The United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) held its 9th annual meeting on 5-7 November 2008 in Vienna, Austria. The meeting was organized by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

Sixty-three experts attended the meeting, representing UN agencies, government authorities, academia, as well as public and private sector organizations at the local and regional levels involved in geo-information. During the open sessions, the participants heard from the UNGIWG Secretariat and the Task Group Managers who reported on past year's activities and their 2009 plans. The UNGWIG Co-chairs reported on the status of the UN Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI) initiative. Innovative and challenging projects related to Geospatial Information Management and SDIs (Spatial Data Infrastructure) were presented in a number of forms including keynote panels, presentations, lightning talks and a poster session.

During the UNGIWG-9 closed sessions, UNGIWG members deliberated on the Interim UNSDI Framework Document, adopted the Ninth UNGIWG Plenary Resolution, discussed the Terms of Reference of key UNSDI bodies and elected the UNGIWG Co-chairs to serve for the next two years.

The main outcomes of UNGIWG-9 were the following:

	Endorsement of the "Ninth UNGIWG Plenary Resolution" which commits UNGIWG to the development of a UN Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI);
	Agreement that the Interim UNSDI Framework Document be revised so that it constitutes the basis for the first phase of UNSDI implementation in 2009-10;
	Establishment of ad hoc UNGIWG Drafting Teams to finalize the Terms of References of UNSDI bodies (i.e. Steering Committee, Technical Advisory Group, Partners' Group) and to review the roles and responsibilities of the UNGIWG Task Groups to ensure complementarities with UNSDI bodies;
	Election of UNOOSA and UNECA as UNGIWG Co-chairs for 2009-2010;
	Decision to hold UNGIWG-10 in Bonn, Germany.

The final report of ninth UNGIWG Plenary Meeting can be downloaded here