UN-GGIM

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) established the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) in July 2011 (ECOSOC Resolution 2011/24) as the official United Nations consultative mechanism on global geospatial information management.

The primary objectives of the UN Committee of Experts are to provide a forum for coordination and dialogue among Member States, and between Member States and relevant international organizations, and to propose work-plans with a view to promoting global frameworks, common principles, policies, guidelines and standards for the interoperability and inter-changeability of geospatial data and services.

The terms of reference approved by ECOSOC call upon Member States to designate experts with specific knowledge drawn from the inter-related fields of surveying, geography, cartography and mapping, remote sensing, land-sea and geographic information systems and environmental protection. The Committee also comprises experts from international organizations, who serve as observers.

On 27 July 2016, following a year-long consultative process on the comprehensive review of the work and operations of UN-GGIM, ECOSOC adopted a resolution (2016/27) entitled "Strengthening institutional arrangements on geospatial information management". This resolution stressed the continued 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.