Following the invitation from the Government of the Republic of Maldives, a Technical Advisory Mission to Maldives was carried out from 18 to 22 April 2010. The mission team comprised experts from UN-SPIDER, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Disaster Management Centre, and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). The key objectives to visit Maldives were to assess national capacities and to evaluate disaster risk reduction activities, policies and plans with regard to the use of space-based technologies, and to facilitate access of national institutions to space-based information to support the full cycle of disaster management. The mission team held meetings with the key stakeholders within the Government and UN Offices.
Subsequently, on 20 April 2010, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the National Disaster Management Center (NDMC) organized a one day workshop bringing together 25 representatives from various government and UN agencies to discuss cross-cutting issues related to the use of geographic and space-based information for disaster risk reduction and emergency response. The outcome of this mission is a report which provides valuable inputs to the NDMC to strengthen institutional arrangements within the country, to enhance institutional capacity-building, and to improve information management and cooperation, with specific focus on the use of space-based information for disaster management.
