By HAI Staff-Catie Henley, Mozambique Associate Director
In partnership with the Mozambican government, Health Alliance International (HAI) will carry out a community survey in Sofala and Manica provinces in the summer 2016 to better understand trends in maternal and child mortality, health, and well-being and chronic disease in the general population of Mozambique.
To develop the survey sample frame, HAI entered into a partnership with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, a U.S.-based non-profit institution, in February 2016. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) coordinated remote digitization of roads and building footprints using satellite imagery throughout Sofala and Manica provinces.
The resulting dataset is now openly available on the OpenStreetMap website 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.
More information on this partnership can be found here.