FAO Independent External Evaluation addressed also the UN SDI developments

The interviews were followed by a farewell lunch. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2006
Interviews in Hungary for Independent External Evaluation

As former DLAG MoARD desk officer responsible also for some FAO related actions, the Head of the UN SDI Hungarian Coordination Office was one of the Hungarians who was interviewed by the independent experts who will report directly to the FAO Council on the experiences with FAO in the member states. The interviews are part of the follow-on actions of the critical document published by UN officially on November 17 entitled "United Nations Business UNusual". In the interview UN SDI HUCO representative called - among the land management related topics - the recent developments related to the UN SDI initiative, in the context of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG), currently co-chaired by FAO and WFP, as a good example, how the inter-UN agency cooperation using harmonised, standardised advanced technologies in the field SDI, EO and SatPos/Nav can provide direct benefits via the use of these enabling technologies to the daily operation of the UN specialised agencies, agency-member states bidirectional data/information flow and the knowledge dissemination especially for the interest of the developing countries. TheUN stakeholders in UNGIWG were mentioned including the positive feedbacks from acknowledged entities such as the NASA, CEOS WGISS, GSDI Association, EUROGI and Unit SDI of DG JRC in the INSPIRE Directive context.
The planned Frascati interagency meeting and the planned UN SDI- DG JRC meeting arranged by Alessandro Annoni was also mentioned. It is anticipated, these actions are convincing relevance how the harmonised use of advanced technologies can assist to go further strengthen interdisciplinary partnership around the spatial data interest community. Arranged by the Department of EU and International Relations the interviews taken including Dr. Károly Pintér, chief fisheries officer of MoARD and Professor József Kiss of the Szent István University, Department of Plant Protection ended by a farewell lunch in the Nádor Restaurant. The UN delegation was lead by Mr. Leif E. Christoffersen Team Leader with member Mr. Michael D.V.Davis both of the Independent External Evaluation of FAO in Rome.
The document is available at http://www.fomi.hu/hunagi/pdf/2004/UNBUN.pdf (size over 2MB)