The Regional Committee of the United Nations on Global Geospatial Information Management for the Americas (UN-GGIM: Americas) has its origins in the Permanent Committee on Geospatial Data Infrastructure for the Americas (CP-IDEA), which was established in accordance with Resolution No. 3 of the Sixth Regional Cartographic Conference of the United Nations for the Americas (UNRCC-Americas), held in New York from June 2 to 6, 1997. The Permanent Committee operated under the guidance of UNRCC-Americas and submitted its recommendations and respective activity reports to them.
The idea of the UN-GGIM Expert Committee emerged in 2009 during informal meetings with international experts in geospatial information management within the framework of the 9th Cartographic Conference of the Americas. The United Nations Secretariat presented a report on global coordination of geospatial information management for approval by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and it was thus that the UN-GGIM Expert Committee was created in July 2011, with the mandate, among other tasks, to provide a platform for the development of effective strategies on how to build and strengthen national geospatial information capacity, as well as disseminate best practices and experiences of national, regional, and international organizations regarding geospatial information related to legal instruments, management models, and technical standards.
In order to achieve the objectives of UN-GGIM, the construction of a regional architecture was necessary through the creation of Regional Committees. Therefore, in 2014, CP-IDEA became the Regional Committee of the United Nations on Global Geospatial Information Management for the Americas (UN-GGIM: Americas). UN-GGIM Americas is responsible for ensuring the fulfillment of the following objectives:
- Establish and coordinate policies and technical standards for the development of a regional geospatial data infrastructure for the Americas.
- Prioritize the establishment and development of national geospatial data infrastructures for each member of UN-GGIM Americas.
- Promote the exchange of geospatial information among all members of the Americas community, respecting their autonomy in accordance with their national laws and policies.
- Encourage cooperation, research, complementarity, and the exchange of experiences in knowledge areas related to geospatial matters.
- Define guidelines and strategies to support member nations in the development of cadastral information, taking into account the individual needs of each country.
The goals of UN-GGIM Americas are framed within the principles of Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, with the aim of maximizing the economic, social, and environmental benefits derived from the use of geospatial information through the exchange of experiences and technologies among different countries, based on a common development model that allows for the establishment of a Geospatial Data Infrastructure in the Americas region.
The Geospatial Data Infrastructure for the Americas is the set of fundamental geospatial data, the standards that enable their integration, the mechanisms that facilitate their access and use, and the policies and principles that ensure compatibility among the member countries of UN-GGIM Americas.
Statutes of the United Nations Regional Committee on Global Geospatial Information Management for the Americas, in its updated version in October 2021.
United Nations
