The designers of the Equal Earth projection join Togo and the African Union for the implementation

The three cartographers behind the Equal Earth projection, Tom Patterson, Bernhard Jenny and Bojan Šavrič, have agreed to provide their scientific and technical support for the implementation of resolution A/RES/80/307, "Correct the Map," adopted on 4 September 2026 by the United Nations General Assembly with 164 votes. This commitment was announced during a virtual meeting held on Sunday 20 September 2026, at the initiative of His Excellency Professor Robert Dussey, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Togolese Republic, who championed this resolution before the General Assembly on behalf of the African Union.

THE AREAS OF COOPERATION FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION PHASE

The Minister first expressed to the three designers the gratitude of Togo and Africa for a scientific work conceived in 2018 with no political purpose, which has since become the cartographic reference of a continental endeavor. The discussions focused on the areas of cooperation that the implementation phase calls for :

Scientific and technical support for States and institutions that adopt equal-area projections.

The development of freely usable reference maps.

The preparation of educational resources for African education systems.

"A fair map does not change geography : it changes the way we look at the world. Cognitive justice begins there, with the way children learn to situate their continent. The three scientists who designed Equal Earth have given Africa an instrument that we now intend to place at the service of our schools." Professor Robert Dussey

TOWARDS A SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY GROUP

The 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 their personal capacity.

THE EQUAL EARTH PROJECTION, SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION OF THE RESOLUTION

Designed in the search for a world map that respects the true land areas of the continents without distorting their outlines, the Equal Earth projection was published in August 2018 in the International Journal of Geographical Information Science. Used from its publication by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and integrated into Esri software, it was chosen by the African Union as its institutional cartographic reference through decision Assembly/AU/Dec.959 (XXXIX). It constitutes the scientific foundation of the "Correct the Map" resolution, which encourages governments, schools, international organizations, the media and technology companies to use equal-area projections whenever the relative size of territories is at stake.