This presentation discusses the use of big Earth observation data for national development. It argues that the area of Earth Observations (EO) is undergoing a major change. Public space agencies are making petabytes of data openly available. Cloud services are reducing the need for investment on infrastructure. Machine learning methods are delivering much better results than earlier methods. Data cubes are allowing EO data to be organised for easy access and processing. However, this knowledge has be organised in ways that stakeholders and user communities can produce the information they need. A process of co-design is essential for the joint definition of sustainability challenges and the translation of these challenges into research needs. Stakeholders and academic participants need work together to establish the research goals and to agree on their roles. The presentation argues for the importance of State actions in developing countries to build institutions capable of actively promoting sustainable development using advanced data and tools.