The Réseau Associates consist of a diverse group of women professionals with strong representation from around the world. Through Voices, we aim to amplify their voices and share their perspectives with a wider audience of geospatial and Earth observation practitioners, policymakers and decision makers.
We are proud to have 20 accomplished Réseau Associates on board, since Réseau was established in April 2023. These professional women from Africa, Asia, and Latin America face unique intersectional challenges related to race, ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status. By highlighting their perspectives, we seek to draw attention to these issues and promote a more inclusive worldview.
Here's a summary of blog posts by Réseau Associates from 2023, showcasing all the fantastic geospatial work they are doing and inviting you to engage.
Marwa Farouk ElKabbany, Nov 14 2023
Marwa discusses the pivotal role of geospatial information in driving sustainable development and how it provides insights into our current state, whilst enabling us to forecast challenges, identify root causes, and plan the path towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set forth by the United Nations, extending beyond the target year of 2030.
Aila Raquel, Nov 10 2023
Aila Raquel is a Brazilian success story. Her company ALYA SPACE has just signed a contract with Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group Limited worth over 600 million dollars to build Alya-1, a constellation of 108 satellites. This is another amazing step in Aila's EO journey as one of the only female entrepreneurs in the Brazilian space sector.
Kate Kallot, Oct 9 2023
We're thrilled for Reseau Associate Kate Kallot, who has been featured in TIME's list of the 100 most influential people in AI 2023. Réseau really believes in the collective power of collaboration and diverse teams. Kate is the Founder and CEO of Amini, a company on a mission to solve Africa's data scarcity by building its environmental data infrastructure using space and AI technologies. Congratulations Kate!
Rim Hazimeh, Sep 22 2023
Many of the Réseau Associates are the next generation of government policy and decision makers, as well as academics and business leaders. It's great to learn from them all. In this latest post in Voices, Rim Hazimeh highlights EIWP - Economic Irrigation Water Productivity. Water, the lifeblood of agriculture, is facing a global crisis as its finite resources continue to dwindle. In this challenging scenario, agricultural regions plagued by water scarcity are under pressure to make every drop of irrigation water count.
Stella Chelangat Mutai, Aug 29 2023
Africa is incredibly vulnerable to climate change, which is now becoming a defining challenge. This edition of Voices, a blog from our Réseau Associate Stella Chelangat Mutai, discusses how the rampant effects of climate variability are turning hazards into disasters, with environmental degradation having a critical effect on agricultural production and economic productivity.
Nicera Wanjiru Kimani, Aug 17
Réseau Associate Nicera covers waste management in East Africa in her latest blog, which is applicable around the world. Waste management is a topic that attracts the attention of both policy makers and those tackling waste. Poor waste management has immense adverse effects on the environment, such as blocking drainage systems, which in turn leads to flooding especially in urban settlements; degradation of beautiful places as waste is dumped in landfills, and the mountains of trash become havens for criminals and criminal activities.
Nhilce Esquivel, Jun 23
Nhilce, a young professional passionate about social justice, climate change, and water rights, asks 'how can we talk about water justice without first securing the human right to water and sanitation?'. In today's world, technology is reshaping our understanding of the planet and our relationship with it. Satellite data, Earth observations, and artificial intelligence (AI) are not just buzzwords - they are powerful tools that can help us move towards Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) - clean water and sanitation for all.
Samira Barzin, Jun 6
Samira Barzin (PhD) is a Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford working on combining Earth Observation (EO), big data and geospatial AI specifically for policy questions on economic development in countries of the global south. Samira explores how can we study, better understand, and ultimately find solutions for improving living standards of vulnerable places if we are missing vital information, in her latest blog post.
Abena Boatemaa Asare-Ansah, May 24
Abena, a Faculty Assistant at NASA Harvest, discusses the advantages of urban forests (clean air and water, carbon sequestration, stormwater run-off and mental well-being) and how an increase in urban forestry practices in Africa could have a huge positive impact.
Stella Chelangat Mutai, May 15
Stella writes about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the geospatial arena and how it’s important to distinguish the strength of geospatial technology and AI individually and the growth of the GeoAI industry.
Pooja Mahapatra, May 1
Pooja discusses how to truly address climate change, we need to ensure that DE&I (diversity, equity, and inclusion) is a fundamental component of geospatial data collection and analysis, technology development and use.
Abena Boatemaa Asare-Ansah, Apr 24
Abena talks about the relevance of Urban forestry Urban forestry and how this practice provides benefits, including improved air quality, decreased stormwater runoff, and the provision of wildlife habitat.
Congratulations to all Associates on a successful year. Réseau aims to increase the visibility and representation of women in leadership positions and international conversations in the geospatial arena. We believe that diverse teams generate innovative ideas, and we are collaborating with existing community groups to ensure a balanced approach.
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