Background

The United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), in collaboration with the Government of Mexico through the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), and Geospatial Media and Communications will convene the Fifth High Level Forum on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management at the Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel in Mexico City from 28 – 30 November 2017. This fifth edition of UN-GGIM’s High Level Forums will have the substantive support from each of the five Regional Committees of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM: Americas, UN-GGIM: Asia Pacific, UN-GGIM: Africa, UN-GGIM: Arab States and UNGGIM: Europe), as well as the UN-GGIM Private Sector Network, the UN-GGIM Academic Network and the UN-GGIM Geospatial Societies.

The Fifth High Level Forum is being staged in pursuance of the mandate from the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to convene global forums to promote comprehensive dialogue on global geospatial information management with all relevant governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. The event will continue the discussions and consultations from previous High Level Forums, provide follow-up on issues from the formal inter-governmental meetings of the Committee of Experts, and provide Member States and geospatial stakeholders with the unique opportunity to share and learn from each other, new ideas, methods and strategies to support local, regional and global geospatial technologies and innovation related to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Geospatial technologies and services, strengthening data production, and the use of better data in policymaking and monitoring, are becoming increasingly recognized as fundamental means for global development. Such data and services have the real potential of forming a new and emerging ‘data ecosystem’ for development in which integrated information systems, that are comprehensive and coordinated, are able to monitor the state of the Earth, people and planet, and to deliver timely information necessary to citizens, organizations and governments to build accountability and make informed and evidenced-based decisions.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a new global policy to guide the way countries collectively manage and transform the social, economic and environmental dimensions of people, planet and prosperity through to at least 2030. The broad and transformative nature of the 2030 Agenda poses tremendous challenges in ensuring that no one is left behind. It also provides tremendous opportunity for the geospatial community to meet the unprecedented need for more and new sources of data covering all countries and all aspects of development. The 2030 Agenda demands new data acquisition and integration approaches and the need for ‘high quality, timely, reliable and disaggregated data, including Earth observations and geospatial information’, and with commensurate new and innovative data sources and methods.

In response to these urgent and multi-dimensional data needs, the Fifth High Level Forum on UN-GGIM will facilitate an in-depth dialogue on geospatial technology and innovation, and the importance of public-private partnerships for the promotion of geospatial knowledge and services to attain the 17 aspirational SDGs. Therefore, and with an overarching theme ‘Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of Geospatial Technology and Innovation’ the High Level Forum will provide Member States and geospatial information stakeholders the unique opportunity to exchange knowledge, practices and experiences and afford peer-to-peer learning on strategies, approaches and methods to support sub-national, national and regional initiatives towards increasing the availability, accessibility and application of high-quality, reliable and timely geospatial information for sustainable development.