The President of the NSI participated in UN meetings in support of the Sustainable Development Goals

The President of the NSI, Assoc. Prof. Atanas Atanasov, PhD, participated in a seminar on “Developing Strategies and Implementing Geospatial Solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals” and a series of meetings organised by the UN Statistics Division (UNSD), held on 11-13 February 2026 in Vienna.

During the discussions, participants examined the benefits of using geospatial data to support the monitoring of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Progress of work was presented on priority areas such as communication and awareness, capacity development for the implementation of the UN Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF), sustainable funding, and others. Special emphasis was placed on the integration of geospatial and statistical data and on building sustainable and compatible national data systems.

The main objective of the meetings was to accelerate the implementation of the Committee’s frameworks, to strengthen and enhance national geospatial information management arrangements, and to exchange experience and good practices in implementing the UN Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF).

The discussions held in Vienna reaffirmed the key role of national statistical institutes and authorities responsible for geospatial information in building modern, integrated and sustainable data systems to support the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.