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President Stig Enemark attended the Second
Preparatory Meeting of the Proposed United Nations Committee of
Experts on Global Geographic Information Management held in New
York, 10-11 May 2010.
The meeting was organized by United Nations
Statistics Division (UNSD) of the Department for Economic and Social
Affairs (DESA) in cooperation with the Cartographic Section of the
Department of Field Services (DFS). Experts from 16 countries
(Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Egypt,
Finland, Germany, Guatemala, India, Japan, Mexico, Republic of
Korea, UK, USA) and 15 Regional and International Organizations
(EuroGeographics, EUROGI, FIG, ICA, IHO, IGU, ISCGM, ISPRS, GSDI,
GEO/GEOSS, Joint-Board of GIS/ESRI, ISO/TC 211, OGC, UNGEGN, PSMA)
attended the Meeting that was chaired by Mr. Paul Cheung,
Director of UNSD and co-chaired by Mr. Luiz Paulo Fortes
(Brazil) and Mr.
Hiroshi Murakami (Japan).
Mr.
Paul Cheung, Director UNSD chairing the meeting. |
UN building in proper perspective
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This second preparatory meeting was following the
first meeting held in Bangkok in October 2009 see:
http://www.fig.net/news/news_2009/bangkok_october_2009.htm
with the purpose to establish a global mechanism for discussion and
coordination of critical issues in the field of geographic
information management.
The meeting confirmed the need and relevance of such
a global mechanism, in order to respond effectively to the need for
multi-layered information on global issues and during humanitarian
crises, and to support sustainable development and place-based
development strategies.
Many participants stressed that the global forum
would provide a unique opportunity for knowledge transfer and
capacity building. In this context the importance of “enablement” to
achieve desired specific results was stressed, rather than just the
provision of general capacity building support.
FIG President Stig Enemark emphasised the need for
such a global forum to integrate land administration, cadastre and
land registration functions with topographic mapping programs within
the context of wider national strategies for spatial data
infrastructures. This should be reflected within the UN strategy for
Global Geographic Information Management (GGIM).
The meeting reviewed practical models for a global
architecture on GGIM. It was recognized that the model should
include well defined official national membership and regular annual
meetings. It was furthermore recognized, that in the field of
geographical information, professional organizations, such as GSDI,
FIG, ICA, ISPRS, the Joint Board of GIS, UNGEGN would have to play
an important supportive role and would in turn see their specialized
initiatives facilitated under the wider UN umbrella.
It was suggested that a new global architecture
could consist of an Expert Committee and a Global Forum. The Expert
Committee would meet more frequently - possibly annually - and be
charged to coordinate specific areas of work. The Global Forum could
help to provide a venue for a more global approach to geographic
information and better advocacy to politicians and decision makers.
Such a Global Forum could bring all member states together and
address critical issues through an inter-governmental mechanism.
The meeting reached the conclusion that a global
mechanism on geographic information management under the auspices of
the United Nations is required and supported the idea of moving
ahead with plans to organize and formalize this. The United Nations
Economic and Social Council in its forthcoming session in July 2010
has been requested to commission a report on this issue and will
provide the opportunity to develop detailed proposals on the scope
and the modalities of the global mechanism for adoption in 2011.
In this context, the announcement of the Republic of
Korea to offer to host a Global Forum in the second half of 2011 was
warmly welcomed.
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