Strengthening the Partnership with the World Bank
FIG President Stig Enemark and Incoming President CheeHai Teo visit the
World Bank, Washington D.C., USA, 13 September 2010
|
Stig Enemark, President of FIG; Juergen Voegele,
Director of Agriculture and Rural Development Department; and Chee Hai Teo, Incoming FIG President, 2011-2014. (The cow statue
in the background of the office alley symbolizes the Department). |
FIG President Stig Enemark and Incoming President CheeHai Teo
visited the World Bank 13 September 2010 to strengthen the partnership
between FIG and the Land Group of the World Bank. The key purpose of the
visit was to review and renew the current Memorandum of Understanding that
was signed in February 2007.
The visit was kindly hosted by Keith Bell and the co-chairs of the
Land Group: Robin Rajack, Senior Urban Development Specialist, and Jorge A. Munoz, Lead Rural Development Specialist, and was organized as
a so called “brown back meeting” (a meeting with lunch bags). President
Enemark and Incoming President Teo gave a presentation of the importance of
the FIG-WB partnership and the achievements over the last four year. The
presentation also included a list of suggested issues for further
cooperation over the coming four year term. The presentation was followed by
a general discussion stating that the partnership has been very successful.
The key issues for future cooperation were identified as: The STDM model in
cooperation with GLTN and ITC; Land Governance addressing the new
challenges; and a joint publication looking at demands for survey accuracy
to be “fit for purpose”. The MoU will now be revised accordingly.
The visit also included a meeting with the Juergen Voegele,
Director of Agriculture and Rural development Department. This meeting
confirmed the common interest of FIG and the World Bank in terms of
contributing to the global agenda both in relation to the achieving the
Millennium Development Goals but also in addressing the new challenges such
as climate change, disaster management and food shortage from the point of
secure tenure and good land governance. The big issue of “land grapping”
was discussed with reference to recent WB report on Rising Global Interest
in Farmland (see below).
|
Brown bag meeting with the Land Group. |
Keith Bell, Stig Enemark and CheeHai Teo. |
During their stay in Washington the FIG President and President Elect
also had a dinner meeting with Curt Summers, Secretary General of the
American Congress of Surveying and Mapping. Common issues were discussed and
especially the financial constraints that ACSM is currently facing.
Finally Stig Enemark and Chee Hai Teo also met with Jolyne Sanjak,
Managing Director of Department of Compact Implementation, Millennium
Challenge Cooperation (MCC). Discussions were around issues of possible
future cooperation in relation to the wide range of land related projects
undertaken by MCC.
Further readings:
|
The famous Lincoln Memorial at the western end of the National Mall,
Washington DC. |
15 October 2010
|
