The GDA Programme is reviewed in detail in ESA Global Development Assistance Status Review Year 1.
This report focuses on overarching progress of the cooperation and gives a high-level summary of
GDA results to date. The GDA Programme is the ESA-led branch of the Space for IDA cooperation
framework. It was brought to life by ESA Member States at the Space19+ Ministerial Council in
November 2019, with the first activities under the Agile EO Information Development (AID) activity
line beginning in September 2021. As of January 2023, GDA has started work with seven GDA AID
consortia, who have begun developing 36 distinct EO Information Developments (EOIDs) for 32 IFI
projects in 40 countries during the reporting period. An additional 30 products are in active discussions with IFI projects, with work expected to begin in 2023. At this point in GDA, technology development cycles are still in progress, and only 11 products have been handed over to users for feedback.2 All of these products have further iterations of development cycles to undergo before they are delivered to their Client State (CS) and Developing Member Country (DMC) users for ongoing use. As such, the impacts of the programme in terms of concrete IFI uptake are relatively limited in this early phase.
However, there are noticeable improvements in awareness of EO Information at IFIs, and IFI teams
are enthusiastic about the potential future value that EOIDs will bring to their work. Over the coming
twelve months, the first GDA AID activities will begin to end, and it will be possible to assess the
early impacts of these collaborations and EO Information more concretely. Over this same period,
additional activities (AID and others) will be launched, creating a more comprehensive programmatic
approach. It is anticipated that IFIs will increase their implementation of complementary activities
that will benefit GDA and the wider Space for IDA cooperation framework.
