Over the past two years, GRID3 has worked closely with government agencies and a network of key partners in both countries. For DRC, the report highlights our extensive efforts to systematically map the entire country, province by province, in collaboration with national authorities and technical partners. This ambitious project is generating crucial data layers on settlements, health facilities, health zones, and health areas; these layers serve as invaluable resources for evidence-based decision-making. For Nigeria, the report showcases our collaboration with government bodies and local organizations to update and use core spatial data in national health campaigns. This work includes the refinement of population estimates, improvement of settlement data, and mapping of health facilities. 

The report provides impact examples that illustrate the practical application of these data, ranging from supporting polio eradication campaigns in DRC to enhancing malaria prevention efforts in Nigeria.

This work would not be possible without our partners. GRID3 extends its sincere gratitude to the Center for Integrated Earth System Information (CIESIN) at Columbia University, WorldPop at the University of Southampton, Novel-T, and the Kinshasa School of Public Health for their expertise, technical contributions, and continued commitment to making an impact through our shared work.

Read the impact report here

For more information, reach out to info@nullgrid3.org 

Der Beitrag GRID3 releases 2023-2024 impact report erschien zuerst auf GRID3.

The report illustrates GRID3’s ability to connect governments with technical partners in order to bring vital services to vulnerable populations; health ministries, national statistical offices, national mapping agencies, and other government bodies partnered with GRID3 to find new ways to fill data gaps and produce maps. Over the last half decade, this work was delivered by GRID3 through a partnership of Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), the Flowminder Foundation, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the WorldPop group at the University of Southampton.

GRID3’s work continues. Now an independent non-profit, GRID3 was recently awarded $20.3 million by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue promoting the use of geospatial data in development interventions, with a special focus on health projects in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

See the impact report here

For more information, reach out to info@nullgrid3.org

Der Beitrag GRID3 reflects on five years of spatial data success erschien zuerst auf GRID3.

In 2020, Sierra Leone’s Directorate of Policy, Planning and Information (DPPI, a department within MoHS) and GRID3 began working together to update the country’s health facility data. GRID3 worked with DPPI to better understand gaps within its datasets while also obtaining existing health facility data from other sources, including government departments and health NGOs working in Sierra Leone.

As the first step in the production of the dataset, GRID3 standardized health facility names and types across all the data sources in order to consolidate the data into one comprehensive resource. GRID3 and DPPI also identified health facilities that were missing geocoordinates or had locations that needed to be validated. In 2021-2022, GRID3 partnered with Premise to collect and validate the data that were required to complete the dataset; this additional fieldwork resulted in the collection of data on hundreds of health facilities.

Over the last two years, GRID3 also supported DPPI by organizing a series of workshops to validate the new dataset and improve capacity related to health facility data. The first workshop was attended by MoHS monitoring and evaluation officers from Sierra Leone’s 16 districts; the goal was to review the list of health facilities. Another workshop focused on building the GIS capacity of technical staff across government agencies. And a final workshop, held 8- 10 May 2023, involved district-level MoHS staff systematically reviewing each health facility record. Corrections were made to the data attributes (including the facility’s location). All told, a total of 260 new facilities were identified during the workshops. Additionally, a standard operating procedure (SOP) was developed and reviewed during the final workshop. The document recommends a standardized process with which regulatory authorities, relevant offices, and agencies can manage the data. The SOP outlines processes for adding new facilities, updating information for existing facilities, and marking facilities as deactivated if they have ceased operations. By adopting a standardized process, Sierra Leone’s health officials can manage the dataset as an efficient, streamlined health facility master list (HFML), ensuring consistency in the data.

Click here to access the final version of the dataset approved by the MoHS and published as Sierra Leone National Health Facilities Dataset Version 01.

Der Beitrag Sierra Leone’s first openly accessible health facilities dataset now available erschien zuerst auf GRID3.

Over the next four years, GRID3 will work intensively with these countries’ governments to build spatial data solutions that improve health systems. GRID3 will collaborate with governmental departments, non-governmental organizations, donors, and other partners to integrate core spatial data innovations into Nigeria and DRC’s data value chains. During this phase, GRID3 will create and improve core spatial data layers, provide training and capacity strengthening, support data use for analytics and decision making, as well as promote mainstreaming and sustainability of spatial data solutions.

This new phase follows a wider organizational transition. GRID3 was established in 2017 as a partnership of the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, the Flowminder Foundation, the United Nations Population Fund, and the WorldPop group at the University of Southampton. In its new configuration, GRID3 is an independent non-profit led by CEO Marc Levy. GRID3 teams in Nigeria and DRC will continue to draw on support from leading technical experts at CIESIN and WorldPop.

For more information, reach out to info@nullgrid3.org

Grant details in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation database

Der Beitrag GRID3 secures $20.3M to support Nigeria and DRC with core spatial data erschien zuerst auf GRID3.

Der Beitrag Geospatial data informs routine vaccination strategies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo erschien zuerst auf GRID3.