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TomorrowNow Presents at Key Stakeholder Workshop Convened by Kenya Space Agency in Nairobi
February 18, 2024・4 min read

TomorrowNow Presents at Key Stakeholder Workshop Convened by Kenya Space Agency in Nairobi

TomorrowNow made a presentation at a stakeholder workshop about agriculture decision support tools convened by Kenya Space Agency in Nairobi.

Nairobi, Kenya – Our Regional Programme Coordinator Ronald Diang’a made a presentation about TomorrowNow.org’s programs, partnerships & impact at the Kenya Space Agency (KSA) Stakeholder workshop in Nairobi, Kenya focused on the utilization and development of Earth Observation decision support tools in support of the Agricultural sector.

The aim of the workshop was to convene key stakeholders from public institutions, development partners, research and intergovernmental institutions to craft an Earth Observation-supported Agriculture Decision Support tool that may be deployed by both the national and county government in Kenya.

The workshop participants crowded in insights about some of the approaches that may be used to develop and deploy Earth Observation (EO) products tailored to the agricultural sector as a climate adaptation intervention for the benefit of smallholder farmers. 

Here were the key objectives of the workshop:

  • Needs Assessment: In collaboration with government officials and farming representatives, identify specific agricultural decision-making challenges where EO data insights would be most valuable
  • Data and Product Design: Guided by expert input, determine the types of EO data (satellite imagery, weather, soil mapping, etc.) crucial for building informative decision support tools
  • Collaborative Development Framework: Facilitate cooperation between KSA, research institutions, geospatial technology companies, and government agriculture-based stakeholders to establish a clear roadmap for building and deploying the system
  • Knowledge Sharing: Promote sharing of technical expertise, resources, and lessons learned from existing agricultural EO projects within the region and wider community

Leveraging Satellite Data & Partnerships to Build Decision-Support Tools

TomorrowNow’s presentation was a key component of the workshop session “Data Ecosystem in the Agricultural Sector – Evolution of technology and innovations finding their way into the Agricultural value chains and potential to unlock Agriculture potential” as an opportunity to showcase learnings from the TomorrowNow-KALRO partnership in Kenya.

In addition, we shared outcomes from Phase 1 of our capstone program OSIRIS and highlighted some of the progress we have made to improve access to weather and climate data leveraging partnerships with both public and private institutions.

“TomorrowNow’s role is to help alleviate farmer uncertainty about weather patterns by leveraging innovative solutions developed in partnership with farmer-facing organizations to ultimately help at-risk farmers better prepare and make timely on-farm decisions” – Ronald Diang’a, Regional Programme Coordinator, TomorrowNow.org.

Participants at the Stakeholder Workshop acknowledged the need to work together in building tools driven by the needs of the smallholder farmer and powered by high quality inputs including weather data if we are going to enable climate adaptation for local farming communities.

A key message from the event was that crop scientists and farmer-facing agronomic experts must work together with data stewards & disseminators to ensure that they generate decision support tools that are relevant and useful to smallholder farmers at the frontlines of adverse weather and climate events.

We were thrilled to participate at the event and connect in-person with so many of our partners, friends & supporters from KALRO, Digital Earth Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CGIAR Excellence in Agronomy, CIAT, Kenya Space Agency and many more.

Georgina Campbell Flatter

Georgina Campbell Flatter

Georgina is the co-founder and Executive Director of TomorrowNow.org - a global non profit leveraging transformative philanthropy to connect next generation weather and climate technologies with communities in need. Prior to TomorrowNow.org, Georgina spent a decade at MIT where she was a senior lecturer and led global initiatives designed to bridge technology and social impact. Georgina has worked on many innovation initiatives for organisations including: the MIT Legatum Center, MIT REAP, the XPRIZE Foundation, the World Bank, USA Dept of Energy, MIT, Harvard and Oxford University. Georgina is mother of two, passionate about empowering the next generation of STEM leaders, with a focus on women and youth, and is an active member of her local community. She acts as trustee and advisory board member for several charities (The Darwin Centre, Mama Foundation, FOSPs) and is a local Parish Councillor. She read Material Science at Trinity College Oxford and Technology and Policy at MIT.