FIG General Assembly
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Presidents Report 2020
Prof. Dr. Rudolf Staiger, FIG President
1. Introduction
This is the first report from FIG-Council for the
term 2019-2022. For easier reading, it is not
following a strict chronological order. Instead, a
more thematic orientated ordering was chosen. The
sequence of the different topics does not reflect
any grade of priority or differentiation in
importance. The report covers the period from
January 2019 until the end of April 2020. Under
normal circumstances it would have been presented at
the first General Assembly during the Working Week
2020 (10th of May, Amsterdam. NL)
The year 2019 was not only the start of my
presidency; it was also the induction of two new
Vice presidents namely Jixiang Zhang (China) and
Diane Dumashie (UK) and at the same time the start
for ten new
Commission Chairs.
FIG Council; from left Jixian Zhang (China), Diane Dumashie (UK), Rudolf Staiger (Germany), Orhan Ercan (Turkey) and Mikael Lilje (Sweden)
2. Internal meetings and activities
The FIG year started in early January 2019 with a
combined meeting of all ten Commission chairs
together with FIG-Council and FIG-Office. During the
two days in Copenhagen (DK), the Commission chairs
presented internally their work plans and discussed
them together with Council. Furthermore, they
organized with FIG-Office the Technical Program for
the upcoming working week in a very efficient way.
During this meeting, the Commission chairs elected
Ms. Winnie Shiu (Com1, Hong Kong, China) as
ACCO-representative to Council for the years 2019
and 2020 (ACCO=Advisory Committee of Commission
Officers).
Our ten technical Commissions and our three networks
are playing an important role inside and outside
FIG. On one hand, the Commission and network
officers are providing all kinds of technical
expertise, ideas, support and best practice examples
in order to improve the individual and overall
performance in our daily work. On the other hand,
they are also acting as ambassadors for FIG and the
whole profession. Here it is important to note that
the cooperation and interaction between and inside
our Commissions and networks is a fundamental key
point for an efficient work and outcome of all their
work.
Commission Chairs working on the technical
programme for FIG Working Week 2019 at their meeting
in Copenhagen, January 2019
From my presidential point-of-view I can state that
this ACCO-meeting fulfilled all expectations
regarding the team building and the effectiveness of
interaction among the networks and Commissions. I am
very optimistic regarding a rich and positive
outcome from our Commissions and networks in the
near future.
At the same time, Council met for their first
official meeting. The draft work plan was discussed
and further developed in detail during this
face-to-face meeting. It was also the perfect moment
to coordinate Council’s work plan with the work
plans of all ten commissions.
In addition to this first meeting, Council met
several times during the year:
- February
2019 (via email)
- April
2019 (1 full-day-meeting, Hanoi, Vietnam, Working
Week
2019)
- September 2019
(1 full-day-meeting, Stuttgart, Germany)
- December
2019 (2h-skype-meeting)
- January
2020 (2h skype-meeting)
- February
2020 (email-meeting)
- March
2020 (1h-skype-meeting)
On September 15 and 16, FIG Council organized and
carried out a workshop with stakeholders of our
federation under the headline “FIG 2028”. Tom
Kennie, who was a FIG Vice President during the
British bureau (1994-1998) and now one of our
honorary members, facilitated this workshop in a
brilliant and foresighted way. Below is the list of
the participants except all Council members who also
attended the workshop.
Kwabena Asiama
Paula Dijkstra
Melissa Harrington
Kabir Mansur
Hartmut Müller
Enrico Rispoli
Maria Scorza
Winnie Shiu |
Ghana, NL
NL
NZ, USA
Nigeria
Germany
Italy
Italy
Hong Kong, China |
Young Surveyors
TF on SDGs, WW 2020
Young Surveyors
Large Association
Commission Chair
Large Associations, Foundation
Large Associations, Foundation
Commission Chair, ACCO representative |
It is important to note that the topic of this
workshop “FIG Strategy 2028- Shaping our Future” is
only apparently colliding with the Task Force on
Governance that was installed as part of the Council
work plan 2019-22. FIG 2028 is a long-term think
tank who should deliver ideas to how a federation
like ours will look like in the future (five to ten
years from now). In contrast, the Task Force on
Governance should make specific proposals with a
focus on the Statutes and Internal Rules for the
near future.
Our Council started already in September 2018
with a first in official meeting for building up the
team and for a first exchange of ideas regarding
Council’s work plan. This was very helpful for a
good and powerful start. Today, after 15 months of
being active in this Council, I am happy to work as
a team together with my Vice Presidents. The
atmosphere and the working spirit is collaborative
and harmonic and we are all driven by the mission to
prepare FIG and our profession for a good future
3. The Vision, the Work Plan and the Motto for the
current Term of Office
“Surveying is a modern profession acting globally
for a good and better infrastructure of our society
and our planet earth. FIG wants to keep and even
improve its role as the premier non-governmental
organisation that is representing the interests of
all surveyors worldwide.” This is the vision
described in the
work plan of my Council.
In a direct relationship to our vision is the motto:
“Volunteering for the future”. It sounds simple and
trivial, but it is touching a very crucial point:
Although we have an Office (in Denmark), FIG is
primarily an organisation of volunteers. Our
Federation needs you and your contribution now and
in the future. There is a whole range of potential
contributions you can make in order to strengthen
our community and FIG.
4. The FIG working week 2019 in Hanoi (Vietnam)
The Vietnam Association of Geodesy Cartography and
Remote Sensing together with the FIG-Office
organized the working week 2019. After the Regional
Conference in 2009, this was the second time that
FIG convened an event in Vietnam.
The overall theme “Geospatial Information for a
Smarter life and Environmental Resilience” reflected
well the character of the Working Week. FIG Council
presented the Vision and the Motto together with
Council’s Work plan for the first time, and
installed and presented two new Task Forces. The
Task Force (TF) on Governance, presented above, is
continuing the work of the TF on Commissions
(2015-2018) and is questioning and working on our
internal structures. Vice President Diane Dumashie
is leading the Task Force on Governance.
The Task Force on Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) has two aims. First, it does investigate
where and how the surveyor can contribute most to
the fulfilment of the SDGs. In a second step, the
Task Force should then coordinate the activities of
our Commissions and networks regarding the SDGs.
Paula Dijkstra (Co-Conference Director of FIG
Working Week 2020) leads this Task Force.
During the Working Week 2019, Council appointed
David Mitchell (Australia, representing Commission
2) and Enrico Rispoli (Italy) as new directors of
the FIG-foundation. The President thanked Daniel
Steudler (Switzerland) and Winnie Shiu (Hong Kong
China) for their valuable contributions to the
foundation. For the next two years, FIG Foundation
will be in a period of transition as the long-term
President of the Foundation, John Hohol (USA), will
focus more and more on his new challenge, which is
the Co-Conference Director of the Working Week 2023.
We want to make the Working Weeks more inclusive to
the participants and introduced therefore first
changes:
- for the
first time in the history of FIG, the young
surveyors were invited to give a plenary
presentation
- The
“Member Associations forum” was extended to also
include the regional networks and the former
“Regional Bodies Forum”. All participants gave a
positive feedback regarding this new format.
- The
Presidents meeting was moved from the morning of the
last day (8h30-10h30) to the afternoon of the second
last day in order to allow an earlier start of the
2nd General Assembly on the last day. In addition,
the Presidents meeting addressed specific topics for
evaluation and discussion.
I had the chance to present Council’s vision and
motto during the first plenary session in Hanoi.
During the whole Working week, we received a lot of
positive signals, reactions and feedback related to
our thoughts, ideas and plans. This is very
encouraging for the entire Council.
In retrospect it can be stated that the working week
2019 (held in Hanoi, 22-26 April) with almost 1000
participants was a big success. Congratulations to
the organizers from the Vietnam Association of
Geodesy Cartography and Remote Sensing (VGCR) and
all their helpers.
5.
Visit to our members
FIG has different member categories:
- Member
Associations - National associations representing one or more of
the disciplines of surveying.
- Academic
Members - Organisations, institutions or agencies which
promote education or research in the disciplines of
surveying
- Affiliate Members - Groups of surveyors or surveying organizations undertaking professional activities, hereunder ministries
and agencies
- Corporate Members - Organisations, institutions or agencies which
provide
commercial services related to the profession of
surveyor
- Correspondents - An individual may be appointed to correspondent in a
country where no association or group of surveyors
exists
As already mentioned before: we are an organisation
of volunteers. Therefore, all members in all
categories are essential for the vitality of our
federation. A special role in FIG is dedicated to
the member associations; they build the highest
constitutional body namely the General Assembly.
Therefore, it is of high priority for my Council and
me to be in a permanent contact with our member
associations. We are happy to receive invitations
for visits from our member association. However, and
we have to apologize for this, it was impossible to
accept all invitations last year.
The Vice Presidents Diane Dumashie, Jixiang Chang,
Mikael Lilje and Orhan Ercan represented FIG in
Australia, Cameroun, China and Ghana.
FIG-Director Louise Friis-Hansen visited
South-Africa and Ghana for preparatory meetings for
the upcoming events (working week 2021 and Congress
2022).
As President, I was able to visit our associations
in Poland, Kenya, Germany, Netherlands, Italy,
Russia, Austria and Nigeria. In most of the visits,
there were special occasions like 50th or 100th
anniversaries or National Congresses.
My last visit led me in February 2020to Nigeria.
SURCON, the roof-organisation of our three Nigerian
members, invited me for the festive induction of 347
newly licensed surveyors. The President of the
Republic of Nigeria received for the first time in
history a delegation of Nigerian surveyors, and I
had the honour to give a speech on behalf of FIG and
our profession. A summary of this speech was
broadcasted on the national TV news in Nigeria,
which was not only a very good promotion for FIG and
our member associations, but at the same for our
entire profession.
Wih the President Muhammadu Buhari, the President of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria (center) followed by Chief of Staff to the President Abba Kyari,
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha, Minister of
Information Layi Mohammed and Minister of Works Baba Tunde Fashola. To the
left the President of FIG, the leader of SURCON Femi Kasim, the President of
Nigeria Institution of Surveyors Alabo C. D. Charles and the Registrar of
SURCON Surv. Kabir K.K.
6. Activities with our partners and stakeholders
We have diverse relationships with our partner and
stakeholders. This allows us to offer our
professional expertise in all kind of projects. At
the same time, it gives us the opportunity to
amplify not only the voice of our federation but
also our entire profession.
The United Nations and World Bank officially
recognize the International Federation of Surveyors
(FIG) as NGO. Let me give you one example for our
close relationships: the International initiative
GLTN (Global Land Tools Network) who is hosted by
UN-Habitat. Vice President Diane Dumashie, a
long-term, highly respected expert in this field, is
representing FIG as co-lead of the Professional
Cluster of GLTN, and she is due to this position
also part of the Steering Committee of GLTN.
Over the last 15 months, FIG was present at major
events of our strategic partners. I represented our
federation at the 11th session of the Working Party
on Land Administration of UN-ECE in February in
Geneva (Switzerland).
The World Bank organized the 20th Annual Conference
on Land and Poverty from March 25 to 29, 2019 in
Washington D.C. under the theme of "Catalyzing
Innovation" with more than 1500 participants from
all over the world. Together with the Vice
Presidents Dumashie and Ercan, I could promote the
FIG-approach “Fit-for-Purpose” there as an efficient
contribution of the surveyor to future land
administration projects, especially for those
countries where until now a land registration system
is non-existent.
This year, FIG experienced a very special honour: I
was invited as representative of our federation to
be part of the closing panel where the major results
and achievements are presented to the big audience.
At the closing of World Bank Conference 2019. Read the full report
The Ninth Session of the United Nations Committee of
Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management
(UN-GGIM) was held from 7 - 9 August 2019 at the
United Nations Headquarters in New York. FIG is not
only a member of the Geospatial societies, but
furthermore building an official voice inside
UN-GGIM as recognized NGO. Mikael Lilje and myself
were representing FIG at this event.
7. The period March and April 2020
The period from March until now has been very
special due to the global outreach of COVID-19.
FIG-Office and FIG-Council were (and still are) very
much occupied with the direct impact on our
activities and events. Until the beginning of March
we hoped together with the local organisers (LOC)
from the Netherlands that the Working Week 2020
could take place in May in Amsterdam. In the middle
of March, this wish became more and more unrealistic
and many of our registered participants were
impatiently waiting for the cancellation. A
cancellation from our side would have had a very
negative impact on our contractual obligations
especially with the conference centre. Therefore,
LOC and Council decided together that it would be
much better to “wait” for an official ban for bigger
gatherings from the Dutch authorities. This finally
happened on March 23 and we could cancel the working
week with a much smaller damage to our financial
obligations.
This cancellation also had the effect that there
will be no General Assembly in 2020. FIG Council has
decided to postpone all agenda items to the General
Assembly 2021 which also means elections.
8. Conclusions
Representing the International Federation of
Surveyors as President is a demanding but very
interesting task with a lot of new challenges and
sights. We are all looking very much forward to the
upcoming years even if the current times with
COVID-19 are totally strange, unexpected and
insecure.
I am convinced that we all together will be able to
master the consequences of the pandemic especially
in regards of a good and sustainable future of our
federation FIG.
April 15th 2020
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Staiger, FIG President
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