The Road to the SDGs

develop capacity-building activities and provide ongoing support. Capacity building involved a series of in-person training sessions between April and September 2019, bringing in regional and international partners from NASA. X The focus on institutional engagement and collaboration ensured that all relevant stakeholders agreed on the tools and methodologies used, enabling harmonisation and a collective agreement on results. This approach also supports data sharing among government agencies and facilitates the coordination of actions. X This combination of innovative technology, capacity building and political engagement enabled IsDB to collectively produce new and timely insights on deforestation, water management and agricultural productivity. These insights have since been used by the Government of Senegal to enable it to make more efficient decisions and effective policies that support progress towards the SDGs. ACHIEVEMENTS X This initiative built the institutional capacity of the Senegalese Government to access and use earth observation and geospatial data to inform policy making and progress on the SDGs in three key areas: – Agriculture – Deforestation – Water management. X Goal 2: Zero Hunger — Satellite data was analysed to identify the characteristics of areas being used for agricultural activity across all 45 departments of Senegal. This decreased data collection time from five months to two, which allowed farmers to start selling crops earlier, thus reducing postharvest losses. It also helped the Government improve the distribution of drought-resistant crops to where they are most needed. X Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitatio n — Satellite data was used to provide insights into the extent and quality of Lake Guiers, which provides about 40% of the water consumed in Senegal’s capital. Processed data from the ARDC allowed a rapid calculation of the rate of decline of water quantity over the last four years, helping to reduce the time needed to assess water quality from more than two days to half a day, and enabling a rapid response to protect Dakar’s drinking water supplies. X Goal 15: Life on Land — Satellite imagery was deployed to understand deforestation, focusing on areas affected by illegal logging, bush fires, and the clearing of land for agriculture. It identified locations where deforestation was particularly high over a much larger geography and far quicker than it would have taken through manual mapping, field surveys, and administrative records. This improves the understanding of the scope and drivers of deforestation and is supporting a more efficient targeting of resources to tackle it. INVESTMENT X The total budget for this programme was US$ 72,855, of which the Global Partnership contributed 45% and IsDB 55%. The project took longer than originally anticipated, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and consequently, Global Partnership’s contribution may have been higher. S A T E L L I T E D A T A Satellite data is analysed to identify the characteristics of agricultural areas across all 45 departments of Senegal I N F O R M I N G P O L I C Y M A K I N G A N D P R O G R E S S O N T H E S D G S Agriculture, Deforestation, Water Management [ 181 ] T H E R O A D T O T H E S D G s | P R O G R E S S A N D A C H I E V E M E N T S