Video Message
Mexico City, Mexico
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Colleagues and Friends,
Welcome to the Seventh High-level Forum on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management.
Your focus this year on SDG acceleration is timely.
As we continue to combat with the increasing climate crisis and environmental degradation, deepening inequalities, and an uneven and uncertain global economic outlook, achieving the SDGs and building resilience remain our best way forward.
The global community must strengthen its efforts to address these crises.
Geospatial information can play a central role.
For example, geospatial information is crucial for identifying how communities could be impacted by changing climate and hazard events. This is key for assisting policymakers to make informed decisions and shape government priorities that support national resilience, adaptation, and mitigation.
Through the work of the Committee of Experts and a strengthened geospatial information management programme, the United Nations is better positioned to support Member States implement the common Integrated Geospatial Information Framework and produce the geospatial information you need.
The One UN Geospatial Situation Room allows Member States access to the high-quality geospatial information and services provided by UN system entities. And the global geospatial and geodetic centres in China and Germany are creating meaningful impact through capacity-building and knowledge-sharing.
Excellencies,
Distinguished participants,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I thank you for your collective, inter-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder efforts to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. But there is more to be done.
Your discussions at this forum will need to explore strategies for effective integration of geospatial information into national and global resilience strategies, and for leveraging the transformative potential of geospatial intelligence to support a resilient and sustainable planet.
We also need to identify opportunities to strengthen the capacities and capabilities of climate-vulnerable countries to operationalize the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework at the country level.
These countries need the tools and resources to apply integrated geospatial information to guide policy development and operational strategies for protecting coastal communities, marine biodiversity, disaster risk management and climate resilience.
The efforts are not only for governments. The private sector must be a key partner, not only as a source of investment but also as a driver of sustainable business practices and responsible innovation.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Together, we must work towards creating a resilient, sustainable future that leaves no one behind. Effective use of geospatial information can help to get us there.
Allow me to end with a word of thanks to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico, our hosts and co-organizers of this forum for their continued partnership and support of our global geospatial information programme and for their wonderful hospitality.
I wish you all a productive, engaging, and inspiring forum.
Thank you.