Daily Times

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has invited qualified women to apply for its upcoming theoretical and hands-on training on the use of Earth observation (EO) and geospatial information technology (GIT). This exclusive training event, scheduled for June 13-16, is open only to women from the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan, says a press release issued here on Wednesday.

The four-day training course will provide young and early-career women with theoretical and practical knowledge to use EO data and GIT, with real-world examples from the HKH region. The 2023 edition will be conducted entirely online via Zoom. In the context of emerging environmental issues, participants can expect to learn a wide range of topics that can complement solutions and decision-making, including principles of geographic information systems (GIS), basic remote sensing (RS) concepts, image calculation and spectral indices, and mapping using open-source tools.

This builds on training is being organized for the past five years, ‘Empowering women in geospatial information technology’ (WoGIT) under our SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH) Initiative. In 2021, ICIMOD expanded the training to five HKH countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan. In March 2022, we organized an advanced training session for our 2021 alumni, and a regional WoGIT training in August 2022, reaching 400 women.

For the 2023 training, 200 young women with an academic background in geography, science, engineering, surveying, environmental science, and/or information technology will be provided the opportunity. Those who are interested in applying for this opportunity can use the form available at this link: https://servir.icimod.org/wogit-application-form/. The deadline for the submission of applications is May 26.