Strengthening Institutional Arrangements on Geospatial Information Management

E/RES/2016/27View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Economic and Social Council, under agenda item 18iCartography, published in 2016.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

4 entities

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 topics

Geographic Information Systems Geospatial Information Management Resources Mobilization Sustainable Development

What does this mandate say?

15 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the report of the Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management on the review of its work;

Acknowledges the considerable achievements and progress made by the Committee of Experts in the area of global geospatial information management over the past five years and its contribution to the strengthening of geospatial information management capacities and utilization in developing countries;

Welcomes the efforts of the Committee of Experts to streamline the work of the four current subsidiary bodies of the Economic and Social Council in the field of geospatial information management, namely the Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management, the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conferences for the Americas and for Asia and the Pacific, respectively, and the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names and its related United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names;

Recognizes that the Committee of Experts has operated effectively and in line with the mandate given by the Council over the past five years, producing tangible outputs, and that the Committee is well placed to continue to contribute to the work of the United Nations, especially in the context of efforts to assist Member States in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030,1 the Paris Agreement on climate change and the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway;2

Stresses the need to strengthen the coordination and coherence of global geospatial information management, in capacity-building, norm-setting, data collection, data dissemination and data sharing, among others, through appropriate coordination mechanisms, including in the broader United Nations system, building on the work of the Committee of Experts;

Acknowledges the importance of strengthening capacity-building in the area of geospatial information management and relevant statistical integration, especially in developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States;

Decides to broaden and strengthen the mandate of the Committee of Experts as the relevant body on geospatial information consisting of government experts, in a cost-neutral manner, with any additional costs to the Committee being offset by the cessation of the mandates of the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conferences for Asia and the Pacific and for the Americas;

Also decides that the formal United Nations regional cartographic conferences are no longer a necessary requirement and, in order to streamline and avoid duplication, that the meetings of the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conferences for Asia and the Pacific and for the Americas shall cease forthwith;

Confirms the inclusion of the annual session of the Committee of Experts within the regular United Nations calendar of conferences and meetings under the Council, inclusive of the provision of dedicated United Nations conference management services and full support for the annual session of the Committee;

Decides that the substantive mandates and obligations of the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conferences for Asia and the Pacific and for the Americas shall be assumed by the Committee of Experts at the global level, and their technical and substantive activities at the regional and national levels assumed by the Regional Committee of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for Asia and the Pacific and the Regional Committee of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for the Americas, respectively;

Requests that the regional commissions provide relevant support, upon request and as appropriate, to the work of the regional bodies of the United Nations Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management and that the outcomes and benefits of the activities of those bodies be equally disseminated to all Member States in each region;

Notes that sustainable funding and support, particularly for the operations of the Committee of Experts that focus on the Sustainable Development Goals, is needed to strengthen and ensure the continued effectiveness of the Committee, and in this regard encourages Member States to provide voluntary contributions, and otherwise requests the Secretary-General to try to mobilize additional resources, including through the means of trust funds and other sources, as appropriate, and encourages Member States to consider expert secondments, to support the activities of the Committee;

Reiterates the critical importance of the full and effective participation of the countries in special situations in the Committee of Experts in order to ensure a broad and balanced representation at the sessions of the Committee, stresses that adequate resources should be provided, and in this regard encourages Member States to provide voluntary contributions, and otherwise requests the Secretary-General to try to mobilize extrabudgetary resources in order to cover the cost of participation in the Committee for three government representatives from each of the special situation country groupings;

Decides to change the title of the item on the Council’s agenda from “Cartography” to “Geospatial information”, and invites thereunder the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names and the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names to continue to report on geographical names, and the Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management to report on all matters relating to geography, geospatial information and related topics;

Notes the increasing role and relevance of the Committee of Experts and its acknowledged efforts in streamlining the subsidiary bodies of the Council on geospatial information management matters, and requests that the Committee report back to the Council, no later than in five years’ time, on the implementation of the present resolution as well as on its continued efforts to work with the Statistical Commission and with the entire United Nations system, and to integrate geospatial and statistical information systems and, in this context, to examine the strengthening of the institutional arrangements of the Committee.

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