The CGIAR-CSI GeoNetwork Project is intended to facilitate a friendly and free geospatial data-sharing platform for the CGIAR system and members for the CGIAR-CSI Consortium. GeoNetwork allows scientists and researchers to easily disseminate geospatial data that has been created and developed by at the various CGIAR Centers, and affiliated organizations.

GeoNetwork is a standardized and decentralized spatial information management environment, designed to enable access to geo-referenced databases, cartographic products and related metadata from a variety of sources, enhancing the spatial information exchange and sharing between organizations and their audience, using the capacities of the internet. This approach of geographic information management aims at facilitating a wide community of spatial information users to have easy and timely access to available spatial data and to existing thematic maps that might support informed decision making.

CGIAR-CSI GeoNetwork is structured such that all Centers and members each maintain their own GeoNetwork node. These GeoNetwork nodes are automatically harvested to date the main CGIAR-CSI GeoNetwork node. The main, CGIAR-CSI GeoNetwork node contains all metadata records publicly available from all nodes, and is then synchronized with FAO GeoNetwork. FAO records, which include many of UN agencies, are harvested by the main CGIAR-CSI node, and vice versa. The result is a seamless search and discovery mechanism for the CGIAR-CSI system (15 Research Centers, Regional Programs, System-wide Initiatives, Challenge Programs, and institutions and project partners), in conjunction with the complete data search of the UN GeoNetwork nodes (FAO, WFP, UNEP, OCHA, etc)

CGIAR-CSI is a member of the GeoNetwork Steering Committee. We gratefully acknowledge the leadership and sustained support of FAO-SDRN in forwarding the GeoNetwork Project.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Robert Zomer
Global Coordinator
CGIAR Consortium for Spatial Information (CGIAR-CSI)
csi@cgiar.org