EO: Services Readiness Review Meeting, April 12, 2011

The objectives of this Service Readiness Review were three fold:

• to set-up and start 12 project activities under the ESA-World Bank Partnership;
• to present the plans and schedules of the EO services to be produced and delivered; and
• to have an open discussion on further opportunities for the use of EO in Bank operations.

To achieve these aims the event was divided into two components; the General Information Session and Service Readiness Review Meetings for the 12 projects.

The General Information Session, which was held April 12th at World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC, was dedicated to giving the overview of the 12 services, their plans, implementation schedules and expected outcomes. This session was open to all World Bank staff and to the public.

In her opening address, Zoubida Allaoua (Director of the Finance, Economics and Urban Department) stated the importance of using cutting edge EO tools in the Bank’s work, “this is absolutely critical to the type of work that we are doing in the Bank on urbanization, disaster risk management and climate change issues”. This sentiment was reiterated by Stephen Coulson (Head of Industry Section, European Space Agency), “we are very pleased to be here and we are really eager now to get down to business, start these projects and show what EO can deliver in terms of value to these projects”.

Anthony Bigio, the Bank’s project coordinator, retraced the different steps trough which the partnership was set up, and the expectations of both institutions as to its outcomes and potential to expand the use of earth observation. Geoffrey Sawyer, the Secretary General of the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC), continued the earlier theme of outlining the importance of EO tools by giving some practical examples while outlining the role of EARSC as a neutral bridge to the European EO service industry.

At the General Information Session, the representatives of the service companies contracted competitively by ESA to carry out the 12 projects presented the methodologies and approaches that will be used in each one of them, and gave examples of the outcomes that are expected at the end of the assignments. These presentations were very informative and provided an excellent overview of what value earth observation will add to the projects and of the technical details of how this would be achieved.

It was encouraging to witness the very high quality of the presentations and the enthusiasm for these projects shown by the service providers. This combination of high level technical expertise and commitment should deliver great results. This public session also facilitated fruitful discussions between all participants about the benefits of EO and how it can best be utilized in Bank operations.

Following the public session, there were individual, one-on-one sessions (the Service Readiness Review Meetings) between the Bank teams and the ESA service providers to establish direct collaboration which will enable both parties to see through the implementation of their assignments, which often will include the interaction with government counterparts.

The main goal of these meetings was to finalize the technical specifications for each of the projects, evaluate any changes in the existing project requirements, and capture additional requirements arising on the part of the World Bank users. These meetings were all very productive and represented the real “kick-off” of the hard work of implementation.

In parallel to these two main activities, there were numerous side meetings aimed at discussing the future role of EO within Bank operations, intellectual property and information management considerations. How the information products resulting from the 12 projects will be stored and made accessible will be critical to the success of these projects.