FEEDBACK FROM MINISTERIAL AND PLENARY

1. FEEDBACK FROM MINISTERIAL AND PLENARY Prepared for the GEO Capacity Building Committee Meeting Anati Canca South Africa

2. Reflections on the GEO week • Meetings by all GEO committees • Launch of the South African Earth Observation System Strategy • Launch of the offshore EO node of South African Environmental Observation Network • focuses on the Southern Ocean • opportunity for regional coordination • The Iridium news event • CBERS announcement

3. Reflections on the GEO week (cont) • Executive Committee meeting • GEO Plenary • Ministerial Summit

4. Overall assessment of status quo • The state of GEO • Solid foundation now in place • Necessary strategies and action plans now in place • Members and organisations demonstrating commitment (financial contributions and secondments of experts) • Ever-growing memberships since inception • The state of GEOSS • Beginning to take shape (GEONetCast, CBERS; etc) • White paper on data sharing policy – key to GEOSS successful implementation

5. Persisting challenges • Membership • Earth observation capacity

6. Persisting challenges Membership

7. Persisting challenges Differential in capacity in various countries and regions • Individual level • Institutional • Systems level Starting point • Identify the gaps at these levels (build on existing capacities) • National and regional coordination • Coordination of GEO committee activities • Outreach

8. Way forward • More effort on the implementation of the capacity building strategy • Mid term review of GEOSS implementation will essentially be a reflection of effective this committee has been

9. South Africa thanks everyone who contributed to the success of the Cape Town Summit