WASHINGTON — Mercy Corps, the global relief organization headquartered in Portland, is teaming up with NASA help vulnerable communities around the planet build resilience against issues like population growth, political conflict, resource shortages and climate change.
NASA’s state-of-the-art Earth observation technology, including satellite data, coupled with Mercy Corps’ local insights gleaned from its work in more than 40 countries, could tackle some of the biggest development challenges on the planet, changing the way relief agencies respond to crises and natural disasters.
“We believe that equitable access to the Earth’s resources is a basic human right, and one that is essential for people to survive through crisis, build better lives and transform communities for good,” said Eliot Levine, Mercy Corps Director for Energy, Environment and Climate. “NASA’s data and unparalleled expertise can help us better understand the Earth’s resources in fragile areas where communities are increasingly vulnerable to existential threats like climate change and conflict. Our response to these challenges must become more sophisticated, transcending typical development and humanitarian practices.”
In a project in Niger, NASA and Mercy Corps are exploring how satellite data measuring groundwater changes can help the drought-prone country create sustainable livelihoods.
“This partnership enables NASA and Mercy Corps to amplify our collective capacities to reach communities in the most risk-prone regions of the world with the information they need the most,” said David Green, disasters program director in NASA’s Earth Science Division, Washington. “As NASA seeks to expand our understanding of the integrated Earth system from global to local scales, Mercy Corps’ extensive and practical knowledge of the human element – social, environmental, economic and political – is critical.”
The agencies hope the partnership will help national or municipal governments and local groups better create and run their own sustainable, data-driven programs to tackle the critical challenges they face.
