[Osmf-talk] Africa as a training ground was RE: google Open Buildings usage request

[john whelan]

I strongly suspect this conversation should be taking place on talk-OSM to
be more inclusive.

My personal thoughts on Africa run along the lines of there are a wealth of
resources that could be used to improve life but how to tap them is a
problem.

For example DR Congo is limited by not having a stable government.  War and
war lords are a problem.  Companies will not invest if their property
stands a chance of being destroyed by people with guns.

Corruption means things cost more.  World Bank estimates the cost of
building a highway in a neighbouring country to some of the ones it has
built was about half the cost.

The free trade agreement that has just been signed should have a major
impact.

Medicine and education are problematic.  Kenya has just signed an agreement
to allow unemployed nurses and doctors to work in the UK.  The number of
nurses and doctors per head of population in Kenya is I suspect lower than
the UK.  I understand some countries teachers were being paid but not
actually being found in schools.

OSM is actually a fairly effective way to help.  We can identify where
settlements are and a basic highway network to the settlements.  You can
make a very crude population estimate based on the size of the settlement.
No money is involved so the chance of corruption is smaller.

On the health care front one of the most cost effective things you can do
is vacinate.  To do that you need to know where the population is and how
to get the vacinne to the target population.

I was involved in one project that was trying to estimate the population so
the appropriate number of classrooms could be provided.  It turned out the
population was roughly twice the number the local government had thought it
was.  That project was a bit special with very experienced mappers and
validators.

What I'd like to see is every school tagged with it's name.  Many of the
buildings are mapped but often the associated villages are not named.
There is a wealth of teacher aids for OSM.

On the GIS side agriculture in other countries make use of GIS to improve
crop yields.  Having a core of experienced mappers in Africa and a couple
of universities should mean something similar could be done in Africa but
before you can run and use these more complex ideas you need to be able to
walk.  Having a basic map in place is something to work from.  Having a few
mappers who know the basic tool set helps as well.

We need GIS traces from delivery trucks to identify the major highways.

We need ways for a local with a smartphone to enrich the map even if the
device is off line.

Basic income from whom?  We can't even manage that in more established
countries.

Rant over.

Cheerio John
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/attachments/20210801/a17c6615/attachment.htm>