harmonyst.org

The FAO has made the 2007 GAUL available from the geonetwork site (search for “GAUL”).

The GAUL is comprised of the best, most recent Level 0, 1 and 2 boundaries for every country in the world. There are also quite a few level 3 ,4, 5 etc. boundaries when available. Moving from VMAP or ESRI boundaries to the GAUL would represent a significant improvement the detail and accuracy of your global geodatabase.

You need to contact them for an account which grants download privileges, as the layers are not distributed to the general public.

I’ve been waiting for this report to be published in full for a long time, and now it’s available here on the FAO site. The report is a very detailed review and inventory of gobally consistent geospatial databases, and it is being used to inform core geodatabase construction by the UN Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG). Anyone aquiring data for a global geodatabase or doign GIS at international level will find this to be a critical and comprehensive view of what geodata is out there, where it comes from, what it is good for, and and how to get it.