Ethiopia - Institutional Strengthening Mission

Upon the request of the Government of Ethiopia, UN-SPIDER carried out a Institutional Strengthening Mission to Addis Ababa from 26 to 30 August 2019 to support the country in making use of the benefits of space technology for drought early warning. The team of experts from UN-SPIDER and the Centre for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces (ZFL) at the University of Bonn, a UN-SPIDER Regional Support Office, met a wide range of stakeholders in the country to identify how space-based information is currently used in the context of disaster management and drought monitoring in particular, and to make recommendations as to how to further strengthen the use of space technologies in these areas.

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Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI)

A team of experts from UN-SPIDER and the Centre for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces (ZFL) at the University of Bonn, a UN-SPIDER Regional Support Office

As part of the week-long mission, UN-SPIDER and the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) convened a national workshop on “Drought Monitoring, Forecasting and Prediction in Ethiopia Using Satellite-driven and In-situ-based Measured Products”. The goal of the workshop was to discuss the establishment of a drought monitoring and prediction center in Ethiopia in order to develop integrated meteorological, hydrological and agricultural drought forecasting services. It also seeked to strengthen scientific networking in the research areas of drought and capitalize on Ethiopia’s effort to utilize space products for combating recurrent drought of the country. The workshop brought together nearly 40 participants from a wide range of national and international institutions addressing questions related to monitoring of natural hazards; space and geospatial information; risk and disaster management; and agriculture and food security.