UN-GGIM

At its Thirteenth Session, the Committee of Experts welcomed the report of the Working Group on Policy and Legal Frameworks for Geospatial Information Management and its continuing efforts to address the Committee's issues related to authoritative data. The Committee also appreciated the efforts of the Working Group to engage and collaborate with other functional groups and key partners of the Committee of Experts and to promote and raise awareness on the importance of sound and robust policy and legal frameworks for achieving the societal, environmental, and economic benefits from geospatial information management. The Committee endorsed the paper entitled "Authoritative data in an evolving geospatial landscape: an exploration of policy and legal challenges", intended as a policy and legal guide to help national geospatial entities to better produce, sustain and govern the use of geospatial information that is deemed authoritative and trusted. The paper promotes the concept of a continuum of "Control versus Trust" when considering authoritative data governance framework according to national circumstances.

Given the increasing global challenges and the related need for reliable data, the Committee acknowledged the Working Group's planned exploration of fit-for-purpose authoritative geospatial data and applications in crises and disasters is timely. The Committee of Experts further noted the convening of the next expert meeting of the Working Group in Belgium in February 2024 in partnership with the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management Regional Committee for Europe (UN-GGIM: Europe) and EuroGeographics, to be held back-to-back with the EuroGeographics Policy Knowledge Exchange Network (PolKEN) to maximize the participation of and input from Member States, relevant stakeholders, and policymakers.

The Second expert meeting of the Working Group on Policy and Legal Frameworks on Geospatial Information Management was hosted by the Nationaal Geografisch Instituut (National Geographic Institute) of Belgium in partnership with the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management Regional Committee for Europe (UN-GGIM: Europe) and EuroGeographics. The second expert meeting was held back-to-back with the meeting of EuroGeographics's Policy Knowledge Exchange Network to maximize the participation of and input from Member States, relevant stakeholders, and policymakers. This second expert meeting incorporated the workshop on "Fit-for-purpose authoritative geospatial data for crisis" and also allowed participants to work together on a number of work items before the Working Group including geospatial data for public good and issues arising from evolving technological landscape and artificial intelligence (AI).

Thirty-one participants, including legal and geospatial expert representatives from sixteen Member States and other international organizations, met over three consecutive days for presentations, workshops and discussions at the university of KU Leuven, Belgium. During the meeting, the members of the Working Group had the opportunity to exchange views with the members of the Policy and Knowledge Exchange Network of EuroGeographics. The Working Group noted the need to develop 'practical' frameworks that can be implemented and recognized the need for better communication on policy and legal frameworks. The Working Group decided to engage further with the wider data, AI, legal, technology and innovation communities to consider how ongoing policy developments could benefit and incorporate the geospatial components and considerations. In this context, the participants also reiterated the importance to further create interlinkages, joint activities, seminars, and meetings with the functional groups of UN-GGIM in particular with the Task Team on Geospatial information for Climate and Resilience to bring perspectives and develop joint activities related to authoritative data and 'fit for purpose data for crisis'. The Working Group considered and exchanged on the content of the upcoming papers on the topics of "Fit-for-purpose authoritative geospatial data for crisis", geospatial data for public good and considerations on the evolving technological landscape and artificial intelligence. Finally, the Co-Chairs welcomed the invitation by Saudi Arabia to hold the Third Expert Group meeting of the Working Group on Policy and Legal Frameworks of UN-GGIM in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in October 2025.