The workshop’s goal was to provide insights to policymakers on operator perspectives regarding the emergence of multiple national and regional SSA/STM providers around the world and the urgency to make progress in understanding how each provider generates their products and standards so that differences in data and outputs may be understood and mitigated.
The most striking outcome of the event came from the brief country updates during the last portion of the agenda. In the past eight years of this event, only a small number of countries reported progress in the development of their national-level SSA capabilities and in the development of their government’s organizational structures to accommodate the SSA mission. This year, all participating countries reported significant progress in those areas. This unprecedented enthusiasm for countries to report progress in this venue emphasizes the rising salience of SSA/STM issue around the world, the tangible reality of emerging national and regional SSA providers, and the rapidly growing imperative for international leadership by like-minded nations.
