Blog / September 16, 2020
The GEO Community Survey is now live and we encourage all GEO stakeholders to take part.
Your answers will help to support the work of the GEO Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) Team. The MTE Team is conducting an assessment at the mid-point of implementing the GEO Strategic Plan 2016-2025. They have been tasked with providing a comprehensive evaluation of GEO encompassing the full scope of activities within GEO, in order to review progress made against Strategic Objectives.
In order to assess key questions that address changes introduced in the GEO Strategic Plan, the MTE Team needs insights and inputs from across the GEO community.
Please take some time to provide your perspective and help to inform the evaluation that will touch on broad areas of GEO including: the governance structure, implementation of GEOSS, user engagement and engagement priorities, GEO’s funding structure, and other key areas of GEO’s work.
The survey will be open until 30 September 2020, and we appreciate your participation. Please note this survey will take around 30 minutes. You will have the possibility to save your answers, log out and to return to it at your convenience.
The link to the survey is here.
For additional information, please refer to the GEO Virtual Symposium MTE Session Presentation and feel free to contact the MTE Team with any questions by sending an email to the GEO Secretariat here: secretariat@geosec.org
Background
The GEO Strategic Plan 2016-2025 set out the requirement for a comprehensive evaluation of GEO midway through the Strategic Plan period, encompassing the full scope of activities within GEO, in order to review progress made against the Strategic Objectives.
The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is an intergovernmental partnership of 111 Members and over 100 Participating Organizations. GEO envisions a future where decisions and actions for the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations. Together, the GEO community is creating a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) to better integrate observing systems and share data by connecting existing infrastructures using common standards. GEO activities are initiated, funded and carried out by partnerships of Member states, Participating Organizations and others. Support for GEO operations is provided by the GEO Secretariat, funded through voluntary contributions from GEO Members.
More about the GEO Mid-Term Evaluation Team
The MTE Team is leading the GEO Mid-Term Evaluation process. This includes setting the mandate and identifying the key questions being addressed, as well as an introduction to the methodology and how the GEO community can help to support this effort.
In setting out the GEO Strategic Plan 2016‐2025 the need to undertake two evaluations of GEO over this strategic plan period was identified:
Two comprehensive evaluations should be conducted with one mid‐way through the Strategic Plan period and the other near the end. The evaluations will address the full scope of the activities within GEO, although their primary focus should be on the Strategic Objectives and the expected results. The mid‐term evaluation will also include an assessment on the extent to which the priorities identified in the Mexico City Ministerial Declaration are being realized and re‐ orient / refine directions set out in the GEO Strategic Plan to take into account emerging trends and challenges.
The MTE Team will review the progress realized by GEO since 2015 and to assess the experience in implementing the changes introduced in the GEO Strategic Plan 2016‐ 2025. The MTE Team will also focus on key priorities identified in the Mexico City Declaration and key changes implemented in the GEO Strategic Plan 2016‐2025. The evaluation is intended to cover the full geographic extent of GEO (that is, global) as well as the full thematic range of GEO’s activities as represented by the GEO Work Programme.
The evaluation is conducted by an evaluation team of 10 members who have each been nominated by a GEO Principal (of either a GEO Member or a Participating Organization). The findings and recommendations of the MTE Team will inform any course corrections needed during the latter half of the Strategic Plan period.
The MTE Team will use tools such as surveys, interviews of key informants, case studies and reviewing of key documents to conduct the evaluation. The MTE Team will run from February 2020 to November 2021 where the conclusion will be presented to the GEO Executive Committee. The final MTE Report will be posted on the GEO website as a public document.
The primary audience for the final MTE Report will be the GEO governance bodies including the GEO Plenary, Executive Committee and Programme Board. Additional stakeholders include over 1000 contributors to the GEO Work Programme, as well as the many data providers, users of Earth observations data and information, and beneficiaries of the information products and services developed with the support of GEO.
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