Open Geodata Training Programme

A training to help civil servants operationalise geographical data and tools for public health and disaster response.

Context

Last year, Meta publicly released the world’s most accurate population density maps for 170+ countries, built with satellite imagery and projected census data. This data has already had impact on life-saving service delivery, such as during the 2016-2017 measles and rubella campaign in Malawi, where the data allowed Missing Maps Program volunteers to reach 95% of children under five with vaccinations. Today these maps are used around the world to help plan local electricity grids, analyse hospital accessibility, or deploy COVID19 interventions.

There are vast opportunities for civil servants and non-profits to make use of this public data to improve the delivery of a variety of projects, from vaccination campaigns to pandemic response to infrastructure planning. With a little bit of training and support, civil servants could become much more efficient at using geographical data and tools, thereby multiplying the impact of their agencies on the populations they serve.

Objectives

Objectives To address this need, Meta’s Data for Good team has partnered with the Open Knowledge Foundation to design a free and open source geographical information system (GIS) training programme for governments around the world. The programme will aim to:

Raise awareness about free and open GIS and geospatial resources available to governments and nonprofits;
Teach participants the skills needed to use these resources for public health and disaster response;
Familiarise participants with Meta’s High Resolution Settlement Layer; and
Create space for participants to produce innovative projects relevant to their work with the help of free and open data and software.

The Training

The training programme utilises a unique two-phase format which includes a live training phase followed by a mentoring phase.

The live training phase teaches participants how to think and solve problems geospatially using QGIS—a free and open source GIS—and other free and open geospatial resources. This usually lasts 2-3 days.
The mentoring phase provides the participants the opportunity to learn specific skills, apply the things that they learned during the live training, and utilise these new skills and knowledge to complete a mapping or QGIS-related project that they can use in their day-to-day work. This usually lasts 4-6 weeks.

This format addresses two challenges common to training programmes:

Attending a training does not translate easily into actionable skills: participants often leave frustrated because the time constraints of traditional trainings leave them unable to digest what they have learned
Remote trainings make it more difficult to support participants who are lagging behind: the mentoring can be a place for participants to get additional explanations on topics they had trouble to follow

The requested time commitment of the nominated participants will thus amount to over the course of five weeks–two days on Zoom and roughly one day per week over the 4 weeks of mentoring. Between 10 to 15 participants are expected. They will receive a certificate at the end of the training and gain access to a supplemental GIS curriculum to further their learning. Ideally, participants should be

working on public health or disaster response programmes, and
directly involved in the planning, coordination or delivery of these programmes

The projects that participants take on during the mentoring phase will be decided based on their skill level and the needs of their work. Some example projects:

An updated process for generating COVID19 contamination maps
An analysis of health infrastructure accessibility
A new open dataset related to public health
A report on the gaps in the data needed to improve disaster response

The team

Meta’s Data For Good team makes data available to researchers, non profits, and the public sector, enabling them to address some of the world’s greatest humanitarian issues. Our partners leverage this data to address disaster response, health, connectivity, energy access, and economic growth. Privacy is built into all of our products by default; we use techniques such as aggregation and differential privacy to protect privacy. We have public datasets which are available on the Humanitarian Data Exchange, and private datasets which are only available to vetted non profits and researchers.

Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a global non-profit organisation focused on realising open data’s value to society by helping individuals and organisations access and use data to take action on social problems. OKF coordinates several global networks of non-profits and individuals aligned with its mission, including School of Data, a network of data trainers spanning more than 30 countries.

Events in this series

Open Geodata Training for NGOs - LATAM 2

03 November 2022 Online

Esta es una capacitación gratuita para ayudar al personal de la ONG a aprender cómo obtener, analizar y visualizar datos geográficos para respaldar el proyecto de impacto social. El programa se divide en dos fases, ambas impartidas de forma remota: dos días de sesiones en directo y cinco semanas de tutoría.

Details

Open Geodata Training for NGOs - EMEA 2

03 November 2022 Online

This is a free training to help NGO staff learn how to source, analyse and visualise geographic data to support social impact project. The programme is split into two phases, both delivered remotely: two days of live sessions and five weeks of mentoring.

Details

Open Geodata Training for NGOs - APAC 2

03 November 2022 Online

Details

Open Geodata Training for NGOs - LATAM 1

15 September 2022 Online

Details

Open Geodata Training for NGOs - EMEA 1.2

15 September 2022 Online

Details

Open Geodata Training for NGOs - EMEA 1.1

15 September 2022 Online

Details

Open Geodata Training - United Arab Emirates

21 March 2022 Online

A 2-day live training event for learning how to utilize QGIS, OpenStreetMap, and Meta's High Resolution Settlement Layer for infrastructure and tourism planning.

Details

Open Geodata Training - Ghana

04 November 2021 Online