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Activities Report March to October 2000
The United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) was formally established during its first meeting at Headquarters in New York from 28 to 30 March 2000. Over 70 representatives from various UN departments and agencies, non-governmental organizations and industry attended the meeting. A resolution with a list of work items was passed at the end of the meeting. The meeting report, presentation materials and papers were posted on the Cartographic Section web site at http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/htmain.htm. UNGIWG held two regional meetings in New York since its plenary meeting in March. On 14 June 2000, the Situation Centre of the Department of Peace-keeping Operations (DPKO) hosted the first New York regional meeting. Fifteen members representing DPKO, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), Department of Management (DM), Department of Political Affairs (DPA), Department of Public Information (DPI), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UNDP and UNICEF attended the meeting. Issues discussed at this meeting included the proposal prepared by the Cartographic Section for submission to the UN Foundation, potential data sharing among departments and agencies within Headquarters in New York, data and software licensing issues with Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) and the spatial data infrastructure workshop to be held at Headquarters in New York. On 25 July 2000, the Office to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNSO) of UNDP hosted the second New York regional meeting. Sixteen members representing DM, DPI, DPKO, OCHA, UNDP and UNICEF attended the meeting. Ms. Tish Williams of Space Imaging gave a presentation on her company's imagery products. Mr. Tom Bakkum of UNDP gave a presentation on "the use of geographic tools to monitor programme information in Kenya". UNDP also gave a brief presentation on their resident coordinator programme and environmental information systems (EIS). OCHA reported on their ad-hoc meeting on humanitarian relief, which was held at this year's ESRI International User Conference in San Diego. Members were also informed of the Geneva regional meeting and the 6th European Commission GI and GIS Workshop. The preliminary inventory form prepared by the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT) of FAO was also discussed. On 6 July 2000, the CCPOQ Secretary hosted the first Geneva regional meeting. Nine members representing DPI, Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), UNEP, UNHCR, UNOPS and WHO attended the meeting. Mr. Eckhard Hein gave an introduction of CCPOQ and expressed CCPOQ's full support to UNGIWG. As most of the meeting attendees did not attend the plenary meeting in March, questions were raised regarding the objectives and programme of work of UNGIWG. Ms. Alice Chow, Deputy Chair of UNGIWG, explained the work of UNGIWG and gave a summary of recommendations made at the plenary meeting. There was a dynamic and constructive exchange of ideas and comments. Representatives from each agency talked about their geographic information systems (GIS) activities. The group also discussed the spatial data infrastructure workshop to be held in Geneva. Ms. Brinda Wachs Shimizu of ECE agreed to be the workshop coordinator. UNHCR agreed to host the next Geneva regional meeting. FAO in Rome has agreed to host the next plenary meeting of UNGIWG from 5 to 7 December 2000. Ambassador Robert Fowler, former Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN, has tentatively agreed to be the keynote speaker subject to his schedule.
The Cartographic Section has prepared a proposal for the Programme Development Phase of the United Nations Geographic Database for funding consideration by the UN Foundation. The proposal includes some of the work items contained in the March resolution of UNGIWG. On 4 October 2000, the proposal was formally submitted to the Deputy Secretary-General as Chair of the UNFIP Advisory Board, under a supportive cover letter jointly signed by the heads of DPI, DPA and DPKO. Mr. Miklos Pinther, Chair of UNGIWG, made a presentation on the Working Group and its work to ECOSOC on 25 July 2000. A note on this presentation was included in the summary records of ECOSOC (E/2000/SR.38). Over 50 years ago, in 1948, ECOSOC passed a resolution (E/695) on "Co-ordination of cartographic services of specialized agencies and international organizations". In order to meet the future needs of the Organization, this resolution needs to be revised and strengthened. UNGIWG is taking the lead in efforts towards the passage of a resolution on geographic information from ECOSOC and the General Assembly. On 29 August 2000, the Office of the Deputy Secretary-General, together with UNFIP, convened a meeting of representatives from DPI DESA, DPA, DPKO and OCHA to review the status of the UN Geographic Database initiative, one of the principal objectives of UNGIWG. The meeting participants fully supported the initiative and agreed on several action items, which included: a letter from the Secretary-General to all heads of departments and agencies urging them to endorse and support this effort; a draft resolution on geographic information from the General Assembly; and a trust fund to support the ongoing financing of this effort. The Cartographic Section has been designated to lead the formulation of the plan of implementation of the GIS recommendation (20c) stated in the Report on the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (A/55/305-S/2000/809), chaired by Lakhdar Brahimi. The subgroup for this task was drawn from members of UNGIWG. The subgroup's implementation plan and recommendations were submitted to the Office of the Deputy Secretary-General on 29 September 2000. A concise statement on the GIS recommendation will be part of the submission to the GA. The Deputy Chair of UNGIWG is in the process of identifying task managers to lead the work items specified in the March resolution of UNGIWG. Task managers have been identified for metadata inventory, administrative boundaries development, cartographic standards and legal issues.
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