Speakers Bio & Abstract

 
KRYSTAL WILSON Project Manager
Secure World Foundation
USA

BiographyKrystal Wilson is a Project Manager at Secure World Foundation where she heads the Human and Environmental Security portfolio.
Prior to joining SWF, Ms. Wilson was a satellite policy consultant at Access Partnership and a project manager at the Tauri Group, providing research, analysis, strategic planning, and regulatory assessment to government and commercial clients.
Previously, Ms. Wilson was in the field of international development as a Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at Development Alternatives, Inc in Afghanistan working on US military and local government initiatives and as Senior Program Assistant at the National Democratic Institute in Africa and Washington, DC working on sustainable governance projects. In those roles, she worked closely with the United Nations, the World Bank, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, US and international nonprofits, and others. Abstract Using Geospatial Data across Every SDGBuilding on the successes of the original 8 Millennium Development Goals, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) officially came into force on 1 January 2016. They include provisions on: poverty, hunger, health, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, energy, livelihood and economic growth, industry and infrastructure, inequality, cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, sustainable water resources, sustainable land resources, governance and justice, and global partnerships. Though the SDGs are not legally binding, all countries agreed to build out national frameworks for achievement of the goals including monitoring progress.
However, the goals are not meant to be achieved by state action alone and will require the commitment of many international actors working in a variety of innovative ways. Geospatial technologies are a cost-effective way of collecting information about large, relatively unpopulated or difficult to access areas and have already been integrated successfully in many programs on agriculture, water, land use planning, disaster management, and climate change. This talk will explore how Earth observation technology, integrated with large statistical frameworks, can be used to address some of challenges faced in achieving the SDGs, with a particular focus on less traditional areas such as poverty reduction, small-scale infrastructure, health, human rights, and governance. It will examine implemented and proposed case studies and analyze barriers to expanding the use of Earth observation and statistical data.