Health Alliance International (HAI), a Center of the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington, has been working in solidarity with the government of Mozambique for over 25 years. HAI aims to improve access to, and effectiveness of, the public-sector healthcare system in a setting where Mozambique endured decades long civil wars and continues to have ongoing civil conflict.
In partnership with the Mozambican government, HAI is carrying out a community survey in Sofala and Manica provinces to better understand trends in child mortality, health, and well-being, with a focus on chronic disease as it becomes more and more important in Mozambique. Sofala and Manica provinces have been historically neglected relative to the south of Mozambique as they are the center of the opposition to the central government. Currently, over 9% of children in Sofala and 11% in Manica do not live to see the age of 5.
In addition to conducting this community survey in the spring of 2016, the last census in Mozambique was conducted in 2007, and there is no up-to-date information on the location of the population across Sofala and Manica provinces.
To develop the survey sample frame and subsequent execution in Sofala and Manica, it is necessary to have up-to-date information on population distribution. The proposed project uses OpenStreetMap as a technology enabler to collect this information in a rapid, low-cost way. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) will coordinate remote digitization of roads and building footprints using satellite imagery throughout Sofala and Manica provinces. The resulting data set will be openly available in OpenStreetMap and can be easily exported and used in GIS applications using the HOT Export Tool (http://export.hotosm.org).
HAI, in partnership with the Mozambican Ministry of Health, aims to use the resulting data to improve the delivery of health services in these provinces. Moreover, if this method is effective, there is potential for a similar approach to be used nationally to provide a lower-cost and effective way to map the distribution of populations and access to healthcare nationally.
HOT aims to grow the use of open data and OpenStreetMap globally so that more people can contribute to mapping their own communities, countries, and regions. HOT has worked in a number of countries in East Africa toward this goal. Through the Ramani Huria project (https://www.ramanihuria.org), HOT has trained 160 young people in OpenStreetMap and open source GIS in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and is now starting a project in Uganda to partner with universities and train another 50+ students. HOT will utilize the regional capacity and knowledge of these teams to support digitization in Mozambique.
In January 2016, approximately 20 former HOT trainees, now skilled Spatial Data Entry specialists, will become available to digitize satellite imagery in Mozambique. The team will be led by two local supervisors. Spatial Data Entry specialists use satellite imagery from Bing and/or Mapbox Satellite to hand-trace roads and buildings using the Java OpenStreetMap editor (JOSM). The HOT Tasking Manager (http://tasks.hotosm.org) is used to divide the area to be mapped into individual squares. After each square is completed, a second pass over the area is made by a local supervisor. The overall project is coordinated by an international HOT project manager who uses a number of tools to assess data quality and correct any inconsistencies in mapped areas.