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

[John Whelan]

A comment on the open data side the Canadian government found that 60% 
of the end users were other government departments.  It turned out that 
three departments were collecting surveying the same data and they 
consolidated to a single collection.

Hopefully it should be good quality data with a license we can use to 
import into OSM.

Cheerio John

Dave wrote on 8/1/2021 4:02 PM:
> As the person who initiated this thread I just want to make it clear 
> that I did not intend it to be come a HOT bashing forum rather to 
> point out that Africa tends to be where mappers come to train, some to 
> then move on to map elsewhere others to never map again. The result is 
> a great deal of bad data that remains. I mentioned 1 mapper who 
> responded to my advice by saying that the information was for the 
> benefit of the country for development reasons. I never mentioned my 
> response to him was that if the data was poor it was worse than useless.
>
> I can only talk about Zambia, as has been pointed out Africa is not 
> one country. I suspect that while the local authorities may have no 
> idea as to the population in their district the central government 
> does, the problem often is the data is there but nobody knows how to 
> access it. Zambia centralised its administration after independence 
> whereas prior to that the district authorities had more control, even 
> a share of tax revenues. There was also an unpopular form of hut tax 
> that was paid off by maintaining the local road network with labour 
> from the local villages. This is not a debate on the pros and cons 
> just a statement of fact.
>
> Zambia has generally been very good with vaccination programs. Even 
> the current Covid vaccination program, when they get the vaccines. 
> Education is another story though, the big problem in Zambia is the 
> quality of the teachers, only 60% are qualified, no matter how many 
> classrooms you have if you don't have the teachers the quality of the 
> education will be poor.
>
> OSM is a great tool but it is only as good as the quality of the data 
> and that was my point. Garbage in garbage out.
>
> Peace all and stay safe.
>
> Dave
>
> *From:* jwhelan0112 at gmail.com
> *Sent:* 1 August 2021 19:56
> *To:* pierzenh at yahoo.fr
> *Cc:* osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Osmf-talk] Africa as a training ground was RE: google 
> Open Buildings usage request
>
>
> 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

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