ECLAC meets with representatives of statistical and geospatial institutions in the Dominican Republic

During this technical assistance visit, various tasks were carried out with national statistical and geospatial institutions. First, a working session with the technical team of the Instituto Geográfico Nacional José Joaquín Hungría Morell (IGN-JJHM), the body that leads the development of the National Geospatial Data Infrastructure of this country. The meeting aimed to update the draft national geospatial data policy that is in the process of being developed, following the guide of the “United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF)”.

In particular, progress was made in defining the specific objectives of this national policy, organized into nine axes that correspond to the strategic paths of the UN-IGIF (governance, policies, financing, data, innovation, standards, partnerships, capacities and communication). To make this proposal, policy documents from other countries in the region, the UN-IGIF Implementation Guide and a “White Paper” on the benefits of the UN-IGIF for the statistical domain, prepared by the UN-GGIM Expert Group on Geospatial and Statistical Information Integration, were analyzed.

A second activity was carried out with the teams from the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Directorate and the Sectoral Statistics Directorate of the Ministry of Energy and Mines. Both entities are leading the implementation of a Sectoral Geospatial Data Infrastructure, which aims to establish a collaborative and shared geospatial information management model between the secretariats, units and institutions attached to this Ministry, as a support for decision-making and public policies.

The meeting focused on sharing the progress made in the development of the institutional statistical geoportal and ECLAC’s feedback regarding the technological components that will be used as a basis for the implementation process of this tool. In this context, details were provided on the proposed architecture for the deployment of the components of the statistical geoportal, the technological infrastructure requirements and the process of integrating statistical and geospatial information into the platform.

Finally, a visit was made to the National Statistical Office (ONE), within the framework of technical assistance to continue the implementation of the institutional statistical geoportal. The ECLAC delegation was received by Miosotis Rivas, Director General of the ONE, who celebrated the successful deployment of the statistical geoportal and pointed out the large quantity and diversity of statistical and geospatial information that is expected to continue to be integrated into the geoportal. The assistance work was organized in three days, which addressed the incorporation of new functionalities for the geographic viewer, a new component for the display of statistical graphics and resources associated with each indicator, and tools for the advanced management of geostatistical databases. A face-to-face workshop was also held for 25 professionals and technicians from the ONE with the purpose of integrating new teams from the institution in the task of incorporating sectoral statistics and geospatial information into the platform.