An introductory meeting to support Afghanistan was carried out on 26 January 2021 under the auspices of the Office of the State Ministry for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs. The meeting focused on understanding policy, institutional coordination, current capacity and supportive legislation related to the use of geospatial information for disaster preparedness, early warning, response and recovery. The information captured during the meeting was used for identifying priorities that resulted in offering advocacy on drought monitoring in Afghanistan in the period from January to May.

On 21 May 2021, the Office of the State Ministry for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs and UN-SPIDER conducted a virtual thematic meeting with key stakeholder agencies on the theme  “Assessing drought and water resource conservation using Earth observation”. The meeting was conducted in collaboration with two regional support offices of UN-SPIDER, namely, Delta State University and the International Water Management Institute.

UN-SPIDER has been a supporting Mongolia since it undertook a technical advisory mission in 2014. Following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, UN-SPIDER offered the National Emergency Management Agency the services of a national consultant in order to facilitate the use of space-based information in disaster management. Such support was offered for five months in 2020 and for four months in 2021.

During the period, three capacity-building programmes were carried out with officials from various stakeholder agencies and provincial offices of the National Emergency Management Agency. The national consultant supported the strengthening of the Platform for Real-time Impact and Situation Monitoring, which was developed by the World Food Programme and the Agency. The consultant also assisted the Agency in undertaking the training programme that was a prerequisite for becoming an authorized user of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters.