The FAO Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform is a comprehensive geospatial data sharing, analysis and service tool to accelerate the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG1 and SDG2.

The platform uses the most sophisticated tools available, including advanced geospatial modeling and analytics, to identify and maximize the opportunities to raise incomes, reduce inequalities.

The tool provides an evidence-based view of economic opportunities and aims at improving targeting and tailoring of policy interventions, driving innovation, encouraging finance and investment flows and institutional reform, making the initiative strongly aligned with WSIS Action Lines.

The integration of FAO’s broad thematic data sets (trade, crops, livestock, fishery, forestry, land, energy, water, climate and much more) facilitates access to the most up to date food and agriculture-related information.

The platform is driven by a unique cross-sectoral partnership bringing together the world’s leading public data providers: governments, UN agencies, NGOs, academia, private sector, and space agencies uniquely providing more than a million geospatial, bio-physical and socio-economic layers and thousands of searchable statistical time series and related metadata. This will provide users around the world with easy access to data, cutting-edge analysis and technical expertise to enhance local and national decision-making, increasing productivity, resource efficiency and market access and competitiveness.

http://www.fao.org/hand-in-hand/geospatial-platform/

• International

• The poor
• Remote and rural communities

The platform enables both down- and aggregation of data and evidence from micro-territories to national and global levels and vice versa. With the systematic adoption and integration of best-practice protocols and data policies, the platform ensures a secure and open data access while protecting the interests of partners who wish to utilize the platform while protecting trusted data.

First, the platform uses standard-based data federation methodologies, which make it easy to scale its data categories, coverage and system functionality. The platform not only serves the operations of the FAO flagship corporate initiative of Hand-in-Hand but is offered as a global public good that can be used for projects, programs, and initiatives by FAO, member countries, other UN agencies, and other public and private institutions and organizations working in the field of food and agriculture, natural resource sustainability, climate change, land use, fisheries, forestry, pastoralism, trade and many other subjects. The platform is open to users worldwide who wish to use the platform data and tools to develop their own applications.

Second, as some FAO’s regional, subregional, and country offices have already begun setting up their own application systems based on this platform, other UN and non-UN entities will be able to do the same. This because the platform not only serves as a benchmark for others in the field or other fields but because enables users to integrate data and evidence in their efforts with limited effort.

Third, the platform focuses on the food and agriculture, sector but its methodology, standards and systems are replicable in other domains that use geospatial IT.

The HiH geospatial platform has rapidly expanded, and will be sustained on the long term, together with partners that have shown interest in establishing a robust ecosystem of collaborative research partnerships. The network effects generated by the common nature of the platform, increase its value to all stakeholders involved and offer extraordinary value for money through increasing returns to scale. The open platform is designed to facilitate and foster cooperation among governments, leading technical and research institutions, the major Internet and IT-enabled services platform companies and interested public on a global scale. The fact that the platform is a public good and that it is governed by FAO Governing bodies ensures that will remain an inclusive platform and linked to the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development.

The use of the platform will reduce duplication of efforts, will promote effective collective action by facilitating cooperation among a large and highly diverse array of partners and will support building momentum through continuous engagement. It enables rapid access to a broad community of global users, to high quality primary as well as derivative/integrated agriculture-related data with easy-to-use interfaces.

Most importantly the platform enables innovation, through its multidisciplinary character and its sophisticated technical modeling tools that encourage the continued improvement of global standards. The provision of high-quality and very comprehensive geospatial data, modeling and analytics will play a crucial role in generating sound country analysis for sustainable development strategies at national and subnational levels, thereby encouraging further investment and partnership opportunities. So far, the platform has attracted more than 30,000 users and has been used in various projects and applications.

One of the primary objectives of the FAO Geospatial Platform is to provide evidence, data and analysis that supports efforts that accelerate the empowerment of poor and vulnerable rural populations. In particular generation of evidence that is based in comprehensive and multidisciplinary data and information will improve policy design and implementation and support raising production and productivity, incomes, generate employment opportunities as well as reducing inequalities. Unleashing the potential of geospatial data, information and knowledge for all stakeholders, aims to support policies in terms of developing spatially differentiated strategies, improve targeting for vulnerable population groups, youth, women, poor small farmers, fisherfolks, and pastoralists. It will have a significant impact on enabling partnerships, creating co-investment opportunities at sub national, national, and international levels, promoting the use of IT services to boost the diversification of pre- as well as post-production services and value chains that generate employment, for women and youth