Key takeaways of ESA’s GDA Industry Engagement Day: Scaling EO Impact through Collaboration

On December 10th 2024, for the second consecutive year, the European Space Agency (ESA) hosted the Global Development Assistance (GDA) Industry Engagement Day, bringing together Earth Observation (EO) industry leaders, international development specialists, and ESA experts to drive collaboration and to accelerate the impact of the programme. Held at ESA’s ESRIN facility, the event is an opportunity to reflect upon progress made to date and to look ahead to the future of the programme. GDA aims to develop and mainstream innovative and actionable EO solutions for sustainable development, fosters operational integration in development finance mechanisms, and thereby partners with the world’s major development finance institutions. Five years on from the original conception of the GDA programme, this event saw ESA’s interactions with its IFI collaborators take centre stage.

A partnership mindset

A recently enlarged GDA team – strengthened by the inclusion of new representatives at the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank – focused on highlighting the growing importance of EO solutions for their existing partners. Citing a recent EARSC report, Christoph Aubrecht, the ESA GDA Programme Coordinator, noted an increasing level of IFI activities being delivered by the European EO sector. The team also reported a growing interest in, and appetite for, the ESA GDA Programme as evidenced by the addition of new IFI partners under the collaboration framework, including the IDB and IFAD. 

The team reinforced the importance of adopting and maintaining a triangular mindset in which the capabilities of industry partners are reconciled as much as possible with a deep understanding of IFI partners’ priorities and the decision-making needs of end user government counterparts. This attention on a partnership mindset was complemented with ‘Stories of Impact’ videos capturing an ‘end user’ perspective through pre-recorded testimonies from a government official in South Sudan’sMinistry for Water Resources and Irrigation. Mr. Leju has been engaged through the ESA GDA Climate Resilience activity in collaboration with the World Bank. Through the use of flood risk models developed by the ESA GDA industry consortium, his team has been able to predict the propagation of flood water from Lake Victoria to issue flood early warning alerts in the country. 

Tools to facilitate mainstreaming

The morning sessions also provided an opportunity for the GDA EO industry community to hear about new tools that have been designed to support and encourage more fruitful IFI engagement. The GDA Knowledge Hub and the GDA Analytics & Processing Platform (APP) are designed to enhance knowledge sharing, build and further develop technical capacity and streamline access to EO-derived analytics for development projects, further accelerating the impact delivered by the individual thematic activities. The Knowledge Hub, which is due to launch in early 2025 will offer access to capacity-building resources and to an expert consultation service providing advice and guidance to user communities.

GDA’s communication consortium (CCC) also showcased innovative communication tools designed to amplify GDA’s work globally. The introduction of the Impact Sphere, animated storytelling, and interactive visualisations demonstrated how GDA plans to bring EO success stories to life, ensuring greater accessibility for IFIs, policymakers, and the wider public. Updates from these cross-cutting GDA activities also included a summary from the GDA programmatic Mid-term Evaluation report that was published in September 2024 and includes insights on achievements and suggestions for possible adjustments within the programme’s evolution over the forthcoming years.

Industry Perspectives and Breakout Discussions

During four parallel breakout sessions, industry participants had an opportunity to delve into key topics shaping the EO sector. Interactive workshops and discussions spanned themes including: 

• Defining and measuring success 
• Tips for successful IFI engagements
• Ingredients for a thriving EO ecosystem
• Aligning donor priorities with business objectives. 

Further read-outs from these sessions and follow-up activities planned for 2025 will be shared in due course.

Celebrating successes

In the afternoon, we heard from several industry representatives who showcased success stories from their GDA engagements with IFI partners. From groundwater mapping projects in Botswana to energy infrastructure vulnerability analyses in Bangladesh, speakers shared tangible outcomes that demonstrated user uptake and underscored EO’s growing role in IFI-funded development strategies.

The day culminated with a “town hall” session, where ESA’s GDA Core Team fielded questions from participants, including on priorities for future collaborations and strategies to scale EO solutions globally. ESA management closed the event, emphasising the agency’s commitment to fostering an EO ecosystem that drives both industry growth and long-term development outcomes.