ANNEX A 1

GSDI Regional Umbrella Model

Paper prepared by the EUROGI Secretariat based on discussions with J C Lummaux )

22 October 1998

1. Overview

Each region (or continent) has its own umbrella organisation working on the GSDI. Each regional organisation has three categories of member (country, funding organisations, others) and a secretariat. Any text from the regional organisation must be approved by each category of member by a simple majority vote.

Delegates from each regional organisation attend the GSDI annual general meeting.

Note: there is a need to identify which regional split of the globe to apply to GSDI to allocate each country to a region.

Until the regional organisations are in place and able to steer GSDI there will be a need for a global group to define the mission, objectives, priorities etc. For the purpose of the paper I will call the global group the GSDI Steering Committee with the understanding that their decisions will take into account discussions with existing infrastructure projects.

Once several regional organisations are operational they will be able to continue the work of GSDI through the GSDI annual general meeting and liaison between the regional organisations. In the next three years or so the GSDI Steering Committee would hand over control to the GSDI annual general meeting of the regional organisations. The objective of each regional organisation would be to provide the necessary regional input to achieve the GSDI objectives. Clearly these objectives must be defined by the GSDI Steering Committee as a first step and are not dependent on the organisation model.

2. Membership

For each region the three categories of members will be:

Countries - each country will have an officially nominated GSDI representative. The nomination will be from the ministry in charge of geographic information and may be a named individual or a post, for example the head of the national association for geographic information or the head of the national mapping organisation.
Funding organisations - the organisations supporting the development of national and regional spatial data infrastructures, e.g. World Bank, United Nations Development Program, European Commission, USAID, FAC (France), GKS (Germany), ODA (United Kingdom).
Others - of course a better name will be found for this category but in reality it is every other organisation that wishes to be involved in GSDI, e.g. users, industry and academia. Private individuals would not be able to join they need to be representing an organisation. The definition of organisation would be wide-ranging, e.g. private company, association or academic institution.

There would be no restrictions on membership other than each country officially represented and no private individuals. A list would need to be prepared of funding organisations eligible to join the second category. It is probable that such a list already exists and is maintained by another group. Any organisation paying the membership fee could join the third category.

Each regional organisation would be expected to have at least two full meetings each year to which all members are invited. The members would decide the location of each future meeting.

3. Leadership

Each regional organisation will elect a permanent committee and a president from its members. The number of seats on the committee allocated to each category would be decided by each regional organisation. The committee members and president would be elected for a two-year term (except for the first president who would be elected for three years - to avoid the president and the executive committee changing at the same time).

The permanent committee and president would be the delegates to the GSDI annual general meeting.

The global organisation may elect a permanent committee and president from the regional delegates.

4. Secretariat

Each regional organisation would have its secretariat, set up as the regional organisation sees fit. The regional secretariats will together form the global secretariat. Each regional secretariat would take the lead in turn for GSDI as the GSDI annual general meeting rotated around the regions (ideally six months before the meeting and six months after the meeting). There would not be a separate permanent GSDI secretariat.

To ensure continuity of communication as the lead secretariat rotates a permanent GSDI web site will be maintained and information shared between regional secretariats (e.g. press mailing lists). Responsibility for maintaining the web site and public relations information will rotate with the lead secretariat.

5. Working Groups

Decisions on working groups are dependent on the GSDI objectives. Each regional organisation to implement the working groups it wishes.

6. Funding

Each regional organisation will decide its own funding mechanism to ensure sufficient funds to manage the GSDI implementation activities and to run the regional secretariat.

7. Priorities

The GSDI priorities do not depend on the organisational model. The GSDI Steering Committee in consultation with existing initiatives should set the priorities.

8. Implementation

Each region will decide its own implementation plan. No two regional organisations will be identical in their implementation.

9. Comments

Principle	with regard to Regional Umbrella Model
be inclusive of all stakeholders	There is room for everybody except private individuals not affiliated to any organisation.
add value	Working regionally and globally should add value to national and local initiatives.
build on, facilitate and support existing initiatives	Should build on existing national and regional initiatives.
command respect and authority	The official representative from each country should ensure that the organisation is in a position to command respect and authority. In practice respect and authority for the organisation will depend on the results.
support sustainable development	By ensuring that the work is done at the country level the GSDI development should be sustainable. In the wider sense the GSDI may itself support sustainable development, at this stage it is difficult to know.
be flexible and adaptable to change	Each region has a lot of freedom to implement and adapt their organisation as they wish. They would be expected to adapt their organisation to be able to implement decisions taken at the GSDI annual general meeting.
command support and financial resources	Each category of member should bring financial resources to the project. There is unlikely to be a standard way of financing for all regions.
facilitate new initiatives especially those relating to the use and sharing of data	This model facilitates the sharing of experience that should encourage the use and sharing of data.
be as simple, transparent, open and democratic as possible	The proposed voting system is simple, transparent and open. Under this model there needs to be consensus for progress to be made.
enhance democratic decision making processes	The proposal is democratic - one member one vote. Weightings may be chosen for the seats by category of member on each regional committee.
engender partnerships	Without partnerships this model will not succeed, e.g. partnerships of funding organisations and countries.

The underlying principles for this organisational model are:

Each regional organisation must be able to organise itself as it sees fit within the confines of three categories of members and a consensus approach (a majority vote from each category).
It is open to all organisations, any interested players should be able to find a home in one of the three categories of members.
GSDI actions must be done at the country level, e.g. if base data is defined by GSDI and needed for an individual country then this data must be developed by that country with the possibility of assistance from other members of the regional organisation. GSDI should avoid a colonial "we will do it for them" approach.

Fig. 1 Regional Umbrella Model