Geographical names are far more than labels on a map. They link people, places, languages, cultural memory, public administration, statistics, emergency response, and increasingly also digital technologies and artificial intelligence.
The United Nations Statistics Division, through the Secretariat of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), recently convened a regional workshop in Santiago, Chile, on interoperability standards for the management of geographical names.
Experts from Latin America and the Caribbean exchanged national experiences and discussed how authoritative geographical-names data can support sustainable development, official cartography, public services, disaster management, cultural heritage, and geospatial integration. Contributions from Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, and Uruguay illustrated the diversity of national approaches.
Some countries are strengthening legal and institutional frameworks; others are developing national gazetteers, documenting Indigenous and historical names, improving data models, or creating digital platforms for public access and reuse.
A central message emerged clearly: geographical-names systems should be authoritative, interoperable, multilingual, culturally grounded, and reusable across government. Gazetteers must be understood not simply as lists of names, but as reliable data products connecting places, identifiers, statistics, services, and cultural knowledge.
The workshop also addressed linked data, SKOS/SKOS-XL, SHACL validation, persistent identifiers, and the preservation of multilingual and Indigenous toponymy. It provided an opportunity to pilot Zenith, a new tool developed in support of national priorities and the UNData initiative.
The discussions in Santiago confirmed the importance of continued regional cooperation through UNGEGN, its Divisions, and Working Groups. Sharing practical national experience remains essential for building geographical-names infrastructures that are both nationally authoritative and globally interoperable.
Further information is available here.
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