GEO-XIV Side Event

On October 24, 2017, EO4SDG held its annual side meeting as part of the GEO-XIV Plenary, which took place at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

This year’s side event focused strongly on identifying concrete lessons – both technical and programmatic – from efforts to use Earth observations to support the SDG indicators and targets. We sought to help the audience learn about ways to integrate Earth observations with national statistics and other data sources to support SDG tracking, planning, and reporting. Panelists presented real-world, evidence-based examples to help reveal smart practices that others can emulate or reveal problems that others can avoid.

In addition to an introductory session, there were thematic sessions on four SDGs: Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation; Goal 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities; Goal 14 – Life Below Water; and Goal 15 – Life On Land. Each session featured a panel of speakers, including representatives from countries, custodian agencies, development banks, GEO activities, pilot projects, or other SDG stakeholders.

The side event kicked-off the development of EO4SDG white papers on uses of Earth observations for each of the four SDGs. Based on the information gathered in each panel, the respective moderators will develop a paper in the subsequent months. The papers will aim to provide illustrations of what has worked, address issues of data access, and cover lessons about data disaggregation, among other topics. The EO4SDG Initiative will use information from the papers in other venues, such as a GEO SDG Handbook and the EO4SDG website. Download the meeting agenda here. For additional information you may visit the side event’s web page.