One of the UN Open GIS Initiative goals is to identify and develop an open-source GIS bundle that meets the requirements of UN operations, taking full advantage of the expertise of the Organization’s partners.
The working group 2 (Capacity Building) of the UN Open GIS Initiative, co-chaired by Dr Ivan Henrico
and Dr Susan Henrico from Stellenbosch University and Diego Gonzalez Ferreiro
from the UN Global Service Centre (UNGSC), was established with the aim
to deliver training programs based on geospatial open-source software to UN
personnel and the mapping community at large.
The
courses can be accessed through the UN Maps Learning Hub,
the capacity building self-training platform accessible to anyone discovering
the OpenStreetMap world and wishing to improve their technical skills in
geospatial open-source software. The users of the platform are mainly UN staff specialized in GIS
technology supporting peacekeeping and political missions. These software
packages provide a skill’s boost in support of daily activities, operations,
and mandates.
The platform currently includes a series of courses to learn the
basics of OpenStreetMap, its main editors and how to map its main geographic
objects, including those encountered by UN Mappers on the territories of UN
Peacekeeping missions covered by the UN Maps initiative. They are released
under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 free license.
In the future, UN Maps Learning Hub will also offer everyone the
possibility to obtain a certification on selected OSGeo software and libraries,
such as QGIS, PostGIS, GeoNode, GeoServer, Leaflet, OpenLayers, etc.
OSGeo
members and Geo4All were involved in the UN Open GIS initiative through
the OSGeo United Nations Initiative [1]
(formerly OSGeo United Nations Committee [2]).
Training
Programs
3. WG4 Training Material - UN Open GIS OpenData
Reference
[1] OSGeo United Nations Initiative: https://www.osgeo.org/initiatives/un-initiative/
[2] OSGeo United Nations Committee: https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/UnitedNations_Committee