About

A Global Geospatial Information programme

The Global Geospatial Information programme in the Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, supports the intergovernmental mechanism of the Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management, the Group of Experts on Geographical Names, the coordination of its Centres of Excellence on geodesy, knowledge and innovation, and geospatial ecosystem, as well as advancing activities related to the integration of geospatial and statistical data.

The United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management

The United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN‑GGIM) serves as the apex intergovernmental mechanism for making joint decisions and setting strategic direction on the production, availability, integration, and use of geospatial information within national, regional, and global policy frameworks. Through its normative work, policy frameworks, and collaborative initiatives, the Committee supports Member States in advancing and maximizing the value of geospatial information and supporting the development of geospatial capacities for sustainable development, leaving no one behind, and addressing national priorities. Serving as the principal global forum for policy dialogue and decision-making in the field of geospatial information management, UN-GGIM ensures that geospatial data and technologies are integrated into broader development and governance frameworks. The Global Geospatial Information Management Section serves as the Co-Secretariat of the Committee of Experts, along with the Geospatial Information Section in the Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT).

The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names

The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) promotes the importance of standardization of geographical names at international and national levels. Standardized geographical names are critical for legal perspectives, administrative and reliable identification and directions to a place. The Group of Experts plays an active role in facilitating the establishment of principles, policies and methods for establishing and promoting the standardization of geographical names and promotes the recording of locally-used names reflecting the languages and traditions of a country. The Group of Expert's goal is for every country to determine its own nationally standardized names through the creation of national names authorities or recognized administrative processes.

The Centres of Excellence

The Global Geospatial Centres of Excellence, Offices Away from Headquarters, are under the substantive oversight of the Director of the Statistics Division. The Global Geospatial Centres of Excellence include the United Nations Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence (UN-GGCE) located in Bonn, Germany; the United Nations Global Geospatial Knowledge and Innovation Centre (UN-GGKIC) located in Deqing, China; and, currently under establishment, the United Nations Global Geospatial Ecosystem Centre of Excellence (UN-GGECE), to be located in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Each Centre of Excellence has a specific substantive focus. The UN-GGCE assists Member States and geodetic organizations to coordinate and collaborate to implement the General Assembly resolution on Geodesy (A/RES/69/266) and to sustain, enhance, access and utilize an accurate, accessible and sustainable Global Geodetic Reference Frame (GGRF) to support science, society and global development. Recognizing the importance of developing and advancing geospatial capacities and capabilities worldwide, the UN-GGKIC supports the development and promotion of the knowledge, innovation, and leadership required to strengthen the adoption of geospatial information to support the implementation of national development priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals, leveraging the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF). The UN-GGCE aims to support Member States and stakeholders to progress towards a future geospatial ecosystem where geospatial information contributes to sustainable real-world solutions to humanity’s many challenges, leveraging high-quality, timely, reliable location-based information, analytics, technologies and artificial intelligence systems towards new geospatial approaches and capabilities.

Links to other subsidiary bodies of the Economic and Social Council

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is one of the six Charter Bodies of the United Nations, with UN-GGIM and UNGEGN being part of a diverse family of subsidiary bodies and UN entities (Organigram) dedicated to sustainable development, providing overall guidance and coordination. These include regional economic and social commissions, functional commissions facilitating intergovernmental discussions of major global issues, expert bodies establishing important global normative frameworks, and specialized agencies, programmes and funds at work around the world to translate development commitments into real changes in people’s lives.

With regard to the Global Geospatial Information programme of the United Nations, there are strong interlinkages with the other subsidiary bodies of ECOSOC, including the Statistical Commission, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and others.

  • The Statistical Commission is the highest body of the global statistical system bringing together the Chief Statisticians from Member States from around the world, responsible for setting of statistical standards and the development of concepts and methods, including their implementation at the national and international level. An Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information (EG-ISGI) was established under both the Statistical Commission and UN-GGIM. The Expert Group provides high-level coordination and a forum for dialogue, among representatives of both the statistical and geospatial communities, on global efforts relating to the integration of statistical and geospatial information and plays a leadership role by raising awareness and highlighting the importance of reliable, timely, fit-for-purpose, and integrated statistical and geospatial information to support social, economic, environmental, and resilience policy decision making, including at the sub-national and regional levels. The UN-GGIM and Statistical Commission endorsed the Global Statistical and Geospatial Framework, second edition (GSGF) respectively in 2025 and 2026.
  • The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is a high- level advisory body to the Economic and Social Council. The Forum was established on 28 July 2000 by resolution 2000/22, with the mandate to deal with Indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. The UNGEGN Working Group on Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage has a specific focus on Indigenous Geographical Names and is working across both bodies to advance norms, policies and frameworks that support the integration of indigenous geographical names into national standardization practice.

From its establishment in 1945, the United Nations has recognized the essential role of maps and geospatial information in supporting its political, human rights, peace and security, and development mandates and agendas. Cartographic services were initially embedded within the United Nations Secretariat to support reporting, boundary clarification, decolonization processes, and operational decision‑making.

In 1948, the Economic and Social Council in resolution 131(VI) recommended that Governments of Member States stimulate surveying and mapping of their national territories and that the Secretary-General of the United Nations take appropriate action to further such efforts. In 1949, a Committee of Experts on Cartography was appointed by the Secretary-General to study the problem and advise upon the means of its implementation, marking the first formal intergovernmental mechanism within the UN system dedicated to geography and mapping sciences. The Committee sought to answer what should the United Nations do to stimulate and assist Member States in the development of the mapping sciences, and what sort of cartographic service did the United Nations need to carry out this program, for its own operations and in its relations with the Specialized Agencies. As a result of the work and recommendations of the Committee two parallel streams were set up within the Organization: a cartography office was established under Conference Services to support the operations and mandates of the Organization; and the convening of regional cartographic conferences was initiated as the first regional conference in Asia and the Far East took place in 1954.

In 1953, ECOSOC resolution 476 (XV) on “International Co-operation on Cartography” and its subsequent resolutions led to the holding of regional cartographic conferences by the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific (UNRCC-AP), the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas (UNRCC-A), and the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conferences for Africa.

In 1959, the Economic and Social Council, in its resolution 715 A (XXVII) requested the Secretary-General to set up a small group of consultants to consider the technical problems of domestic standardization of geographical names, including the preparation of a statement of the general and regional problems involved, to prepare draft recommendations for the procedures, principally linguistic, that might be followed in the standardization of their own names by individual countries and to report to the Council on the desirability of holding an international conference on this subject and of the sponsoring of working groups based on common linguistic systems. The First United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN) was held at Geneva from 4 to 22 September 1967. On the basis of the recommendations of the Conference, the Council, in its resolution 1314 (XLVI) of 31 May 1968, approved the terms of reference for the Ad Hoc Group of Experts, which was renamed the “United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names” by a Council decision of 4 May 1973. The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names promotes the importance of standardization of geographical names at international and national levels. Standardized geographical names are critical for legal perspectives, administrative and reliable identification and directions to a place.

In 2009, in recognition of the paradigm shift from cartography to geospatial information management, at the first preparatory meeting of the proposed United Nations Committee on Global Geographic Information Management, countries reaffirmed the global nature of modern geospatial information management and the need for its coordination. The subsequent second and third preparatory meetings supported the establishment of UN‑GGIM by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on 27 July 2011, through resolution 2011/24. Through this resolution, ECOSOC recognized the growing importance of geospatial information for sustainable development and global decision‑making. The Terms of Reference annexed to resolution 2011/24 provided the initial objectives, functions and operational modalities for the Committee, comprising experts from all Member States, as well as experts from international organizations as observers. Accordingly, UN-GGIM convened its inaugural session in Seoul, Korea from 24 to 26 October 2011 and has held annual sessions since.

Furthermore, in making resolution 2011/24, ECOSOC requested the Committee of Experts to present to the Council, in 2016, a comprehensive review of all aspects of its work and operations, in order to allow Member States to assess its effectiveness.

In January 2016, pursuant to Council resolution 2011/24, and following a year-long consultative process with Member States, the Committee of Experts submitted to ECOSOC its report containing the comprehensive review of the work and operations of the Committee of Experts (E/2016/47) entitled "Programme review of the work of the Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management".

On 27 July 2016, following the comprehensive programme review of the Committee's work and operations, ECOSOC adopted resolution 2016/27 entitled "Strengthening institutional arrangements on geospatial information management". The resolution broadened and strengthened the mandate of the Committee of Experts as the relevant body on geospatial information consisting of government experts, and to report on all matters relating to geography, geospatial information and related topics. In making resolution 2016/27, noting the increasing role and relevance of the Committee of Experts, ECOSOC requested that the Committee report back to the Council, no later than in five years' time, on the implementation of the resolution and to examine the strengthening of the institutional arrangements of the Committee.

At the 11th UNCSGN in August 2017, the Conference decided that the UNCSGN and the UNGEGN be discontinued in their current formats and be subsumed by a subsidiary body of ECOSOC that will retain their respective mandates, and that the UNGEGN will convene biennial sessions, in principle, over a period of five days, beginning in 2019. The creation of the "new" UNGEGN was approved on 10 November 2017 in ECOSOC resolution 2018/2.

In June 2022, pursuant to Council resolution 2016/27, following a global consultation and review process involving Member States and finalized by the Bureau, the Bureau of the Committee of Experts transmitted to the Council, via letter to the Vice-President of ECOSOC, its report on strengthening institutional arrangements on geospatial information management (E/2022/68) entitled "Enhancing global geospatial information management".

On 22 July 2022, ECOSOC welcomed and noted the report from the Committee of Experts (E/2022/68) and adopted resolution E/RES/2022/24 entitled "Enhancing global geospatial information management arrangements". The resolution acknowledges the achievements and progress made by the Committee of Experts in the area of global geospatial information management and its contribution to the strengthening of geospatial information management capacities and utilization in developing countries. The resolution reiterates the importance of strengthening and enhancing the effectiveness of the Committee, particularly for the achievement of its operations focused on the Sustainable Development Goals and the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework, to strengthen and ensure its continued effectiveness and benefit to all Member States. Further, the resolution updates and modifies the Terms of Reference for the Committee of Experts.

The United Nations system, beyond the United Nations itself, comprises many funds, programmes and specialized agencies, each of which have their own area of work, responsibilities, leadership and budget. The UN Geospatial Network is a coalition of United Nations entities that use and manage geospatial information management for the delivery of their respective mandates. The Network’s mission is to strengthen the coordination and coherence of geospatial information management within the United Nations system, including its overarching trends, technology, practices, data, needs, capacity building, and partnerships, ultimately to promote synergies and enable the United Nations system to “Deliver as One.”

The United Nations Geospatial Network was established by the Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) through decision 7/115 made at its seventh session in 2017; its first Terms of Reference were endorsed at its eighth session in 2018 through decision 8/115; and, the initial composition of the the Network was agreed during the ninth session of UN-GGIM in August 2019. The Network is represented by the senior-most professionals working in the field of geospatial information management, and is led by a Chair, two Vice-Chairs and a Steering Group. Further information on the UN Geospatial Network, one of the four Thematic Networks under the Committee of Experts, is available on its website including latest activities, publications and composition.

Prior to the UN Geospatial Network, from 2000 to 2014, inter-agency activities of the UN system on geospatial information management were organized through the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) . The final report of the UNGIWG was presented at the fourth session of the Committee of Experts.