Although the International Charter can only be activated by authorized members during emergencies, it can be activated for disasters in any country for acquisition and dissemination of space data to share with relevant national authorities.60 For the Asia-Pacific region, the International Charter was activated on average for 14 per cent of disaster events -15 times in 2012,25 in 2013, and 20 in 2014 - more than half of global activations in those years. This enhances the capacity to restore systems to functionality. By contrast, retrofitting such capabilities into existing systems is expensive and time-consuming. Countries should therefore consider additional forms of connectivity.