ESA and ADB advance Earth Observation cooperation in Manila visit

A delegation from ESA visited the Asian Development Bank (ADB) headquarters in Manila from 15 to 17 April 2026, taking stock of a partnership that has steadily integrated Earth Observation into ADB’s work across Asia and the Pacific and shaping its priorities for the years ahead.

The delegation was led by Rune Floberghagen, Head of ESA’s Climate Action, Sustainability and Science Department, and included Christoph Aubrecht, programme coordinator of ESA’s Global Development Assistance (GDA) Programme, together with Yves Barthelemy, ESA’s designated focal point at ADB headquarters. Over three days, they met around 60 ADB staff across the bank’s operational departments, technical teams, senior management, and members of the Board.

ESA and ADB began working together on Earth Observation in 2010. A first partnership agreement was signed in 2016, followed by a more formal cooperation agreement in 2023. Despite the regional focus on Asia and the Pacific region, seventeen of ESA’s European member states are also ADB member countries, underlining the strong strategic interest and potential of the region. The Manila visit followed a meeting between ADB and ESA at ESRIN in September 2024, which examined how Earth Observation can support ADB’s Strategy 2030 across each of its strategic pillars.

A new strategic framing: GDA goes Earth Action

A central reason for the visit was the ongoing programmatic evolution of GDA into ESA’s new and broad-scope Earth Action programme.

Earth Action is ESA’s response in addressing the triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution by covering the entire EO value chain of R&D and disruptive innovation to pre-operational uptake. It aims to strengthen understanding of the Earth system through actionable climate and environmental information and EO-based solutions to enable society to anticipate, mitigate, and adapt to those global challenges.

The work GDA has carried out with ADB and other international financial institutions (IFIs) is now being embedded within this broader framework. Earth Action covers strategic advocacy, on-demand technical assistance, sector-specific mainstreaming, knowledge and skills transfer, and dedicated regional capacity facilities for partners in Asia and elsewhere.

The Manila meetings were an opportunity to align ADB’s operational priorities with the activities ESA will carry forward through Earth Action, building on achievements and lessons from GDA. They also connected those activities with ESA’s work on the EU’s Global Gateway agenda, funded through DG INTPA, including Copernicus Philippines (CopPhil) and SCOPE Digital.

From pilots to operational use

A central theme of the discussions was the shift of demonstrating the value of Earth Observation in individual pilots towards integration in how ADB designs, prepares, implements, and monitors its operations. Across sectors, the meetings concluded with a shared view: Earth Observation is most useful when it is treated as standard infrastructure for development decisions, integrated alongside digital tools, ground data, and policy frameworks. It is most effective when ADB and ESA co-design and co-develop services with the operational teams and country counterparts who will use and adopt them.

That view is grounded in concrete progress on the ground. In Indonesia, ESA – via the GDA Programme and its precursor initiative EO4SD – has supported ADB through a sustained track record of activities on disaster response in Palu, flood mapping, and agricultural monitoring. Some of these results were captured in the ADB publication Earth Observation Services and Tools for Development: Examples from Indonesia. Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) has also been provided access to an Earth Observation analytics platform through ADB, supported by ESA’s GDA. This in-depth engagement in the country strengthened national stakeholders’ acceptance of the use of satellite EO and their awareness of the value it can bring – which led to the requested integration of a dedicated EO component in a 200m$ flood risk lending operation ADB set up with the government of Indonesia. In Nepal, ADB has contracted European Earth Observation specialists to support an early warning system. In India, the partnership with the Government of West Bengal has used Earth Observation tools to strengthen disaster risk resilience.

These examples reflect what the wider Space for International Development Assistance framework was set up to do. The framework connects ESA and the EO service ecosystem with IFIs (like ADB) and their country clients. It builds awareness of Earth Observation, supports its adoption in lending pipelines and other impact finance instruments, and transfers the skills needed to use, procure, and develop Earth Observation services by developing country stakeholders. Under Earth Action, this approach is being extended across more domains and stakeholder groups, fostering increased synergies and accelerated impact.

Discussions across operational sectors, key departments and flagships programs

The agenda of the Manila meetings covered each of ADB’s sectors: Digital, Agriculture Food Nature and Rural Development (AFNR) , Water and urban development (WUD), Transport, Energy and Health. Other meetings included Climate Change and Sustainable Development department (CCSD) and Office of Safeguards (OSFG), key users of Geospatial and Earth Observation information. A meeting with ADB GIS Working Group explored ways of bringing key Earth observation data and tools within ADB GIS environment.

Dedicated sessions looked at some of the flagship programs like Glaciers to Farm, (G2F) program led by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to secure water and food supplies in Central and West Asia. across nine countries, or the Southeast Asia Resilient River Basin Initiative (SARRBI) – both programme where Earth Observation and the ESA partnership are expected to play a key role.

Digital transformation, AI, and digital public infrastructure (DPI)

Digital transformation was a growing focus of the agenda, with Earth Observation increasingly positioned as a digital public good that supports ADB’s broader digital strategy including its work on artificial intelligence and digital public infrastructure as key enablers of digital transformation in the region . This builds on earlier cooperation streams, including ESA’s participation in ADB’s Digital X event in 2023.

Capacity building and institutional uptake

Challenges associated with capacity gaps and institutional uptake came up on multiple occasions across the visit, with project teams asking for clearer guidance on what Earth Observation can deliver and faster access to related expertise during project preparation.

Several channels already support this, including the assignment of ESA’s dedicated focal point at ADB, the creation of GDA’s Knowledge Hub, the Analytics & Processing Platform (APP), and an online course on satellite Earth Observation for international development – all set to be reinforced under Earth Action’s knowledge and skills transfer pillar.

Earth Observation is also being embedded in policy-based lending, while ADB’s Office of Safeguards is exploring how to move from ad-hoc data use towards more systematic monitoring across the project cycle. A consistent message ran through the discussions: most of the remaining barriers are institutional rather than technical, and overcoming them depends on clear ownership and standard ways of working.

Engagement at strategic level

The visit included a meeting with Bruno Carrasco, ADB’s Secretary, who signed the 2023 cooperation agreement. A high-level courtesy meeting with Vice-President for Sector and Themes, Fatima Yasmin followed. VPST invited ESA to ADB’s 60th Annual Meeting in Nagoya from 3 to 5 May 2027. The meeting is expected to bring together strategic partners and provide an opportunity to showcase joint achievements. A session was held with European Board Advisors They discussed alignment between the ESA–ADB partnership and the EU’s Global Gateway agenda

Looking ahead

The ESA visit to ADB set shared priorities for the 2026–2028 period and a clearer framework for taking them forward under Earth Action, this means moving Earth Observation from pilots into operational lending and joint initiatives, supporting ADB’s digital transformation and policy-based work, building capacity within ADB and across Developing Member Countries, and aligning with EU Global Gateway initiatives in the region such as CopPhil and SCOPE.