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 supporting Sri Lanka since its technical advisory mission in 2011. In 2020, UN-SPIDER offered the Disaster Management Centre of Sri Lanka the services of a national consultant for five months, and those services were continued in 2021, from September to December. The consultant organized the data collected from various stakeholders to demonstrate its utility in the monitoring of targets under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. Support was also offered to establish approaches for monitoring forest fires and burn severity mapping and drought monitoring. The systems were developed using open-source satellite images and software tools. UN-SPIDER facilitated the nomination of two officers from the Disaster Management Centre of Sri Lanka to undertake a nine-month postgraduate diploma course in remote sensing and geographic information systems at the Centre for Space, Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific.

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.

In 2021 Paraguay has been experiencing severe agricultural and hydrological droughts, which have contributed to severe forest fires. At the request of the Paraguayan Space Agency, in October ZFL prepared more than 490 maps of the standard vegetation index covering the period from April 2000 to June 2021. These maps were provided to the Agency for subsequent use.

In Malawi, in order to raise awareness regarding the use of UN-SPIDER recommended practices, more than 490 maps of the standard vegetation index were created in July, covering the period from April 2000 to June 2021. Those maps were created by ZFL. In addition, a map of areas flooded in March 2019 was developed. The maps were presented to the Department of Disaster Management Affairs of Malawi and to the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Malawi.

In recent years, Southern Africa has been experiencing more frequent and intense droughts that impact rural communities. In order to raise awareness regarding the use of UN-SPIDER recommended practices, more than 490 maps of the standard vegetation index were created for Namibia, covering the period from April 2000 to June 2021. The maps were created by the Centre for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces (ZFL) of the University of Bonn in its role as a UN-SPIDER regional support office in the period from June to August. In addition, a map of areas flooded in Namibia in April 2020 was developed. The maps were presented to the Acting Director of the National Directorate of Disaster Risk Management of Namibia.

In the period from January to May, UN-SPIDER held several virtual teleconferences with staff of the National Space Research and Development Agency and the National Emergency Management Agency of Nigeria and the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency to continue discussions on ways to address the challenges posed by floods. As part of those discussions, it was agreed that a national expert meeting would be organized with those institutions. The meeting was held from 13 to 15 April 2021.

UN-SPIDER provided virtual advisory support during March and April to the National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Risk Reduction of Guatemala following the eruption of the Pacaya volcano. As part of that support, the National Space Commission of Argentina, in its role as a UN-SPIDER regional support office, donated satellite imagery from its SAOCOM 1 satellite to contribute to tracking the active lava flows

At the request of the National Emergency Commission, and with the support of the national office of the United Nations Development Programme, UN-SPIDER organized two webinars to train new members of the Geospatial Information Team for Disaster Management of the Dominican Republic on space technologies for disaster management. The Team was established by the Commission in 2012 upon the recommendation of UN-SPIDER and includes professionals and specialists from more than 15 organizations in the Dominican Republic with skills related to geographic information systems and remote sensing. The aim of the Team is to contribute to disaster risk reduction, preparedness and response efforts through the generation of relevant space-based and geospatial information.

More than 20 members of the Geospatial Information Team participated in the two-day virtual training course, which included an introduction to examples of the use of space technologies to map the geographic extent of floods and mudslides and the burn severity of forest fires, as well as procedures for preparing flood and storm surge hazard maps.