At its eighth session in August 2018, the Committee commended the initiative of the Statistics Division and Esri with regard to the research exercise conducted in a number of pilot countries aimed at establishing a federated information system of national and global data hubs for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), encouraged national geospatial information authorities and national statistical offices to continue to collaborate and develop the valuable initiative further.
The Committee agreed to take a strategic leadership role in guiding the geospatial aspects of the federated information system with regard to the Sustainable Development Goals, taking into account the existing work achieved in national spatial data infrastructures and the need for flexibility in the development of geospatial information management at the national level.