The CGIAR-CSI (Consortium for Spatial Information) recently scored a first when it received an invitation to become a full member of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG). The invitation, the first to be extended to a non-UN organization, was officially accepted when Glenn Hyman (CIAT) made a formal application for membership on behalf of the CSI at the Seventh UNGIWG Plenary Meeting in Santiago, Chile, in November 2006.

The membership, which will soon be made official, recognizes the CSI’s success in carrying out its work and was brought about in part by the close cooperation between CSI Coordinator Robert Zomer (IWMI) and UNGIWG over the last two years.

As a member of UNGIWG, CSI members now have the opportunity to collaborate with other experts in the fields of cartography and geographic information science – UNGIWG is currently working on several projects of interest to the CSI. Moreover, it is hoped that the alliance will help construct a critical mass of organizations sharing spatial data. Looking further ahead, the CSI feels it will be able to take advantage of its membership to acquire spatial data, develop deals with software providers and nurture joint projects.

While in Santiago, Glenn also attended the 9th Meeting of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association (UNGIWG and GSDI co-hosted both events), where he presented a conference paper on the lessons learned from the CSI’s poverty mapping case studies, and gave a short talk on remote sensing and food security/poverty mapping in a special session of the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GOESS) seminar.

CSI representation in Santiago was financed by the ICT-KM Program.

More information on the CGIAR Consortium for Spatial Information can be found here.