The Working Group on Fundamental Geospatial Data Themes convened a Side Event on their work at the Eight Session (2018) of the Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). Administrative boundaries have been identified as a priority dataset by the UN-GGIM Working Group on Fundamental Geospatial Data Themes and are categorized under the theme of “Functional Areas", as per the Working Group lastest report.

At the Side Event, the presentation on SALB highlighted the goals, processes, users and latest status of the programme as well as the overall global agenda related to the SALB programme.  Since last August 2017, the SALB Programme has been contacted, provided data or received official notes of engagement in the programme from 60 Member States. Few SALB datasets have been published and more are underway including the upcoming contribution of EGM data by EuroGeographics in SALB ready-format thanks to the standardization efforts undertaken by IGN France.