Earth observation data are increasingly being integrated into World Bank operations, supporting climate resilience, infrastructure planning, agriculture, and development finance. Pictured, a satellite image of Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal. / Image: Shutterstock
“Data collected for one purpose have the potential to generate economic and social value in applications far beyond those originally anticipated.”
This idea, highlighted in the World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives, is increasingly shaping how development institutions think about data. Unlocking that value requires more than availability — it requires systems that enable reuse, integration, and equitable access to the benefits data can generate.
Geospatial and Earth observation (EO) data are a clear example of this shift. Originally developed for weather forecasting and environmental monitoring, they are now being applied to core development challenges — from climate risk to infrastructure planning. Their ability to provide consistent, high-frequency, and spatially detailed insights makes them a powerful complement to surveys and administrative data.
From data to operations: how the World Bank is scaling EO use
The World Bank’s Development Data Group is advancing the use of geospatial and EO data through a combination of financing, public goods, and operational support.
- Financing: The Global Data Facility supports the full data value chain — from traditional surveys to satellite-based insights — helping scale data-driven development.
- Public goods: Space2Stats produces standardized geospatial datasets at administrative levels and on global grids, improving comparability across countries and over time.
- Operational integration: The Geospatial Operations Support Team helps embed geospatial data into project design and implementation, ensuring that data translate into actionable evidence.
Together, these efforts are moving EO data from niche applications to routine use in development operations.
A partnership built for scale: European Space Agency and the World Bank
Over the past 15 years, the World Bank has partnered with the European Space Agency (ESA) to expand the use of EO data in development. This collaboration has been boosted by the advent of the European Copernicus Programme, which provides free and open access to satellite data from its fleet of Sentinels backed by sustained public investment with a long-term planning horizon.
Through ESA’s Global Development Assistance programme, this partnership focuses on addressing demand from Bank teams and client country stakeholders by converting raw satellite data into decision-ready products tailored to real-world needs. Since 2020, more than 87 World Bank projects across around 70 countries — from Colombia to Cambodia — have benefited.
Across these projects, about 80 distinct EO capabilities have been applied, including land use mapping, flood monitoring, vegetation analysis, and coastal ecosystem tracking. Rather than acting as stand-alone tools, these capabilities are integrated into project workflows and aligned with development priorities.
Figure 1. GDA Impact Dashboard highlighting activities with World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Standardizing methods to scale impact
One of the clearest lessons from this portfolio is that EO applications rely on recurring analytical patterns. Whether assessing drought, flood risk, or land use change, similar combinations of data layers are used to analyze climate risk, resource variability, and infrastructure vulnerability.
This repetition matters.
It suggests that EO methodologies can be standardized and reused across sectors—from agriculture and energy to urban development and water management. Treating these approaches as shared analytical building blocks, rather than sector-specific tools, opens the door to scale.
The benefits are practical:
- Reduced duplication across projects
- Greater consistency in analysis
- Improved comparability across countries
- More efficient investment design and risk screening
In a context where development institutions are expected to do more with limited resources, standardized EO approaches help scale impact without compromising quality.
Figure 2. Diverse use of flood-related (left) and agriculture-related (right) EO capabilities across World Bank Development Topics
From pilots to operations: what this looks like in practice
Across World Bank operations, EO applications are already moving beyond pilots — informing investments, strengthening systems, and supporting decision-making.
- Paraguay (agriculture): EO-based pasture monitoring was tested within an existing project and later informed a new lending component. Farmers gained access to better vegetation data, supporting improved grazing and resource management.
- Pakistan and the Philippines (statistics systems): EO-based indicators were integrated into crop reporting through ESA’s Sen4Stat platform. Starting with pilots and scaling to full implementation, this approach improved the timeliness and consistency of agricultural statistics.
- South Sudan (climate resilience): EO data were used to assess flood risks and guide investment design in a data-scarce environment. The work also supported the development of a national water information system and capacity building for government agencies.
- Bangladesh and Uganda (energy systems): EO-based risk analysis helped assess infrastructure exposure to floods, landslides, and extreme weather. This enabled more targeted, climate-resilient investments and demonstrated how methodologies can be transferred across countries.
These examples show how EO data move along different pathways — from analysis to investment, pilot to institutionalization, or analytics to operations — depending on the context.
Driving investment and supporting development priorities
These applications are closely aligned with major World Bank priorities, including agricultural transformation, expanded electricity access, and climate resilience.
They are also delivering measurable results.
To date, EO-supported activities have informed approximately $6 billion in development finance, particularly in energy, transport, environment, and agriculture. An additional $16 million has been mobilized for scaling, replication, and capacity building.
This demonstrates how data — when effectively integrated — can directly influence investment decisions and development outcomes. But the use of EO data across the World Bank is no longer experimental. It is becoming part of how operations are designed and implemented.
This shift reflects growing awareness, stronger partnerships, and more mature tools and methodologies facilitating operational adoption at scale. EO data are increasingly embedded across Global Departments, supporting routine analysis rather than isolated pilot projects.
Figure 3. From satellite data to development finance: ESA GDA and the World Bank
Looking ahead: scaling through partnership and public goods
The World Bank–ESA partnership continues to play a central role in this transition. It combines complementary strengths: the World Bank’s financing and country engagement with ESA’s technical expertise and access to Europe’s EO ecosystem.
Looking forward, this collaboration is evolving under ESA’s new Earth Action program, which spans the full EO value chain — from research to operational services. This approach supports:
- Continued technical assistance
- Development of reusable EO public goods
- Capacity building and skills transfer
The goal is clear: to move EO from promising innovation to fully embedded, repeatable, and scalable practice.
When that happens, satellite data are no longer just an additional input — they become a core part of how impact is catalyzed and development decisions are made.
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