Supporting Regional Progress

The Eleventh Plenary meeting for UN-GGIM: Arab States was held in Doha, Qatar from 4th to 8th February 2023.

The annual Plenary meeting drew Member States together from across the region to share progress, inform national updates and collaborate on regional priorities. To foster collaboration and knowledge sharing across the Regional Groups representatives from each of the UN-GGIM Regional Committees were invited to attend and present their regional priorities. UN-GGIM: Europe was represented by David Henderson, co-Chair of UN-GGIM Europe, and James Norris, Chair of the UN-GGIM: Europe UN-IGIF Working Group.

David gave an overview of UN-GGIM: Europe and how our work is influenced by the annual Committee of Experts meeting. He then shared details on our five areas of focus and how they meet the needs of UN-GGIM: Europe and also contribute to the global priorities. He stressed the importance of Regional collaboration and the role that we have in supporting each other, both to avoid duplication of efforts and to enhance and accelerate the implementation of the Frameworks that UN-GGIM has developed and adopted.

James had the opportunity participate in the pre-event workshop on the UN Integrated Geospatial Information Framework and contributed to the discussions by sharing the different ways that European Member States are adopting the UN-IGIF. James also presented during the main Plenary and showcased the work of the UN-GGIM: Europe UN-IGIF Working Group and promoted the next webinar that will be held on 23rd April.

We are looking forward to seeing alignment between the Regional Committee discussions and progressing joint initiatives such as the importance of diversity and inclusion in the work of UN-GGIM and linking the establishment of the UN-GGIM Centres of Excellence to the needs of the global work programme.

All the presentations and documents are available on the plenary website