UNGIWG-9 draft UNSDI Resolution

13 December 2008, 3:08pm

Early in November, the UNGIWG-9 meeting took place in Vienna, Austria, in which 31 UN agencies unanimously endorsed a resolution directed to the highest levels of UN management stating that UNSDI is a necessary capability in which the UN must invest. The resolution stands to move SDI activities into one that programme managers can understand and treat seriously. The draft text of this resolution can be found at the link below.

The fact that such a variety of interests - headquarters, field operations, humanitarian, food security, disaster relief, environment, nuclear regulation, public health, security and peace keeping - sent such a clear message to UN management makes the demand for an UNSDI strident. Moreover UNGIWG-9 agreed on a clear work plan for 2009/10, so it now almost becomes behoving upon UN Management and Donors as to why such a widely-agreed resolution to arrange for the required funding which is modest as the Interim UNSDI Framework Project adds to a wide variety of already ongoing 'regular programme' activities of the participating UN agencies and programmes. An important formal endorsement of the UNSDI initiative was obtained in late October from the UN ICT Committee duirng its annual meeting in Vienna.

At UNGIWG-9 it has been decided that the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) will co-chair UNGIWG for the period 2009-2010.

More info at the links below.

Source: UNSDI Netherlands Coordination Office Newsletter

Draft UNSDI Resolution by UNGIWG-9

UNGIWG web site

UNGIWG-9 web site

UNSDI Netherlands Coordination Office Newsletter

Geo: International