DAI-led SERVIR Demand Project Hosts Stakeholder Forum

June 08, 2015

The DAI-led SERVIR Program Demand Activity brought together representatives from nearly 20 organizations that work at the nexus of global climate change and technology for an inaugural two-day forum around the topic of collaboration.

SERVIR Global, which relies heavily on collaboration, was established in 2004 by NASA, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and others, to make geospatial information and Earth observation data available for sharing, integrating, and mapping. This data, in turn, is used by partner institutions, or hubs, based in Kenya, Nepal, and Thailand. The hubs collectively work with hundreds of regional stakeholders to co-develop and build decision-support products.

SERVIR Global’s ultimate goal is to empower governments in developing countries to make informed climate change adaptation decisions using tools and applications developed by SERVIR.

The forum organized by the DAI-led SERVIR Program Demand Activity, which is funded by USAID, had two main objectives: 1. For all partner organizations to learn more about each other, and 2., to delve into the practical aspects of how collaboration can be enhanced and pushed deeper into the many stakeholders groups.

“This forum was incredibly unique because even though we all see each in various workshops, it’s tough to find time to go in depth about what each of us do and how we can better collaborate,” said Noemi Danao-Schroeder, Chief of Party of the SERVIR Program Demand Activity. “If we’re going to collaborate, we need to understand each other’s work more deeply.”

USAID’s Jenny Frankel-Reed said the forum offered an excellent platform for organizations to communicate better with each other about the multiple science and technology tools available to all members of the SERVIR Global community.