Press Release · Togolese Diplomacy

New York · Sunday, September 20, 2026

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Scientific Cooperation

“Correct the Map” Resolution: Equal Earth’s Designers Commit to Standing Alongside Togo

The three cartographers behind the Equal Earth projection — Tom Patterson, Bernhard Jenny and Bojan Šavrič — have agreed to lend their scientific and technical support to the implementation of resolution A/RES/80/307, “Correct the Map,” adopted on September 4, 2026 by the United Nations General Assembly with 164 votes.

This commitment was announced during a virtual meeting held on Sunday, September 20, 2026, at the initiative of His Excellency Professor Robert Dussey, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Togolese Republic, who brought this resolution before the General Assembly on behalf of the African Union.

The Minister first expressed the gratitude of Togo and Africa to the three designers for a scientific work conceived in 2018 without political intent, which has since become the cartographic reference of a continental initiative. Discussions covered the areas of cooperation called for by the implementation phase: scientific and technical support to States and institutions adopting equal-area projections, the development of freely usable reference maps, and the preparation of educational resources for African school systems.

“A fair map does not change geography: it changes how we see the world. Cognitive justice begins there, in the way children learn to place their continent. The three scientists who designed Equal Earth have given Africa a tool that we now intend to put to work in our schools.” — Professor Robert Dussey

Participants agreed to continue these discussions within a structured framework. In the coming weeks, Togo will present a concept note proposing the establishment of a scientific advisory group for the implementation of the resolution, on which the three designers have been invited to sit in a personal capacity.

Developed as part of the search for a world map that respects the actual land area of continents without distorting their shapes, the Equal Earth projection was published in August 2018 in the International Journal of Geographical Information Science. Adopted from its release by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and integrated into Esri software, it was selected by the African Union as its institutional cartographic reference through decision Assembly/AU/Dec.959 (XXXIX).

News · Ministry of Foreign Affairs · New York, September 20, 2026