large-scale outreach through the GFDRR donor group (including all major European donors) and the WB Executive Directors’ offices (representing European countries) resulted in wide participation with more than 100 participants from development partners and donor institutions.
The WB announced the launch of a new global program, the Digital Earth Partnership (DEP), as a complementary instrument to GDA, facilitating coordination under the joint Space for IDA initiative and mobilization of development finance resources. WB Global Director Sameh Wahba introduced the setup of the new global DEP program building on Juergen Voegele’s initial remarks. The WB teams are now actively engaged in follow up discussions and further outreach activities targeting development partners and donors, as well as finalizing the internal programmatic and conceptual setup of the Digital Earth Partnership.
