D1.2 Definition of Strategic Mission and Vision
Deliverable
Name
Description
Milestone
D1.1
Analysis of European and National Policy
and the impact and implications for the
NSDI
Review of all European and
National Policy with a report
detailing what it means for the
implementation of the NSDI
M1
D1.2
Definition of Strategic Mission and
Vision
Reviewed and approved by
key stakeholders
M1
D1.3
Defined Objectives of the NSDI
Reviewed and approved by
key stakeholders
M1
D1.4
NSDI Guiding Principles
Guiding Principles which will
be used to frame the
contribution of all
participants within the NSDI
M1
D1.5
List of key stakeholders
Based on the Provisional list
of key stakeholders in Annex
B
M1
List of Deliverables for D.1 from MK-RECRP-4768MK-CS-10-C3-1 Terms of Reference
Introduction
This document relates to Deliverable 1.2 and is concerned with the definition of the strategic
vision and mission. In brief the document describes the key attributes that a vision and
mission statement should have. It describes the purpose of such statements then looks at
some examples used in NSDIs in other countries. Finally, the common elements for a vision
and mission statement for Republic of Macedonia are suggested.
Once a vision and mission have been formulated for Macedonia they should be incorporated
into the communications plan and form a basis for key messages and promotional materials.
As a start for the NSDI-vision and mission statements, the key NSDI-objectives as determined
nd
by numerous stakeholders during the 2 Workshop “Macedonian Spatial Data Infrastructure”
(23 April 2010) could form an excellent base. These key Macedonian NSDI-objectives are
listed at the end of this document.
Vision and Mission Statements
These terms are often used by organisations to provide a description of what they aspire to
achieve in the mid to long-term future. Goals and objectives are sometimes summarised into
a mission statement and/or a vision statement. Other organisations begin with a vision and
mission and use them to formulate goals and objectives. All of these aspects then should
therefore be considered together. Within the Macedonia NSDI Strategy they should be
considered alongside the Defined Objectives (D1.3) and the Guiding Principles (D1.4).
A vision describes a view of the perfect situation that might eventually be achieved “in an
ideal world” whereas the mission more describes the day-to-day activities and processes
needed to achieve the vision. A Vision statement defines the purpose or broad goal and can
remain the same for decades if well designed. The mission statement should guide the
actions of the organisation(s), spell out the overall goal, provide a sense of direction, and
guide decision-making. It provides the framework or context within which strategies are
formulated.
The concepts are used in the case of National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDIs) to
describe an ideal scenario in the future (vision), and the practical measures that have to be
taken to get to that situation (mission). As with a business it is essential to have a clear idea
of the vision of where we are trying to get to, as well as a clear understanding of the
measures that need to be taken to get there.
Existing NSDI Vision Statements:
As can be seen from the following examples, various NSDI agencies around the world have
taken the vision statement principle and created a short, punchy piece of text that
encapsulates their ideas for what the NSDI should ideally be like.
1. USA – the NSDI Vision Statement
The NSDI Strategic Plan written back in 1997 states,
“Current and accurate geospatial data will be available to contribute locally, nationally
and globally to economic growth, environmental quality and stability, and social
progress.”
Comment: While this has been added to over the years the original succinct wording
fulfils the purpose of a vision statement for NSDI very well. It is brief and summarises in
a few words the vision of what is being aspired to. It mentions three key qualities for the
spatial data - “current”, “accurate” and “available”. It states the different levels of
resolution – “local,” “national” and “global”, and states the main purposes or areas to
benefit.
This vision is built on Executive Order 12906, Coordinating Geographic Data
Acquisition and Access: The National Spatial Data Infrastructure, signed by President
Clinton and issued April 1994, named the national digital spatial information resource
described in OMB Circular A-16 as the “National Spatial Data Infrastructure,” or NSDI
2. India
The strategy and action plan for the Indian NSDI was launched at a workshop held in
New Delhi in February 2001 that briefly explained the vision of the Indian NSDI as
being:
“National infrastructure for the availability of and access to organised spatial data use
of the infrastructure at community, local, state, regional and national levels for
sustained economic growth”
Comment: Again this is very brief and focuses on what will be made available, at what
levels, and for what overall purpose.
3. Canada
"A Canadian geospatial information infrastructure that is accessible to all communities,
pervasive throughout our country, ubiquitous for its users, and self-sustaining, to
support the protection and betterment of Canada's health, social, cultural, economic
and natural resource heritage and future."
4. INSPIRE
1
“to make harmonized and high quality geographic information readily available for
formulating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating Community policy and for the
citizen to access spatial information, whether local, regional, national or international”
5. Australia
“ANZLIC’s vision for the ASDI is that Australia’s spatially referenced data, products and
services are available and accessible to all users”
Comment: ANZLIC is the Australia & New Zealand Land Information Council. ASDI is
the Australian SDI. This is the shortest of all the statements given as examples here.
6. Jamaica
“Geospatial data, products and services are current, available and accessible, to all
users to facilitate planning, management and use of the island’s resources thereby
contributing to sustainable development and economic growth.”
7. Nigeria
“To enhance optimal use of Geospatial Information as a critical resource in all phases
of sustainable national development for the alleviation of poverty and improvement of
quality of life of the people of Nigeria by establishing and maintaining a National
Geospatial Data Infrastructure (NGDI).”
8. Spain
“To integrate data, metadata and geographical information produced in Spain into
Internet, which provides to locate, identify and access to such information by its
potential users”.
9. Sweden
“All the organisations that in their daily work handles geodata shall increase the public
value with geodata, connect the information resources in a network, serve the public
sector businesses and citizens, and meet at all levels from local to global”.
10. Netherlands
“To make geo-information accessible for citizens and private sector, to enable the
private sector to create added value, to have integrated use of geo-information by
public sector, and to continue with NSDI-development/innovation”
1
Strictly speaking of course this is a pan-regional SDI
Conclusions – Vision statements
In summary, these examples follow some quite similar themes. Common elements can be
seen in most of them, for example:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Quite short and “punchy”- getting the message across generally in one sentence;
They focus on the subject – geospatial data;
Different levels of use are often described – “local”, “national”, “global”;
Some key qualities are often mentioned, for example “available”, “accessible”,
“current”, “accurate”, “high quality”;
5. There is often, but not always, mention of the purpose or the benefits, for example for
“alleviation of poverty” or “economic growth”.
6. Finally, the number of clear NSDI-statements is still limited.
Proposal for Macedonia’s NSDI Vision Statement
On the basis of this list of NSDI Vision Statements, the members of AREC team as well as
the NSDI-Stakeholders group discussed the topic to derive an appropriate statement for the
vision of Macedonia SDI. They propose the following vision statement:
“The Macedonian NSDI will facilitate the access, sharing, use and
distribution of standardised spatial data/services in an efficient,
effective and harmonised way in order to fulfil the needs of the
private/public sectors as well as citizens, contributing to economic
growth and sustainable development in the country”
Existing NSDI Mission Statements:
1. United States
The following mission statement is from the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC),
presented in February 2010. The NGAC is a USA government body responsible for the
development and implementation of the NSDI. Its mission is stated as:
“To provide strategies regarding the creation, management and dissemination of cohesive
geospatial data, information and knowledge to enable commercial, academic, and non-profit
organizations and all levels of government to more effectively:
• Empower and serve the public;
• Protect our homeland;
• Foster economic growth;
• Advance science;
• Manage our resources;
• Prepare for and respond to emergencies;
• Govern our nation.”
Comment: Going into more detail than a vision statement this goes into more depth about the
goals of the NSDI and what outcomes it is attempting to achieve.
2. United Kingdom
Development of an NSDI in the United Kingdom takes place via a pan-government initiative
called UK location. The intention is to improve the sharing and re-use of public sector location
information. The term “location’ has been used with the intention of making the term more
meaningful to the general public than “spatial data”. Development will be delivered through a
multi-year programme of work – the UK Location Programme. While not specifically using the
term, the following set of outcomes summarise the typical content of a mission statement:
“The implementation of the Location Strategy will focus on joining up and integrating
information from many public sector sources within a consistent reference framework, leading
to far greater sharing and use across the public sector and beyond. It will build a coherent
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) oriented information infrastructure to
underpin data sharing for place-based information, which will assist policy delivery and
operational decision making. It will drive out costs in collection of data, drive reuse of data and
drive efficiency by improving targeting of both policy and operational and local service
delivery, which in turn will reduce the costs of implementation. This will result in information
about UK’s land, sea and air being:
• Fit for purpose;
• Collected once to universally accepted standards;
• Appropriately maintained and used many times by the public and private sector;
• Referenced to a definitive information framework which supports its seamless
combination;
• Better enable effective cross-organisational business processes;
• Easy to discover, and with clear terms for its use;
• Simple to access and easy to share and integrate;
• Understood sufficiently to maximise its application;
• Aligned with Europe and the INSPIRE Directive.
Comment: This goes into more detail but it also talks about the “how” – “joining up and
integrating information from many public sources”. It also gives a summary of many of the
benefits of NSDI and makes an explicit mention of INSPIRE.
3. The Netherlands
In April, 2008 the Dutch Council for Geo-information presented “GIDEON - Key geoinformation facility for the Netherlands, approach and implementation strategy (2008-2011)”.
This document set out how public sector parties responsible for managing and using spatial
information intend to create a key geo-information facility for the Netherlands that all parties in
society will use “sustainably, successfully and intensively”. It included the following statement:
“Within four years, through the continuous improvement of services, the Netherlands will have
a key geo-information facility that all parties in society will use sustainably, successfully and
intensively:
• The public and businesses will be able to retrieve and use all relevant geo- information
about any location;
• Businesses will be able to add economic value to all relevant government- provided
geo-information;
• The government will use the available information about each location in its work
processes and services;
• The government, businesses, universities and knowledge institutes will collaborate
closely on the ongoing development and enhancement of the key facility.”
Comment: This adds a temporal element to the statement; it provides a deadline by which the
service will be available. It also obliges a “continual improvement of services” and adds
“sustainability” as a quality the NSDI should have.
4. Jamaica
“To coordinate the development, implementation, maintenance and management of a national
spatial data management infrastructure and to promote the sharing and use of geospatial
data so citizens, communities and government can access and use place-based data to make
better decisions.”
Comment: The Jamaican example is very brief compared to others here and is more similar
to the vision statements in some ways. It is however stating the tasks that need to be done,
while also mentioning the purpose or benefits.
5. Nigeria
“The mission of the Nigerian Spatial Data Infrastructure is to:
• Generate geospatial databases, which are vital for development at the National, State
and Local levels in Nigeria by facilitating cooperation and collaboration among GI
stakeholders.
• Establish institutional, legal, technical and administrative frameworks for
(a) a consistent and harmonized mechanism for geospatial data distribution
(b) easy access to vital geospatial datasets and their efficient sharing and
exchange
(c) integration of datasets through the application of common standards
• Promote research, training, education and capacity building related to geospatial data
production, management and usage.
• Promote the production, dissemination and use of geospatial information for poverty
alleviation, food security, job creation, improvement of quality of life, good
governance, education and health care delivery, water resources management,
environmental and disaster management, transportation, tourism, communications,
gender mainstreaming, national defence and security, economic planning and natural
resources management.
• Eliminate duplication in the acquisition and maintenance of geospatial data.”
Comment: Quite a comprehensive list that combines an overall goal, mentions different levels
and the need for stakeholder collaboration. It appears to cover all aspects in terms of what
needs to be done, and for what reasons, and includes mention of benefits.
Conclusions – Mission Statements
In summary, in a similar way to the vision statements, these examples follow some quite
similar themes. Common elements can be seen in most of them, for example:
1. A description of the service that should be provided by the NDSI or of the
responsibilities of the organizations combining to create the NSDI;
2. Comment on the scope of the measures that need to be covered, e.g. legal, technical
and administrative;
3. The benefits are often mentioned in more detail, e.g. “eliminate duplication” and
“better enable effective cross-organisational business processes”;
4. The purpose is also often mentioned, e.g. “protect our homeland” and “manage
resources”, “job creation” and natural resources protection”;
5. The number of clear NSDI-mission statements (linked to a vision statement) is still
very limited
6. Finally, many countries mix NSDI-vision, NSDI-mission and NSDI-Objective
statements
Proposal for Macedonia’s NSDI Mission Statement
On the basis of this list of NSDI Mission Statements, the members of AREC team and NSDIStakeholders group discussed the topic in order to derive an appropriate statement for the
mission of Macedonia SDI. They propose the following mission:
“To establish a technological, institutional, legal and administrative
framework for inter-organisational collaboration that will:
-
support e-Government
integrate geo-information from different sources in one network
avoid duplication of spatial data acquisition
be in line with INSPIRE
establish effective business processes
meet the needs of the stakeholders
promote the access, sharing, use and distribution of spatial data”.
Towards Macedonia’s NSDI-vision and mission statements
nd
During the 2 “Macedonian Spatial Data Infrastructure” workshop (23rd April 2010) the
participants looked into the question of objectives for the Macedonia SDI. The findings
provide an excellent foundation for the study into the NSDI vision and mission (and also of
course the D1.3 deliverable: “defined objectives”). During the workshop there was agreement
among the NSDI-stakeholders about the NSDI-objectivities that need to be achieved.
In general, the stakeholders agreed that the Macedonian SDI should facilitate the access,
exchange, sharing and use of standardized spatial data to serve public and private
stakeholders, to support the national economic development, to foster environmental
sustainability, and to reduce cost for data production/collection. In addition, it was also
clarified that application of the Macedonia SDI should also improve the public administration
services, and to contribute somehow to better and more transparent decisions.
It is recommended to reformulate these NSDI-objectives into Macedonia’s NSDI vision and
mission statements that are shared among all the NSDI-stakeholders.
Links:
USA
http://www.fgdc.gov/policyandplanning/future-directions/reports/FD_Final_Report.pdf
India
http://mycoordinates.org/is-indian-nsdi-an-example-to-follow/
Canada http://www.geoconnections.org/publications/reports/tvip/CGDI_Vision_E.pdf
Australia
http://www.anzlic.org.au/infrastructure_ASDI.html
The Netherlands http://www.gsdi.org/gsdiconf/gsdi11/papers/pdf/75.pdf
http://www.spatialist.be/statgen/pdf/EuroSDR/Atlas_Inspire_TheNetherlands.pdf
United Kingdom
http://location.defra.gov.uk/
Jamaica http://www.licj.org.jm/licj/documents/general/LICJ newsletter Vol 1 Issue June 2009.pdf
Nigeria
http://geoinfo.uneca.org/sdiafrica/Reference/Ref2/FinalNigeriaGIpolicy.pdf
Sweden http://www.spatialist.be/statgen/pdf/EuroSDR/Atlas_Inspire_Sweden.pdf