News in 2024

FIG General Assembly 2024 report

19 and 23 May 2024, Accra Ghana

Presidents meeting attendees

Good representation

60 out of 103 member associations together with affiliate, academic and corporate members found their way to Accra, Ghana, to attend the General Assembly and FIG Working Week 2024. Around 250 delegates attended the two General Assembly days 19 and 23 May 2023.

Like in the previous years, member associations in good standing were asked to register their official delegate for online voting. 69 members used this opportunity which amounted to a total of 87 votes.

President Diane Dumashie welcomed all delegates and observers to Accra, Ghana.

New members

The General Assembly welcomed several new members.

New member associations are:

  • Association of Consulting Surveyors in Australia
  • Alliance of Hong Kong Authorized Land Surveyors, Hong Kong
  • Ordre des Géomètres Experts du Mali
  • Association of Licenced Surveyors, Sierra Leone
  • Valuers Registration Board Tanzania
  • International Association of Assessing Officers IAAO, USA

Further to this, the following association members have paid their arrears and have been reinstated:

  • Ordre des Géomètres du Togo (OGT), Togo
  • Order of the Expert Geometricians of Benin, Benin
  • Order of Surveyors Lebanon

Unfortunately it was necessary to expel the Egyptian Committee of Surveying and Mapping due to lack of membership payment. It is always sad to see members leave FIG. If any member is in contact with representatives from the association, please contact FIG office.

Since the last general assembly FIG Council has approved the following members:

 Affiliate members:

  • Instituto Geográfico de Militar, Bolivia
  • Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country planning, government of Sierra Leone
  • Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Tonga
  • Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute,  (UESI), United States

Academic members:

  • University of the West of England, UK
  • University of Environment and Sustainable Development – UESD, Ghana

Corporate members:

Bronze Level - D:  
Basic Level - E:          
Regional Level - F:                       

Welcome to all new members!

Honorary member

Surveyor Enrico Rispoli from Italy was honoured for his extensive contributions to FIG over many years and was appointed Honorary Member of FIG with a large applause from the audience. He served as the conference director for the FIG Working Week 2012 in Rome, Italy, and has chaired FIG Commission 3. Apart from this he has done extensive work to encourage and help especially young surveyors, e.g. through summer schools and is now one of the board members of the FIG Foundation. The nomination was presented by Maria Grazia Scorza who has been translating for the Italian delegation for many years. After Enrico Rispoli had received his certificate Maria was called by FIG President to receive a certificate of appreciation for all the years she has been assisting the Italian delegation and especially Enrico Rispoli.

 

Two new council ex-officio members

Building on the FIG Council work plan (agreed in 2023), FIG President Diane Dumashie presented and updated the implementation activities and suggested to expand Council with two ex-officio members, one representing the Young Surveyors and a representative from the Corporate Members of FIG. This links to the FIG strategic work plan pillar aligned to People and will achieve more involvement and diversity in Council. This proposal was welcomed by the General Assembly.

The FIG Young Surveyors Network has a still growing number of active persons from all around the world and impressive projects and activities that they are undertaking. Further to this, FIG leadership is keen on getting Young Surveyors involved in the work of the Commissions and Networks and to keep these promising young people central in the development of FIG.

Getting the corporate members closer to FIG and to work on the benefits of being a corporate member is central for FIG Council. First representative will be Brent Jones, Esri and he will work on the terms of reference for this position as well as look at the structure and benefits of the corporate members.

Elections

This year, according to the statutes, there should have been election of the ten Commission Chairs who would serve as Commission chairs elects for 2025-2026 and hereafter as chair in 2027-2030. However, the current chairs felt that starting a succession plan shortly after their own terms began was premature.  Consequently, FIG Council proposed to the General Assembly to postpone these commission chair elections until 2025; a proposal that the General Assembly agreed to.

Still, there was election going on throughout the entire Working Week. Since 2021 elections have taken place online which gives the option for all members to take part in the voting, although it is preferable for members to see and meet face-to-face the nominated candidates.

This time election of two vice president positions took place. There were five excellent candidates for the two positions which resulted in four rounds of voting. All elections were very tight. Elected were Michail Kalogiannakis, Technical Chamber of Greece and Qin Yan, Chinese Society for Geodesy Photogrammetry and Cartography CSGPC, China.

FIG President Diane Dumashie extended heartfelt thanks to all candidates and their associations who nominated them.

Reports on FIG activities

At the first General Assembly on 19 May, instead of individual presentations, all 10 commissions were called on stage, and Vice President Mikael Lilje held a Q&A session that included questions to all 10 commissions on the progress of their work plans.

Other groups within FIG reported from their progress, too, hereunder the Young Surveyors Network, Regional Capacity Development Networks that are now represented in Africa, Asia/Pacific and Americas and the four current Task Forces:

  • FIG and the SDGs
  • Climate Compass Task Force
  • Task force on the Role of FIG in International Trends and Future Geospatial Information Ecosystem
  • Diversity and Inclusion in the Surveying Profession

The second General Assembly offered reports from activities during the conference. Chair of Commission 8, Kwabena Asiama presented a report on behalf of all commissions on their activities during the week. There were reports from the Association Forum, Forum of Regional Bodies, Director General Forum, Academic Forum, task forces and Networks and finally FIG Foundation.

This year FIG Foundation has sponsored four young surveyors to attend the Working Week who were duly selected by FIG Foundation and the Young Surveyors Network. Each of the recipients reported back briefly to the General Assembly what they had experienced during the Working Week.

During the Working Week a Memorandum of Understanding between FIG and the Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy, CASLE, was signed which was reported to the General Assembly for their adoption.

 

One new publication was launched during the Working Week: Mapping the World a Better Place - The FIG's Volunteer Community Surveyor Programme (VCSP) published by FIG Young Surveyors in cooperation with UN-Habitat/GLTN (Global Land Tool Network). Read the publication

Finally representatives from the upcoming conferences gave a short introduction to the progress of their preparations and what the General Assembly and other participants can expect.

The upcoming conferences and their reports are:
  • 9th FIG Regional Conference - 14-16 November 2024, Kathmandu, Nepal [handouts]
  • Report on the FIG Working Week 2028, in Paris, France, June 2028 [promotion video]
  • Report on the FIG Working Week 2027 in Stavanger, Norway, 23-27 May 2027 [handouts]
  • Report on the FIG Congress 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa, 24-29 May 2026 [handouts]
  • Report on the FIG Working Week 2025 in Brisbane, Australia 6-10 April 2025 [handouts]
 

Closing

In her closing speech FIG President Diane Dumashie thanked all for coming to Accra, Ghana to join both the General Assembly and the Working Week. It had been a busy, vibrant - and hot - week with many activities.

Already in the opening ceremony Diane Dumashie held a minute silence was held to commemorate those who had passed away during this past year and especially Joseph Pascual, President of OGE France, organiser of FIG WW2028. Not long before his death a preparation meeting was held; Andrzej Hopfer, Poland, who passed away in December 2023 shortly after his 90th birthday who was active in FIG for many years especially in commission 7, and Cemal Özgür Kıvılcım, who passed away shortly in a far too you age. He started as a Young Surveyor back in 2006 and has been central in the work of the Young Surveyors for many years, and current he served as the Commission 3 Vice Chair and in the lead of a working group, involved in many commission 3 and 8 activities hereunder FIG publications.

At the second General Assembly FIG was honoured by the presence of the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Ghana, Hon. Samuel A. Jinapor, who gave a special address to the General Assembly.

In her closing speech President Diane Dumashie commented the busy and successful Working Week. She thanked all the participants, exhibitors and sponsor and other partners for coming to Accra, Ghana for this Working Week.

After the closing speech, President Diane invited the local organisers from the two national associations to the stage to thank them for their immense and successful work on the organisation of the Working Week. Those who were present of the 63 volunteers, who had helped throughout the conference where needed, in the registration, in session rooms, at the speakers preparation desk, and all around, were called up for a special thanks from the President.

At the end the FIG flag was handed over by the current organisers to the next from Brisbane, Australia who could welcome all to the FIG Working Week 2025 that will take place 6-10 April 2025 in Brisbane Australia.

 

On behalf of FIG Council FIG President Diane Dumashie extended a heartfelt thanks to all the local organisers who were involved in the planning of the Working Week and General Assembly and for making it all work smoothly.

Further reading

 

 

Welcome "Down Under" in Brisbane, Australia - 6-10 April 2024. More information: www.fig.net/fig2025

 

 

Louise Friis-Hansen
June 2024