Eye on Earth multi-stakeholder briefing, Brussels

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Briefing organised by UNEP's Liaison Office to the EU on 8 July 2015 in Brussels.

Objective

The purpose of the briefing for stakeholders based in Brussels is to raise awareness of the role of the global Eye on Earth community in mobilizing data in support of the SDGs and to discuss in an interactive setting how to build capacity among disparate data and information providers to deliver timely, relevant and reliable data.

The format of the briefing is as follows:

·         Outcome of the 2011 Eye on Earth Summit

·         Eye on Earth Alliance and Network (and project portfolio)

·         Eye on Earth Summit 2015 and its relevance to the SDG process

The presenters (see Power Points below)

Huda Petra Shamayleh (Environment Agency Abu Dhabi/ AGEDI)   

Gerard Cunningham (Eye on Earth Coordinator, UNEP/DEWA)

Special guest:

Luc Bas, European Regional Director, IUCN European Union Representative Office in Brussels

Outcome of first Eye on Earth Summit 2011

The first Eye on Earth Summit (Abu Dhabi, December 2011) was organized by UNEP in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) - a Type II initiative brokered at WSSD in 1992.  The Summit was attended by 900 participants and adopted the Eye on Earth Declaration which is essentially a set of principles aimed at enhancing information sharing across the three pillars of sustainable development.

The Summit also endorsed 8 special initiatives covering three cross cutting areas (networking, education, and access to information) and five thematic areas (biodiversity, community sustainability and resilience,  disaster management, oceans and blue carbon, and water security).  AGEDI funded various projects under these special initiatives, and as the community expanded new project concepts were formulated by community members.

Eye on Earth Alliance

In order to coordinate and expand the Eye on Earth community, a core alliance comprising of AGEDI, UNEP, GEO/GEOSS, IUCN and WRI was formally established in 2014.  The Alliance will be further expanded to include key regional partners. The 5-member global Alliance is taking the lead on organising the second Summit in Abu Dhabi, 6-8 October 2015. 

Eye on Earth Summit 2015

The main theme of the Summit is Informed Decision Making for Sustainable Development.  In order to contribute to the ongoing SDG process, the Summit programme will focus on three key issues - data demand, data supply and data enabling conditions - within the overall framework of mobilizing and delivering timely, relevant and reliable data to support the indicators under the SDG targets. The Summit outcome document will be predicated around an agreed set of actions needed to address the three key issues.

Attendees will include representatives from Governmental and Intergovernmental organisations; Major Groups and Stakeholders, and UN agencies, funds, and programmes. Approximately 650 delegates are expected at the Summit. Invitations are being dispatched and many keynote speakers are already confirmed.  The venue is the St Regis hotel in Abu Dhabi.  More detailed information on the Summit is available at: www.eoesummit.org.

Eye on Earth project portfolio

The Eye on Earth community has now developed a project portfolio comprising of 83 new project concepts under the 8 existing special initiatives.  Some of these proposals are already partially funded. Consultations with a wide array of donors have commenced in order to solicit funding for these project concepts all of which have a technology support and capacity building focus. The main objective of the project portfolio is to assist countries, particularly developing countries, to deliver data for the SDG process and advance the post-2015 development agenda.