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2025-06-06 0952 AEST

Jun 6, 2025

UN CEFACT GTR - Pacific Time Kick Off​

Invited Alina Nica Gales Jo Spencer Steve Capell

Attachments UN CEFACT GTR - Pacific Time Kick Off

Meeting records Transcript Recording

Summary​

John Phillips introduced the UNCC Fact Global Trust Registry project aimed at understanding and enabling discovery of national registration efforts relevant to supply chains, aligning with UN sustainability goals like Recommendation 49 and the United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNP). The project follows an open development process, encouraging participation from all UN member states who can contribute by completing a form. Discussions covered the scope of registration (businesses, land, facilities, products, trademarks), project principles (open standards, royalty-free), deliverables (specifications, recommendations), governance considerations (within UNCCFAC and for registrars), technical infrastructure (initially proposing Google services), and communication channels (email and potentially Slack). Participants including Tom Jones and Ann Dao raised questions, and John Phillips and Jo Spencer shared the UNCCFAC registration link for expert participation.

Details​

  • Project Introduction and Goals John Phillips welcomed attendees to the second kickoff meeting for the UNCC Fact Global Trust Registry project, explaining its purpose to accommodate different time zones. The project aims to understand existing registration efforts by nation-states and help people find them, focusing on data relevant to supply chains such as businesses, land, facilities, products, and trademarks (00:00:00) (00:17:26).

  • UNCCFAC and Recommendation 49 John Phillips presented information about UNCCFAC, a non-profit bureau within the United Nations, highlighting its parentage under the European Commission despite its global work (00:02:22). He emphasized Recommendation 49, a UN sustainability initiative aimed at combating greenwashing by promoting transparency and the United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNP) (00:04:23).

  • United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNP) John Phillips explained that UNP is a protocol, not a platform, designed to address transparency at scale for supply chains by enabling the issuance and verification of digital product passports based on key events in the supply chain (00:05:34). The Global Trust Registry project is intended to provide trustworthy digital identity anchors necessary for the effective implementation of UNP (00:07:50).

  • Open Development Process John Phillips outlined the open development process followed by UNCCFAC projects, including inception, requirements gathering, draft development, public review, project exit, publication, and maintenance (00:07:50). He noted that the project brief follows this structure and discussed potential adjustments to the timeline (00:08:47) (00:30:32).

  • Participation and Contribution John Phillips emphasized that all UN member states can participate in the project and encouraged active contributions. To contribute, individuals need to fill out a form that notifies their head of delegation, acknowledging the project's intellectual property rules (00:10:40) (00:34:37).

  • Scope of Registration In response to Tom Jones's question, John Phillips clarified that the registry is interested in data relevant to supply chains, such as the registration of businesses, land, facilities, products, and trademarks in their respective countries of origin, to establish the provenance of products (00:12:26) (00:29:28).

  • Project Principles John Phillips highlighted the project's commitment to open standards development, ensuring that all contributions are royalty-free and publicly available, not furthering any commercial interests (00:16:27). The project will work with existing registries and will not create a central registry or compete with existing frameworks (00:19:12).

  • Project Deliverables and Timeline John Phillips outlined key deliverables, including business requirement specifications for the digital identity anchor and the global trust registry, as well as a recommendation to UNCCFAC (00:19:12). He acknowledged that the initial project timeline appears to be under pressure and identified the initial focus on governance and digital identity anchor requirements (00:30:32).

  • Governance Considerations In response to Ann Dao's question, John Phillips discussed the governance framework for the global trust registry itself within UNCCFAC and the potential for recommending governance frameworks to registrars for their credential issuance, drawing on existing UN governance structures and initiatives like Trust over IP (00:40:56).

  • Technical Infrastructure and Communication John Phillips discussed the need for infrastructure and tools for collaboration, initially proposing the use of Google services due to their accessibility and cost-effectiveness (00:32:35). The team discussed communication channels, with varying preferences for email and Slack, deciding to further consider the best approach (00:44:18).

  • UNCCFAC Registration Process John Phillips and Jo Spencer shared the registration link for individuals to formally join the UNCCFAC project as experts (00:45:53). John Phillips advised participants to inform him via email after applying to help track their application status due to potential issues with the UN's Q collaboration platform (00:35:45) (00:46:18).

  • Collaboration and Future Work John Phillips expressed enthusiasm for collaboration and encouraged participants to share ideas and needs . He planned to establish an email group for communication between bi-weekly meetings and will further consider the use of a Slack channel (00:43:21) (00:45:05).

Suggested next steps​

  • Ann Dao and Tom Jones will check if they have registered as experts with UNCCFAC and inform John Phillips via email if they apply, including the email address used.