About the programme

Data for Good at Meta has partnered with the Open Knowledge Foundation to design, develop, and deliver a training focused on how governments and nonprofits around the world can utilise free and open geospatial data and geospatial software.

The Open Geodata Training Programme aims 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 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.

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 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