I spent part of the week trying to “save” my surplus leave days (6 in total) that i will lose on midnight 31 March. But I was only able day off (Wednesday) and spent part of it on a longish UNGIS conference call discussing the future strategy for the group. I am sure I will lose at least 4 leave days, as it happens every year.
Specifically, I raise the issue of branding (no one really knows what UNGIS is, what it does and it is really effective). I also suggested that an assessment of the work undertaken in he last 5 years should be undertaken before thinking about a new strategy. I am not sure other UNGIS co-chairs see this point as they have probably been “inside” the process for too long.
The shocker of the week came from the Italians who have apparently decided to not support any more e-governance projects in Macedonia. Instead, they are suggesting that the unspent funds be used to pay for Italian JPOs, an operation that is run by UNDESA. If this goes through, the resources will have to be taken out from the DG TTF and transferred to UNDESA.
I have spent an innordinate amount of time on the new web-based application we are developing for DGG to use ROAR data and capture success stories using maps and charts( prototype is here: http://dsm.itsyn.com ). It seems the programmers do not quite get what we want so we are going in circles. But we need to bring this to a close be the end of the month.
Cheers, Raúl
