Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks

Session title: Earth Intelligence for Humanitarian Action: GEO Solutions for Early Warning, Crisis Response, and Community Resilience

Organizer(s): Group on Earth Observations (GEO) & Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP),

10 Mar 26 16:00-17:30 UTC+1 (Salle Nyon)

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SessionAbstract

Purpose:
This joint session by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP) will showcase how Earth observations (EO) directly support humanitarian and early action decision-making, including within global initiatives such as Early Warnings for All (EW4All). A moderated expert panel will explore which decisions are already supported by EO, where bottlenecks remain, and what needs to change over the next 2-3 years to accelerate impact. The session will also highlight Earth Intelligence solutions and services from across the GEO Work Programme that are being applied to real-world humanitarian challenges, including extreme heat, food insecurity, and volcanic hazard.

Expected Outcomes:

Participants will gain a clearer understanding of:

How operational and emerging EO solutions and services including from GEO community can strengthen humanitarian decision-making and risk reduction, including REAP-aligned anticipatory action and early warning efforts.
Practical pathways and partnerships for integrating EO into humanitarian workflows and anticipatory action systems.
Opportunities to collaborate with GEO initiatives, access open EO tools, and co-design user-driven services for future emergencies.

Target Audience:
Humanitarian practitioners, REAP partners, anticipatory action planners, disaster managers, UN agencies, NGOs, Red Cross/Red Crescent actors, government authorities, donors, researchers, EO specialists, and network partners seeking practical, operational EO solutions for crisis contexts.

Agenda

16:00–16:05 — Welcome & Introduction:

The GEO Secretariat Director, Yana Gevorgyan, introduces GEO, outlines the session’s focus on EO for humanitarian action, early warning - early action, and presents the moderator and the panelists.16:05–16:12 — Opening Context: EO for Humanitarian Decision-Making

16:05–16:12 — Opening Context: EO for Humanitarian Decision-Making:

Ronald Jackson, Head of DRR at UNDP (in recorded video), as an applied EO user or partner organization, will provide a short framing input, highlighting how EO and Earth Intelligence support humanitarian action, anticipatory action, early warning, crisis mapping, post disaster needs assessment (PDNA) and other critical humanitarian functions.

16:12–16:50 — Expert Panel Discussion:

Moderator opens with one framing question, followed by 3 thematic rounds of discussions (10 min each):

Round 1 — What decisions does EO already support today?
Round 2 — What prevents EO from being used earlier or at scale?
Round 3 — What needs to change in the next 2–3 years?

Moderator: Catalina Jaime, REAP Secretariat

Panelists

John Harding, Interim Secretariat Director for the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative
Vanessa Gray, Head of the Environment and Emergency Telecommunications Division at ITU
Luke Caley, Information Management Lead at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Esther Makabe, Project Coordinator, GEO Global Agriculture Monitoring (GEOGLAM)
Martyn Clark, Urban Coordinator, GEO Secretariat

16:50–16:10 — Audience Q&A (Hybrid):

The Q&A will actively engage both in-person and online participants. Online questions will be collected throughout the panel discussion via the chat function and prioritized during the Q&A, alongside questions from the room. The moderator will cluster questions thematically and direct them to specific panelists to ensure inclusive and focused discussion.

17:10–17:20 — GEO Activity Highlights: Tools & Collaboration Opportunities

A rapid series of 1-minute highlights from relevant GEO Work Programme activities, focusing on access pathways, supported by QR codes to GEO tools and platforms.

GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM)
Human Planet Initiative
GEO Global Heat Resilience Service (GHRS)
Geohazard Supersites and Natural Laboratories (GSNL)
Earth Observations for Disaster Risk Management (EO4DRM)
GEO Land Degradation Neutrality (GEOLDN)

17:10–17:20 — Concluding Reflections & Next Steps

The moderator summarizes discussion highlights, reflects on opportunities emerging from the session, and thanks panelists and participants.

Speakers

Speakers/moderators: Yana Gevorgyan (GEO Secretariat Director); Catalina Jaime (Head of REAP Secretariat); Ronald Jackson (Head of DRR, UNDP); John Harding (CREWS); Vanessa Gray (ITU); Luke Caley (IFRC); Martyn Clark (representing GHRS); Makabe Esther (representing GEOGLAM); Andrew Eddy (representing EO4DRM/GSNL online)