Mapping needs, services, and facilities in Uganda, Türkiye, South Sudan and Syria through crowd-sourced data

Summary

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap project aims to improve program planning and service delivery to refugee communities, build refugee self-reliance through open map data and enable better integration with host communities. It co-creates open data maps using techniques that include crowd-sourced data collection on mobile phones. Besides, the project contains capacity building for the community leaders to map needs and facilities, filling crucial data gaps.

Results

The maps are multilanguage and openly available online in OpenStreetMap, mobile phones for navigation, and refugee and community centers. The maps were also provided to the institutional actors involved. This project can be replicated in areas with a need to map new focal points. Each project should consider the training for the local mappers and the map users, as well as the technical equipment and infrastructure for its implementation.