Creating Open Geographic Data for the Fight Against HIV/AIDS
Figure 1: The Top 10 Mappers at the OpenStreetMap Mapathon
Tremendous progress has been made over the past two decades in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. Citizens are more aware of the virus, medications have been improved, and access to support has increased. In Côte d’Ivoire, a remaining challenge in combating HIV/AIDS is to more effectively target hotspots and to ensure that resources are finding their way to local communities with the greatest needs for prevention and treatment.
On July 10th, the Côte d’Ivoire Ministry of Health’s Direction de l’Informatique et de l’Information Sanitaire (Directorate for IT and Health Information – DIIS), USAID, AidData, and Development Gateway co-hosted an OpenStreetMap mapathon to help public authorities and local HIV/AIDS support networks to gain better access to cartographic information relevant to HIV/AIDS. Over 35 mappers gathered at the OpenGov Hub in Washington, DC, combining forces to map over 2,500 buildings, covering 50% of City of San Pédro, the project area. Local mappers will soon walk the streets of San Pédro to provide more information about each of these buildings. This data will then be integrated with other datasets related to HIV/AIDS prevalence, health center coverage, and other key information to inform efforts to curtail HIV/AIDS transmission, improve awareness, and increase access to necessary treatments in these high-risk areas.
Figure 2: Participants learning more about the OpenDCH Project
The #MapCiV mapathon is part of the Open Geospatial Data Center for Health (OpenDCH) program, which was designed to serve as a hub of collaboration, focusing on stakeholder engagement, alignment of data sources, and forging of data literacy. OpenDCH is a partnership between AidData, Development Gateway, the Ministry of Health’s Direction de l’Informatique et de l’Information Sanitaire (DIIS), and USAID/Côte d’Ivoire.
The #MapCiV mapathon represents the first step in a broader strategy designed to collect data about poorly understood areas of the country, and harness technology to reveal new insights that lead to more informed policy decisions. The next mapathons will take place at the College of William & Mary and at the Centre Universitaire de Recherche et d’Application en Télédétection (CURAT) in Abidjan. Local mappers, with the support and engagement of OpenStreetMap – Côte d’Ivoire (OSMCI), will take to the streets of seven areas of the country for a total of more than 25 days of mapping and 10 additional days of data validation.
Share This Post
Related from our library
New Research Manuscript on Mortality from Tobacco Use in Kenya
DG is excited to announce the publication of a research manuscript on Mortality from Tobacco Use in Kenya in Tobacco-Induced Diseases. This research was carried out as part of the Tobacco Control Data Initiative (TCDI).
Healthy Farming, Healthy Planet: The Environmental Case Against Tobacco Farming
While all agriculture has an environmental impact, tobacco is unique in that every stage of the tobacco lifecycle–from the production and consumption of tobacco to farming and disposal of the final product–wreaks havoc on the environment. In this piece, we’ll introduce the lifecycle of producing and using tobacco and explore the requisite environmental impact.
Stakeholder, Where Art Thou?: Three Insights on Using Governance Structures to Foster Stakeholder Engagement
Through our Tobacco Control Data Initiative (TCDI) program and its sister program Data on Youth and Tobacco in Africa (DaYTA), we have learned that creating governance structures, such as advisory boards or steering committees, is one approach to ensuring that digital solutions appropriately meet stakeholders’ needs and foster future stakeholder engagement. In this blog, we explore three insights on how governance structures can advance buy-in with individual stakeholders while connecting them to one another.