51ÁÔÆæ

The fourteenth session of the Committee of Experts was held from 7 to 9 August 2024 at Conference Room 4, United Nations Headquarters in New York. The session was attended by over 240 delegates from 75 Member States. Apart from inter-governmental and international organizations with status, 72 entities from the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations including from international geospatial societies, academia and private sector were accepted to participate in the work of the session as observers. Over 330 representatives, delegates and observers attended the session.

The Assistant-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations provided the opening statement. ASG Navid Hanif had noted that the need for joint decision-making and consensus across the many substantive agendas before the Committee cannot be overstated, and said -

The Committee of Experts elected by acclamation a bureau for its fourteenth session. The representatives from the Kingdom of Belgium, C?te d'Ivoire and United States of America were elected as co-Chairs together with the representative of Fiji as rapporteur. The Committee had six meetings for its fourteenth session and each of the three co-Chairs took turns to preside over the meetings of the session with the rapporteur in attendance. Fourteen substantive agenda items were energetically considered and deliberated by the Committee and attracted over 250 statements and interventions from Member States including collectively as regional committees. Observing entities also participated in the work of the Committee and provided another 50 statements. These statements and interventions enriched the discussions within and considerations of the Committee of Experts. It was observed that Member States, through their statements and interventions, reiterated and emphasized the need to, the time is now, to implement, in certain instances to accelerate the implementation of the Committee's adopted frameworks, norms, principles and guides at the country-level to ensure impactful outcomes where it matters most. Member States appreciated and expressed their high expectations from a new and enlarged secretariat for the Committee of Experts dedicated to the normative and implementation work of the Committee. As observed by ASG Navid Hanif, the "secretariat will enhance our collective ability to respond to the evolving needs and challenges of Member States. The secretariat will play an instrumental role in strengthening and enhancing geospatial information management, capacities and capabilities of Member States".