State of the Map Africa 2021

Humla, Bajhang and Bajura are Nepal’s some of the most isolated, food insecure and vulnerable districts to various disaster hazards such as landslides and earthquakes and lack data and emergency preparedness to respond to disaster impacts as well as plan during a crisis. Difficult geographical terrain adds more stresses on emergency preparedness and disaster management in the districts. Similarly, lack of proper road networks, vulnerable and risky trails pose critical challenges in management of logistics and delivery of emergency relief and support to the affected region during crises. Hence, these districts were in extreme need of identifying and mapping existing trails and infrastructures to enhance emergency preparedness and effective response during an emergency.

During the project period (2019-2020), over 80 local people including local government officials, security forces, ground level emergency responders, women and other community members from these three districts were sensitized on the importance of mapping and data preparedness for disaster. A selected group of 63 local people (local youths, women and emergency responders) were provided hands-on training on the use of digital tools such as OSMTracker and GPS for field based data collection. As a result, over 4000 data points (education, health amenities, security, trail network, river crossings, market centers, hazards, constraints, settlements, utilities, landing zones and others) and their attributes were collected and over 1700 km of local trails were mapped in these districts. These collected datasets have also been uploaded to OSM, shared to respective local governments, humanitarian and relevant agencies for wider dissemination. In addition, these data points have also been plotted in thematic GIS maps and compiled in the form of atlas map books and shared at local levels for better data visualization.
This project primarily required the participatory involvement of local governments and relevant stakeholders and their engagement in the project since its commencement have led to recognition of the importance of data, data preparedness and emergency preparedness to respond to crises. Identifying data gaps and the need of intervention to bridge data gaps have now become one of the major priorities at local level. Similarly, the involvement of local people from these districts has also developed a sense of ownership on the data and collective outputs generated during the project. These activities are aimed at creating a strong database for effective planning and decision making relevant to DRR at local and municipal levels in the district. Moreover, capacity building at local level and mobilization of local human resources to collect data for DRR reflects data preparedness at local level and the sustainable approach of this project.