Inter-Agency Meeting on Outer Space Activities:
2023, Forty-second session

17-18 October 2023, Brindisi, Italy

Introduction 

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is pleased to announce that the forty-second session of UN-Space will be held from 17 to 18 October 2023 in collaboration with the Service for Geospatial, Information and Telecommunications Technologies at the United Nations Global Service Centre ( UNGSC) in Brindisi, Italy. This is the first time the meeting will be held in Brindisi, and UN-Space looks forward to leveraging new related opportunities for cooperation.

UN-Space would also like to take this opportunity to encourage entities of the United Nations system, in line with General Assembly resolution 77/121 of 12 December 2022 (A/RES/77/121) to participate, as appropriate, in UN-Space coordination efforts. 

Forty-second session of UN-Space

A two-day dedicated meeting of UN-Space, open to the participation of United Nations entities only, will be held from 17 to 18 October 2023.The meeting will include orientations on the latest developments in the peaceful uses of outer space, as well as discussions on UN-Space interlinkages with the Our Common Agenda Policy Brief 7, For All Humanity - the Future of Outer Space Governance.

Following on the joint meeting of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Working Group on Capacity-building and Data Democracy and UN-Space, held in March 2023, which focused on the identification of needs of Member States and United Nations entities for capacity-building in the use of space-based observations, the UN-Space secretariat will also include, as a portion of the forty-second session, a full day of demonstrations of technologies and training on tools to meet such needs. This will take place on 17 October and include a hands-on computer lab component. (Virtual participation in the training is also possible. Please contact the UN-Space Secretariat for details.)

Relevant documents for the meeting include:

Open day

The nineteenth open session of UN-Space is planned to take place on 19 October 2023, in conjunction with the forty-second meeting. The session will focus on the theme "Earth observation and integrated applications for disaster risk management and sustainable development". United Nations entities are encouraged to participate in the multistakeholder discussions, sharing information on their work with new audiences. Member States of the United Nations are also invited to join the open session.

Background on the Inter-Agency Meeting

The Inter-Agency Meeting is a mechanism set up in the mid-1970s to promote collaboration, synergy, exchange of information and coordination of plans and programmes of United Nations entities (departments, offices, funds, programmes and specialized agencies) in the implementation of activities involving the use of space technology and its applications. In December 2013, the General Assembly, in its resolution 68/75, recommended that the InterAgency Meeting on Outer Space Activities be referred to as "UN-Space".

Contacts and deadlines

We would appreciate receiving confirmation of attendance at the meeting at the earliest convenience, preferably by no later than 11 September 2023. For queries and attendance confirmation please contact the UN-Space secretariat at un-space[@]un.org.

Background reference documents

General Assembly resolutions

 

Copyright ©2024 UNOOSA, All Rights Reserved