The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, at its sixty-first session held from 20 to 29 June 2018, agreed to introduce a new item on Space and global health in the agenda of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee (STSC), and also agreed that a working group, established under that agenda item, should be convened at the fifty-sixth session of the Subcommittee in 2019, with Antoine Geissbühler (Switzerland) as Chair. The Committee further agreed that the Chair of the newly established working group, together with the Secretariat, would present to the fifty-sixth session of the Subcommittee, a proposal for a multi-year workplan for that working group, taking into account the role of the Expert Group on Space and Global Health.
2019
2020
2021
2022
The Working Group is scheduled to hold four meetings during the fifty-ninth session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on 9, 10, 11 and 16 February 2022.
The Working Group will have before it the following documents:
In addition to the formal meetings, the Chair and interested delegations will hold extensive informal consultations on 8 and 11 February 2022. Click here [ link] to access the presentations delivered at the informal consultation.
At its meeting on 16 February 2022, the Working Group is scheduled to adopt its report.
Following on its agreement during the 58th session of STSC to hold intersessional meetings in order to advance our work in preparation of the upcoming STSC session in February 2022, the Working Group will hold its online meetings on Wednesday, December 1 st at 10:30am and at 3:30pm CET (Vienna time).
The goals of these meetings are to:
In order to maximize opportunities to attend, the meetings will take place at two different times on Wednesday, December 1 st, 2021:
The meetings was held on Zoom.
The workshop has been held in online format on 15 June 2021. In order to maximize opportunities to attend, the workshop took place at two different times: from 9am to 11am CEST and from 3pm to 5pm CEST (Vienna time). The purpose of this workshop is to:
In order to stimulate the discussion, there were three presentations to highlight ongoing activities and their challenges for knowledge management and sharing:
Click here for the recordings of the workshop.
The Working Group held four meetings during the fifty-eighth session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on 21, 22, 23, and 28 April 2021.
The Working Group had before it the note by the Secretariat entitled "Responses to the set of questions regarding policies, experiences and practices in the use of space science and technology for global health" ( A/AC.105/C.1/119, A/AC.105/C.1/119/Add.1, A/AC.105/C.1/119/Add.2, A/AC.105/C.1/119/Add.3, A/AC.105/C.1/2021/CRP.21 and A/AC.105/C.1/2021/CRP.25). The Working Group also had before it A/AC.105/C.1/2021/CRP.7*, A/AC.105/C.1/2021/CRP.8, and Non-paper about the Space and Health Globally Accessible Platform (SH-GAP).
In addition to the formal meetings, the Chair and interested delegations held extensive informal consultations on the margins of the session on 20 April and 23 April 2021.
At its meeting on 27 April, the Working Group has adopted its report.
In line with the request of the Working Group on Space and Global Health (A/AC.105/1202, Annex III, para. 9), communication Ref: OOSA/2019/11 - CU 2019/319(A)/OOSA/CPLA was circulated by Secretariat on 18 July 2019, inviting States members of the Committee to provide the details of national points of contact for the Working Group and communicate their names to the Office for Outer Space Affairs.
Nominations of the following national points of contact were received:
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State |
National Point of Contact |
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Algeria |
Mr. Tahar Iftene, Directeur d'Etudes à l'Agence Spatiale Algérienne |
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Argentina |
Ms. Ximena Porcasi, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE) |
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Armenia |
Ms. Naira Mkhoyan, Chief Expert of the EU and International Organizations Division of the International Cooperation Department, Ministry of High-Tech Industry |
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Australia |
Mr. Michael Cook, Office of the Space Regulator, Australian Space Agency |
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Bolivia |
Mr. Farid Velásquez Barrón, Ingeniero en Regulación y Gestión de Recursos de O&F, Agencia Boliviana Espacial |
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Mr. Ricardo Flores Saavedra, Profesional Técnico del Programa Nacional de Gestión de Riesgos de Desastres en Salud, Ministerio de Salud y Deportes |
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Ms. Luisa Rivera Zabala, Profesional Técnico en Telegerencia del Programa Nacional de Telesalud, Ministerio de Salud y Deportes |
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Bulgaria |
Mr. Michel Israel, Department for Physical Factors, National Center for Public Health |
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Ecuador |
Ms. Cecilia León, Directora Nacional de Medicamentos y Dispositivos Médicos |
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Ms. Julia Jumbo, Especialista de Selección de la Dirección Nacional de Medicamentos y Dispositivos Médicos |
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Ms. Verónica Pozo, Analista de la Dirección Nacional de Normalización |
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Mr. José Mosquera Salazar, Especialista de Ambiente y Salud |
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Mr. Carlos Andrés Guerra Padilla, Gerente Institucional de Implementación del Servicio de Contact Center |
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Mr. Jonathan Andrés Granda Quezada, Analista Subsecretaría Nacional de Provisión de Servicios de Salud |
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Ms. Mónica Cañas, Especialista de la Dirección Nacional de Vigilancia de la Salud |
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Ms. Shirley Granda, Analista de la Dirección Nacional de Vigilancia de la Salud |
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Egypt |
Mr. Haitham Akah, Egyptian Space Agency |
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Germany |
Mr. Maximilian Betmann, DLR Space Administration |
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Hungary |
Mr. Andras Eger, Department of Space Activity, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade |
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India |
Mr. Tushar R. Phadnis, ISRO Technical Liaison Unit, EOI, Paris |
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Indonesia |
Mr. Oscar Primadi, Secretary-General, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia (NPC) |
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Mr. Robertus Heru Triharjanto, Director of Center for Aerospace Policy Studies, National Institute of Aeronautics and Space |
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Ms. Pretty Multihartina, Director of Centre for Analysis on Health Determinants, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia |
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Japan |
Ms. Nanoko Ueda, Outer Space Researcher, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (57th session of STSC) |
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Ms. Kagiwada Yoko, Researcher, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan (58th session of STSC) |
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Mr. Akihiro Iwaki, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Japan to the International Organizations in Vienna |
| Jordan |
Mr. Abdallah Alghrair, Royal Jordanian Geographical Center |
| Malaysia |
Mr. Azlikamil Napiah, Director General, Malaysian Space Agency |
| Mexico |
Ms. Rosa María Ramírez De Arellano y Haro, Mexican Space Agency |
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Ms. Fabiola Vázquez Torres, Mexican Space Agency |
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Paraguay |
Mr. Alejandro J. Roman Molinas, General Director of Execution and Aerospace Development |
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Philippines |
Mr. Joel Joseph S. Marciano, Director General, Philippine Space Agency |
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Mr. Jaime C. Montoya, Executive Director, Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, Department of Science and Technology |
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Republic of Korea |
Ms. Hyeji Kim, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, Assistant Director, Department of International Affairs |
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Saudi Arabia |
Mr. Jameel Abualenain, General Supervisor, General Administration of Emergency and Disasters and Ambulance Transport |
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Singapore |
Ms Andrea Leong, Senior Manager, Office for Space Technology and Industry |
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Slovakia |
Ms Iveta Rusinová, Space Policy Department, Space Office of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic |
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Thailand |
Mr. Mathuros Tipayamongkholgkul, Deputy Dean for International Relations and Networking, Faculty of Public Heath, Mahidol University |
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Turkey |
Mr. Murat Çamur, Acting Head of Department of Health Information Systems Office |
In accordance with the Workplan of the Working Group on Space and Global Health (A/AC.105/1202, Annex III, Appendix I, para. 9), a questionnaire, developed by the Working Group, has been circulated by the Secretariat, to elicit the contributions of States members of the Committee, international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations with permanent observer status with the Committee, United Nations entities, the Group on Earth Observations, the World Organization for Animal Health, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Doctors Without Borders on experiences and practices in the use of space science and technology for global health, and on practices and initiatives, current or planned (concepts, science, capacity-building and operations) in the use of space (technology, applications, practices and initiatives) in support of global health and for attaining the health-related Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Responses to the questionnaire were received from: Algeria, Argentina, Australia (in 2019), Australia (in 2020), Bolivia, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Japan (in 2019), Japan (in 2020), Malaysia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey; European Union [ EU file1, EU file2], COSPAR, ESCAP, ITU, SGAC, UNEP.
Edited documents entitled "Responses to the set of questions regarding policies, experiences and practices in the use of space science and technology for global health" are available from the following links: A/AC.105/C.1/117, A/AC.105/C.1/117/Add.1, A/AC.105/C.1/117/Add.2, A/AC.105/C.1/119, A/AC.105/C.1/119/Add.1, A/AC.105/C.1/119/Add.2, A/AC.105/C.1/119/Add.3 .
Informal online meeting of the Space and Global Health Working Group on COVID-19 was held online on Friday 12 June 2000 13.30-15.00 (Vienna time).
Agenda
1:30pm Antoine Geissbuhler: welcome address
1:35pm Chandana Unnithan: Space derived applications for Contact tracing and Senior care in the Covid era [ Presentation]
1:50pm Melanie Platz: Development of GPS-tailored questionnaires to derive measures for psychological support during the corona-crisis [ Presentation]
2:05pm Ilaria Cinelli: Knowledge transfer from space medicine to contain epidemics and pandemics [ Presentation]
2:20pm Caroline Perrin: the GHEID, a platform for knowledge sharing about implementation and evaluation of digital health [ Presentation]
2:30pm General discussion
3:00pm End of the e-meeting
The Working Group held three meetings in February 2020 during the first week of the fifty-seventh session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee.
The Working Group had before it the note by the Secretariat entitled "Responses to the set of questions regarding policies, experiences and practices in the use of space science and technology for global health" ( A/AC.105/C.1/117, A/AC.105/C.1/117/Add.1 and A/AC.105/C.1/117/Add.2). The Working Group found that the process of responding to the set of questions had also enabled constructive discussions at the national level between the space and health sectors, and that the responses provided rich and useful information that would guide the Working Group further in shaping its recommendations to the Subcommittee. In that regard, the information that had been collected should be organized, as it covered many areas, with a view to establishing a globally accessible platform to enhance the sharing of information, best practices, tools and capacity-building resources in the area of space and global health. The Working Group agreed to prepare recommendations as to the role and structure of the globally accessible platform.
In addition to the formal meetings, the Chair and interested delegations had held extensive informal consultations on the margins of the session. In the context of the informal consultations, the following presentations have been delivered:
The informal consultations had enabled experts to discuss the responses received to the questions regarding policies, experiences and practices in the use of space science and technology for global health, identify possible gaps in national, regional and international capacities in using space science and technology and their applications for global health, and review mechanisms to facilitate the sharing of information, strengthen capacity-building and foster new synergies between the space and health sectors.
The Working Group recommended that public health and medical experts be included in delegations to the sessions of the Subcommittee in order to broaden the basis for constructive work by the Working Group.
The Working Group agreed that the Office for Outer Space Affairs should send a letter to the World Health Organization to inform it of the work of the Working Group and of the importance of receiving additional responses to the questionnaire; invite further contributions to the questionnaire; and to continue to invite States members of the Committee to provide the details of national points of contact for the Working Group.
At its 3rd meeting, on 13 February, the Working Group adopted its report. The Report of the Working Group is available in: عربي, 中文, English, Français, Русский, Español.
The Working Group, convened in February 2019, held three meetings, at which it agreed on its method of work and multi-year workplan. The Report of the Working Group is contained in Annex III of the Report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on its fifty-sixth session, held in Vienna from 11 to 22 February 2019.
The Report of the Working Group is available in: عربي, 中文, English, Français, Русский, Español.
The Report of the Subcommittee is available in: عربي, 中文, English, Français, Русский, Español.
On 13-14 February 2019, the Working Group held informal meetings at which participants heard presentations delivered by the Russian Federation, the United States of America, the observers for the European Space Agency, the Space Generation Advisory Council, and academia. In addition, the Working Group benefited from presentations by Australia and France, delivered during the plenary session of STSC.
At its meeting in 2019, the Working Group noted that the University of Koblenz-Landau (Germany) would help the Working Group in setting up a shared information resource to promote the development of free and open educational resources on space and global health. That resource would provide an additional source of information and would be set up in coordination with the establishment of the web page for the Working Group by UNOOSA.
The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space at its fifty-ninth session in 2016, agreed on seven thematic priorities of UNISPACE+50, a 2018 commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE).
Thematic priority 5 of UNISPACE+50, on Strengthened space cooperation for global health, had the following objectives:
The United Nations/World Health Organization/Switzerland Conference on Strengthening Space Cooperation for Global Health was organized as a flagship conference under the UNISPACE+50 Thematic priority 5. The Conference was organized jointly by the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Government of Switzerland, with support from the European Space Agency (ESA),and hosted by WHO at its headquarters in Geneva from 23 to 25 August 2017.
To advance the work in the area of space and health, the Expert Group on Space and Global Health of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space had been established in 2014 and had held four meetings in the period 2015-2018.
Action Team 6 Follow-up Initiative (AT6-FUI) under the leadership of the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany, held a series of workshops with the support of the Office of Outer Space Affairs, to promote the creation of an open community approach to apply spatial methods in addressing targeted health issues in the world.
The outcome document of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space ( UNISPACE III), entitled "The Space Millennium: Vienna Declaration on Space and Human Development" declared that in:
The Action Team on Public Health (action team 6) was officially created in 2001 to follow up the implementation of the health-related recommendations of UNISPACE III . The Action Team's mission was defined as to foster the implementation of tele-health for developing countries and improve public health services by facilitating the application of space technologies in early warning of infectious diseases. In 2011, the action team produced its Final Report.
Additional background documents:
For more documents, search the Documents Database.