A/RES/55/163 9. Encourages enhanced cooperation among Governments, in particular through the United Nations and regional organizations, in order to strengthen early warning and preparedness mechanisms for natural disasters; 10. Encourages Governments, in particular through their disaster management or response agencies, as appropriate, relevant organizations of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations, to continue to cooperate with the Secretary-General and the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator to maximize the effectiveness of the international response to natural disasters, based, inter alia, on humanitarian need, from relief to development, and also to maximize the effectiveness of disaster preparedness and mitigation efforts at all levels; 11. Encourages further cooperation between the United Nations system and regional organizations in order to increase the capacity of those organizations to respond to natural disasters; 12. Encourages States that have not signed or ratified the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations, adopted at Tampere, Finland, on 18 June 1998, 3 to consider doing so; 13. Stresses the need for partnership among Governments of the affected countries, relevant humanitarian organizations and specialized companies to promote training in, access to and use of technologies to strengthen preparedness for and response to natural disasters and to enhance the transfer of current technologies and corresponding know-how, in particular to developing countries, on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed; 14. Encourages the further use of space-based and ground-based remotesensing technologies for the prevention, mitigation and management of natural disasters, where appropriate; 15. Also encourages in such operations the sharing of geographical data, including remotely sensed images and geographic information system and global positioning system data among Governments, space agencies and relevant international humanitarian organizations, as appropriate, and also notes in this context the work being done by the Global Disaster Information Network; 16. Further encourages compatibility and complementarity of telecommunications and other technological equipment required in humanitarian and disaster relief operations; 17. Stresses the need to ensure close links, as set out in resolution 54/219, between disaster prevention activities and the improvement of natural disaster preparedness and response; 18. Encourages Governments in natural-disaster-prone countries to establish, with the support of the international community, in particular the donors, national spatial information infrastructures relating to natural disaster preparedness, early warning, response and mitigation, including the necessary training of personnel; 19. Also encourages innovative efforts that link various phases of international assistance, from relief to development, such as the joint Disaster 3 United Nations Treaty registration No. 27688. 3