UN-GGIM

The Expert Consultation and Meeting is being convened at a critical juncture, less than five years away from the end target of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At its fourteenth session held 7-9 August 2024, the Committee of Experts, in making decision 14/101, reiterated the importance of strengthening and enhancing national geospatial information management arrangements, capacity, capability and leadership, and urged for sustained national investments in national geospatial programs, in line the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) resolution 2022/24.

The Expert Consultation and Meeting on Enhancing Geospatial Information Management Arrangements and Accelerating the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals together with the Sub-regional Workshop on United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF) for Central Asia, South Asia, and neighboring countries, aims to sustain the implementation and adoption of the UN-IGIF, contributing to for enhancing national geospatial information management capabilities of Member States in Central Asia, South Asia, and neighboring countries.

The event is directly contributing to the outcomes of the Summit of the Future (September 2024) and its action-oriented “Pact for the Future” and accompanying “Global Digital Compact” that recognizes that digital technologies are dramatically transforming our world and calls for closing all digital divides and accelerate progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Global Digital Compact further recognizes the importance of digital public infrastructure, built in accordance with national priorities and needs. Geospatial information is a critical component of a national digital public infrastructure and knowledge and a key enabler to realize an integrated whole-of-government services approach that contribute to economic growth, national security, sustainable social development, environmental sustainability and nationwide prosperity.

The event also aims to support the implementation of the recent United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/79/219 (2024), which endorsed the new Programme of Action for LLDCs (2024–2034). The resolution highlights infrastructure development, investment, and strategic partnerships as key drivers of SDG progress and prioritizes targeted support for developing landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) in the region.

The five-day event with the overarching theme ‘Implementing geospatial strategies: challenges and opportunities’ will focus on considering strategic approaches to address national priorities, to understand major challenges, to consider main benefits geospatial information management can bring for their countries, and to determine the necessary near and longer-term solutions. The event will comprise of two parts. A high-level ‘leadership’ segment during the first two days (15-16 September 2025) to set the stage and provide a ‘status report’ of the collective present understandings, achievements, challenges, and opportunities to bridge the ‘digital divide’ and enhance national geospatial information management arrangements for accelerating the SDGs. An interactive segment with workshop will be organized during the next three days (17-19 September 2025) to discuss to country circumstances, perspectives, views, experiences and needs, and to understand key elements of their national efforts and priorities towards enhancing their geospatial information management arrangements, resources, capacities and leadership, and to address their challenges and opportunities. An essential part of the subregional workshop's aim is to connect people and experts in the Central Asia, South Asia, and neighboring countries for gaining insights on good practices and knowledge on the use of geospatial capacities and capabilities for future development of countries in the region.