GIS Software Leader Speaks on COVID-19 and Sustainable Development Goals

REDLANDS, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — July 8, 2020 — Esri, the world leader in GIS, location intelligence, and mapping technology, today announced that its founder and president, Jack Dangermond, addressed the United Nations’ High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. His remarks to the assembly were delivered July 7^th at the key annual meeting for UN and Member State review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) globally.

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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 goals with 169 targets that all 191 UN Member States have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2030. Even as the global community has come together to battle a raging pandemic, it continues to face multiple complex issues all related to the SDGs. The response to COVID-19 has demonstrated the power of data and technology to increase organizations’ effectiveness and impact. Esri users, such as Johns Hopkins University and thousands of other governments and organizations around the globe, have seen firsthand how spatial analysis can help them use that data to take meaningful action.

“We have seen how the global community can come together to address the immense challenges of COVID-19,” said Dangermond. “My personal belief is that one of the most important things we can do as a society at this particular time is to help bring the nations of the world together to collaborate on and measure the progress of our collective work toward the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Over the past several years, Esri has worked with the UN and its member countries to establish a global network of SDG data hubs referred to as the “Federated Information System for the SDGs (FIS4SDGs).” The FIS4SDGs seeks to create a system of systems for nations of the world and the UN to report on and monitor progress towards the SDGs. Esri has invested in this partnership by providing its ArcGIS platform to least-developed countries for the collection, management, monitoring, and use of sustainable development goals data, as well as technical support services to the UN and participating member states.

This effort requires not just technology but also capacity building, so that within individual nations, support and training programs can be established and strengthened to help countries organize their data geographically, visualize it, and connect it into the global FIS4SDGs system. Through this effort, individual countries can contribute to global reporting on progress towards a sustainable future.

To learn more about location intelligence and solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals, visit: esri.com/en-us/solutions/industries/sustainability/sustainable-development/goals.

About Esri

Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping, offers the most powerful geospatial cloud available, to help customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969, Esri software is deployed in more than 350,000 organizations including 90 of the Fortune 100 companies, all 50 state governments, more than half of all counties (large and small), and 87 of the Forbes Top 100 Colleges in the US, as well as all 15 Executive Departments of the US Government and dozens of independent agencies. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial information technology, Esri engineers the most advanced solutions for digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics. Visit us at esri.com.

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Jo Ann Pruchniewski
Public Relations, Esri
Mobile: 301-693-2643
Email: jpruchniewski@esri.com