News in 2024

FIG representatives at the Seventh High-level Forum UN-GGIM in México City

October 8 to 10, 2024.

Report by David Elegbede from The Seventh High-level Forum on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management

The theme for the event: Accelerating Implementation: Achieving Resilience

The Seventh High-level Forum on UN-GGIM 7th HLF was co-organised and hosted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) of the Government of Mexico. It was held at the Sheraton Mariá Isabel Hotel in Mexico City between October 8th and 10th, 2024. The three-day event was attended by multi-stakeholders from private, government and NGO organisations and institutions with over 40 country representatives and 260 attendees.

The discussion was guided by 3 key focus areas for each day;

  • Accelerating Implementation for the 2030 Agenda and Beyond
  • Achieving a resilient planet with geospatial information
  • Building a sustainable future: Innovation, Technology and AI

There was also a series of keynote addresses from top UN officials, Prime Ministers, Ministers and heads of government agencies. The keynotes were directed towards the different topics of the day outlining the challenges and how geospatial information can be used to address the various challenges by exploring strategies and creating resilience and sustainable systems where everyone is involved.

Mikael Lilje, David Elegbede with Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse, Vice President Woolpert. H.E Ms. Alicia Barcena Ibarra, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Mexico delivering her keynote address.

Accelerating Implementation for the 2030 Agenda and Beyond

On day 1, the forum discussed accelerating implementation with the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF) and barriers to implementation while preparing for the future. There was strong advocacy to increase data available for monitoring of SDG by 50% and from the regional perspective, the need to integrate statistics and geospatial data as a joint community to improve the availability and access to geostatistical information needed for the mitigation of unavoidable challenges.

It was further discussed to move from “measuring the environmental account to ecosystem account”. The ecosystem approach will help to measure the extent of every account. One of the panel sessions was centred on the UN-IGIF with the need to address standards, partnerships and collaborations. It also discussed the impact of change in government, governance rotation as a barrier to the implementation of SDG and the impact of funding in achieving the goals.

Achieving a resilient planet with geospatial information

The forum continued on day 2 with deliberations on understanding and communicating climate risk using geospatial data, how geospatial information can be used for climate planning and decision-making, building geospatial capacity development, and tools and partnerships to improve climate resilience. The UN GGIM task team presented a report on geospatial information for climate resilience. The report outlined how geospatial information can be applied to climate challenges using some case studies received from member countries. Read more on the report here

The forum further discussed integrating financial, economic and geospatial data for financial sustainabilities, with insight shared by Mr. Bert Kroese, Chief Statistician IMF. How data translation is important for statistician analysis and how to deal with difficulties in getting financial support for geospatial infrastructure. The second session of the day was a charge on “going beyond talking to ourselves” as geospatial experts, the forum agreed that there is a need to interpret geospatial information in a manner that is well understood by the end user and working together to make sure our data works.

The last session of the day was an engagement of Young Professionals and Women, with David Elegbede for FIG, Maria and Patricia for Youthmapper and Miriam for Geochicas to share their experiences and the impact of their collaborative projects. Outlining how the various organisations strengthen global geospatial information management capacities and what the global geospatial community can do to develop geospatial capacity, tools and partnerships to improve climate resilience.

David shared how the FIG has been engaging her members through the commissions, networks and task forces. Particularly the work and impact of the FIG Climate Compass Taskforce, FIG Taskforce on SDG and the FIG Volunteer Community Surveyors Program of the Young Surveyors Network. highlighting youth engagement and the FIG task in capacity building and contributions toward the 2030 goals. How the Climate Compass Taskforce continuous engage across different regions explore innovative solutions, advocate for sustainable practices, and redefine the role of surveying in the context of climate change.

David Elegbede giving a presentation on FIG.

SDG Taskforce awareness among the FIG member associations and Surveying professionals of how their work, skills and improved expertise can help to  accelerate the process of achieving the SDG’s and the impact of country level approach and youth engagement using the FIG VCSP initiative as a case study.

YouthMappers, represented by Maria from Jamaica and Patricia Solis (the co-founder), also shared some of their engagements and the impact they have had. The involvement and excitement of youths wanting to participate and how they were able to build capacity for the youths through the initiative. This is similar to the work done by the E-volunteering path of the FIG VCSP. It will be nice to collaborate with networks with similar initiatives coming together to build a stronger impact for the FIG Young Surveyors Network.

Similarly, Miriam Gonzelez one of the founders of Geochicas share the story behind the initiative and how it has been used to bridge gender gaps in OpenStreetMap and female empowerment using free software and open data. This is a good collaborative opportunity for the FIG Commission 7 WG 7.5 on women for land rights leveraging on the skill sets and networking.

The importance of communities and country-level engagement, bridging gaps between digital divides, leveraging on the available technology through AI and relating them to climatic issues, enabling those with capacity through grants/sponsorship, funding is required to encourage innovations and creative ideas and collaborative youth engagement and partnerships. These were key messages passed to the forum. There was deliberation on having a young professional forum for UN GGIM.

Photo with Youthmappers: Patricia Solis (Arizona State University, President PAIGH & YouthMappers Co-Founder/Director), David Elegbede (FIG YSN) and Maria Abigail Timbawala, Leadership Fellow, YouthMappers, Jamaica Chapter.

Building a sustainable future: Innovation, Technology and AI

Day 3 saw discussions on the future geospatial information ecosystem and the rise of AI, Big Data, and data analytics in association with digital infrastructure for the future. The forum started with shared experience from Mohammed Alsay, President General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information, Saudi Arabia and the Minister of the South African Government shared the country's process of geospatial transformation.

Leveraging AI (GeoAI) as a means of accelerating response to combating climate challenges was emphasised. AI data integrity, legal frameworks and country policies for data security are critical for the efficiency of AI implementations. The role of AI includes the regulators, enablers, leaders and users, there is need for data quality and quantity to achieve a responsive and reliable  AI noting the difference between the Governance of AI and Governance with AI.

The diversity of topics was nice and gave room for a wide range of thoughts. Deliberation on leadership roles and everyone's responsibility to achieve the set goals was intriguing. Learning from shared solutions and inclusivity of multi-stakeholders including the women and youths gave a balanced audience and thoughts across generations. Networking opportunities and discussions of local solutions were exciting to note. Emphasis on collaboration and partnership among all sectors is a testament that we can move farther if we work together. 


From left: Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse, (Vice President Woolpert), Joseph Seppi (Senior Vice President Woolpert), Macarena Perez Garcia (Liaison Director, Institute for Disaster Resilience, Chile), Blanca Díaz Reyes (young expert, Mexico), Paloma Merodio (Vice president, INEGI Mexico), David Elegbede (FIG), Stefan Schweinfest (Director, UN Statistics Division).

Macarena Perez Garcia and Blanca Díaz Reyes were sponsored by Woolpert, while David Elegbede received sponsorship from both Woolpert and FIG. We extend our sincere gratitude to Woolpert for making this opportunity possible.

 

Report by:
David Elegbede

 

Contributions by:
Mikael Lilje
Paula Dijkstra
Rosario Casanova