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as in the humanitarian domain. For happen is there. We are very grate- very co-operative and actually play
development activities, we work with ful to CERN for hosting the UNOSAT an important role in the humanita-
UNDP and UNEP for example, as operations on its site. rian and development work we do.
well as closely with member states.
Q: We have an impression that With UNITAR being an extra-bud-
Q: Tremendous progress has your programme is a kind of getary independent institute of the
been made in global mapping. public/private
United Nations, our funding comes
partnership.
For instance, Google Earth pro- Where does your funding come from three sources:
vides satellite pictures. What from, and have you ever been i.) Volunteer contributions from UN
is the difference between your faced with funding problems member states consider our work
services and theirs? similar to the other humanita- has a positive and direct impact on
rian organizations? humanitarian relief and sustainable
Google Earth, and similar tools such development, as well as contributing
as Bing Maps, are excellent for the In fact UNOSAT is owned 100% by to much-improved cost-efficiency
general public and are also used by the UN. We are the Operational Sa- and accountability;
a range of humanitarian actors as a tellite Applications Programme of 2.) Participation in applied research
geographic platform to show data. the United Nations Institute for Trai- projects typically funded by the
One cannot perform geographic data ning and Research (UNITAR), which European Commission and founda-
analysis with these platforms, which has its headquarter here in Geneva. tions;
is why we resort to specialist GIS
software tools.

The satellite pictures you see on, for
example, Google Earth are in gene-
ral of very high quality. For example,
one can see a high level of detail over
large cities, but images are often less
clear in the areas in which we and the
humanitarian community operate.
In addition, the satellite photos you
see are typically several years old.
We can provide imagery on the same
day that the image was taken, while
sending out our maps and other pro-
ducts immediately. Those are the
main differences: we provide more
details and more up-to-date imagery
in situations where humanitarians
need information.

Q: You are based at CERN. Why
is that?

When UNOSAT started as a small
project funded by the European
Space Agency (ESA) and the French
Space Agency (CNES), CERN was
very interested to host us as it was a However, I like to think of UNOSAT 3.) Direct support on a cost-recovery
good initiative to demonstrate how as a good example of "the new UN". basis to:
IT knowledge and capacity already We are an effective programme of (a) sister agencies having a need for
available at CERN also could benefit highly dedicated specialists filling a UNOSAT services in, for example,
the United Nations and non-typical much-needed niche making conside- development projects, environmen-
CERN activities. It was evident from rable impact by using technology. We tal monitoring projects;
the beginning that the investment work closely with the private sector, (b) member states having needs for
made by CERN member states in IT since the detailed satellite images capacity development and GIS IT
capacity for nuclear research could we use originate from private com- infrastructure development.
with a minimum of extra effort also panies. I must say that our relations
benefit the humanitarian and deve- with the private sector work well By the way, check out our new
lopment causes. The economy of and it is also interesting to observe UNOSAT humanitarian rapid map-
scale of UNOSAT hosted at CERN is that by having relationships based ping video on YouTube.
another example of what can be done on clear agreements, combined with
with limited additional resources, as common sense and flexibility, the
long as the will to make something private companies we work with are

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