Vice-president Stig Enemark represented FIG at the Eighth United Nations Cartographic Conference for the Americas (UNRCCA) held in New York from 27 June to 1 July 2005. This conference is convened every four years (since 1976), the last held in January 2001. The conference attracted 140 participants from 33 countries. About twenty national reports were tabled and forty invited papers were presented. The programme included a number of interesting papers on SDI developments in the Latin America and Caribbean Region, as well as a number of invited papers from other countries and professional institutions.

The focus of these conferences is on developments in National Spatial Data Infrastructure within the region. Participants are regional national delegates normally representing the national mapping agency. However, it being a UN organisation the conference is attended too by other participants from various countries within Europe and other regions in the world. A number of international experts are also invited, as well as representatives from the relevant NGOs: FIG, ICA, ISPRS, World Bank, FAO, etc. Unfortunately, on this occasion regional representation was not as dominant as had been hoped for.

The role of FIG in this regard is to promote professional development and facilitate achievements in the area of Topographic Mapping, Spatial Data Infrastructures, and Land Administration Systems. The conference provides a unique platform for discussion and understanding of regional needs and for networking with national agencies and other NGOs. The objective of such networking is, of course, "to develop strategies for development of appropriate institutional, legal and technical processes to integrate land administration and topographic mapping programmes within the context of a wider national strategy for spatial data infrastructure."

The outcome of the conferences is summarised in the adopted resolutions. One of these is the aim to organise a follow-up conference to ensure proper implementation of the recommendations adopted at the Special Forum in Aguascalientes (see FIG page, GIM International, June 2005). This conference will be held in Ottawa, Canada, June 2006.
UNRCCA is organised and serviced by the United Nations Statistics Division, aiming to promote the development and use of geographical information systems in developing countries, in this case the Latin American and Caribbean Region. A similar conference is convened every three years for the Asian and Pacific Region, the last one being held in July 2003 in Okinawa, Japan.

A Permanent Committee on Spatial Data Infrastructures for the Americas (PC IDEA) has been established to ensure continuity and development through implementation of conference resolutions and working-group activities.

Prof. Stig Enemark


Habitat Professionals Forum Session on ‘Governance - People – Professionals’ at the UIA Congress in Istanbul

As part of the tremendous activity and sessions of UIA World Congress (International Union of Architects) held in in Istanbul from 3rd to 7th July 2005 - more than six thousand delegates attended - the Habitat Professionals Forum (HPF) held its own session. Taking the very topical theme of Governance – People – Professionals and chaired by FIG president Holger Magel, current chair of the HPF Steering Committee, panellists Lars Reutersward (UN-Habitat), Holger Magel, Aydan Erim (UIA) and Selman Erguden (UN-Habitat) discussed the changed roles of planners and architects as professionals in a changed world. A world of increasing civil society, good governance principles and citizens that demand more participation.

A clear outcome was that professionals must more than ever before be able to prove themselves a match for these new challenges. Universities have very early on in courses to introduce teaching in modern methods, instrumentation, and skills in informal planning, moderation, mediation and even conflict management.

First of all they should begin to deliver this message: the citizen is also an expert regarding his experience and knowledge concerning his home - he has to be trained in the ‘language’ and inter-linkages of planning!