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The 5th High Level Forum on Global Geospatial Information Management, with the theme "Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of Geospatial Technology and Innovation", was organized by United Nations Statistics Division as the Secretariat for Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-GGIM in collaboration with the Government of Mexico through the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), supported by Geospatial Media and Communications in Mexico City. This was the fifth edition of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-GGIM's High Level Forum and had substantive support from each of the five Regional Committees of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-GGIM: Africa, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-GGIM: Americas, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-GGIM: Arab States, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-GGIM: Asia and the Pacific, and Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-GGIM: Europe), as well as the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-GGIM networks, namely Private Sector Network, Academic Network and Geospatial Societies.

There were over 300 participants from 73 countries including from least developed countries, small island developing states and landlocked developing countries. These participants came from all five regions within Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-GGIM regional architecture, as well as from governments, inter-governmental and international organizations, academia and the private sector. On the first day, the ministerial segment of the Forum heard a keynote presentation from Mexico and six Ministerial statements. The ministerial segment highlighted people's expectations of the 2030 Agenda, the duty and the role of geospatial information, innovation and technologies to meet these expectations. The keynote presentation at the Opening Ceremony showcased geospatial technology and innovation as the critical enabler in providing open, interoperable, and standards-based systems that extend capabilities for data analysis, collaboration, user engagement, and communication to strengthen national statistical and information systems to securely store, access, analyze, and share their data in a safe and scalable environment, making it usable to the wider SDGs community.

The Forum aims to substantively improve and strengthen the national geospatial information management capacities of countries, particularly developing countries, towards implementing the 2030 Agenda and evidence-based policy and decision making.

With over sixty presentations, the Forum held in-depth dialogue on the critical role of geospatial technology, innovation, and highlight the importance of public-private partnerships for the enhancement of geospatial knowledge and services to attain the SDGs. The Forum concluded with the adoption of the Mexico City Declaration on Global Geospatial Information Management. This affirmed the significant contribution of geospatial technologies, processes and innovation in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

On December 1, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-GGIM Bureau had its annual meeting, considered and reviewed progress of various work programmes under the Committee of Experts since the seventh session in August 2017. The Bureau interacted with the World Bank on the development of an overarching geospatial framework that can be referenced by Member States when strengthening their national geospatial information management and systems. The meeting also discussed the First United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress that will be convened in collaboration with the Government of China from 27 - 29 November 2018 in Deqing, China.

There were two side events. On November 26-27, the Subcommittee on Geodesy had its inaugural meeting attended by 15 Member States, and discussed its plans and activities related to education and capacity development, communications and outreach, and governance. The Subcommittee selected Australia and Russia as its co-Chairs. On November 27, a side event on "Using satellite imagery in the SDGs: the case of 6.6.1" was convened in collaboration with Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Environment, INEGI Mexico and other partners. The event interacted on good national practices, global developments and current methodologies in the use of existing satellite data to improve national monitoring of water related ecosystems.

Member States and geospatial information management stakeholders took advantage of this unique opportunity to exchange knowledge, practices and experiences. In meeting with one another peer-to-peer interactions on strategies, approaches and methods that support sub-national, national and regional initiatives towards increasing availability, accessibility and application of high-quality, reliable and timely geospatial information. This builds towards geospatial technology and innovation for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.