United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for
The
United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Africa was established in
May 1961 by Resolution 816 adopted by the Economic and Social Council. It is one
of three regional cartographic conferences convened by the UN Secretariat:
Africa, the Americas and Asia and the Pacific.
The
objectives in general terms are to provide a regional forum where government
officials, planners, scientists and experts from both the public and private
sector, from Africa and abroad, meet to address common needs, problems and
exchange experiences in the field of geo-information. It offers the best
opportunity for African participants to interact with their counterparts from the
developing and the developed world, and constitutes an excellent platform to
lay down contacts for negotiations of bilateral and multilateral technical
assistance.
The
majority of elements in the program of work of ECA in the field of cartography
and remote sensing emanated from the conferences. Despite the accepted
importance of these meetings, attendance was dwindling, and by the fifth
session in 1983, questions were raised about the future of the meetings, but it
was decided to continue, nevertheless.
The conference for Africa was retained by the Economic
Commission for Africa Conference of Ministers at its nineteenth meeting in May
1993 as one of the subsidiary organs of the Commission, to be held every three
years.
Similar conferences advised
ECA on other programmatic areas and by 1979, there were 32 such legislative and
subsidiary bodies. Eventually, a reform process was initiated to re-focus the
activities of ECA, avoid duplication and overlap in the legislative bodies, and
promote greater efficiency and effectiveness. The revision of the
intergovernmental machinery began in 1993 and the renewal process of ECA to
serve Africa better started in 1995. These reforms resulted in five programmes,
one of which is "harnessing information for development".
The
main objective of the harnessing information sub-programme is to assist African
member States in developing information and communication infrastructure plans
as key to expediting and enhancing data sharing and electronic connectivity in
Africa; and to support member States' efforts in improving the quality of
statistics through technical assistance in areas of collection, processing,
analysis and standardization of methods and concepts. The cartographic and
other related activities fell under this sub-programme. The associated
legislative body for this sub-programme is the Committee on Development
Information (CODI), which combined the regional conferences that dealt with
cartography, statistics, population issues and information technology.
In
2009, CODI was renamed as Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology
(CODIST).
The
first meeting of the new CODI sub-committee on Geoinformation
(CODI-Geo) was held from 28 June to
The
conference has been held in:
1. Nairobi,
Kenya 1-12 July
1963
2. Tunis,
Tunisia 14-24
September 1966
3.
4. Abidjan,
Ivory Coast 4-11 November
1979
5. Cairo,
Egypt 28
February -
6.
7.
8.
9. Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia 11-15
November 1996
CODI meetings have
been held in:
1. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 28 June-
2. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 4-7 September 2001
3. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 10-13 May 2003
4.
5.
CODIST meetings have
been held in:
1.
Stamp catalogue - 2nd conference
- 1966
Tunisia
last revised: