Demonstrating geospatial value is key to regaining public trust in experts says UN-GGIM: Europe

Momentum created by the 2030 Development Agenda and 2020 Census rounds should be used to demonstrate the practical value of geospatial expertise, says UN-GGIM: Europe.

Delegates attending the 4^th Plenary of the regional committee of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) agreed that the geospatial and statistical communities need to regain people’s trust in a post-truth age by promoting the tangible benefits they deliver to society.

“UN-GGIM: Europe is a success story,” says Chair of UN-GGIM: Europe Executive Committee, Bengt Kjellson from Sweden. “It provides a unique forum for UN member states and international organisations to leverage opportunities to work together to better meet the needs of today’s society through a host of initiatives including the global statistical geospatial framework.”

“By demonstrating the benefit of authoritative, trusted geospatial information for activities such as the Census and 2030 Development Agenda, we can raise awareness among politicians and policymakers of our value in delivering better data for better lives.”

More than 60 delegates from 24 UN Member States and 13 international and observer organisations gathered for the Plenary in Brussels which was supported by the European Commission.

They agreed that UN-GGIM’s Working Group on Fundamental data, led by UN-GGIM: Europe, will present high level descriptions of the common global fundamental data themes to the Committee of Experts at GGIM7 in New York this August. Participants also decided that UN-GGIM: Europe’s Working Group on Data Integration will further develop a policy outreach document outlining recommendations for, and raising political awareness of, the integration of geospatial and statistical data.

Discussions also focused on agreeing how to improve capacity building as well as extracting statistical and geospatial information from earth observations and exploring ways to strengthen collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

For more information, please visit the event page here.