State of the Map Africa 2021

Zanzibar Schools ICT Data Collection
11-21, 10:55–11:15 (UTC), Room 1
Language: English

The review of the current datasets shows that most education data in the OSM have been lastly modified since four years ago. Those schools available schools currently in OSM miss important information like names, address and other education facilities. They also lack consistency due to the reason that different persons enter data in the OSM using different tools and features. Even though individual contribution in OSM is allowed, schools data and data for other educational facilities need to be collected and validated by authorised users before putting it to the OSM to ensure quality and relevance of the data set.


As a SUZA Youthmappers mentor, I will organize the mapping of the schools by starting with the Urban region where most of the schools are located. So far, we are continuing to offer training to new members of the chapters, and create more awareness about Youthmappers in SUZA. As more students are joining the movements, they will take part in the mapping of the schools, by dividing the students into groups, each with a leader who is an intermediate or have some experience in the mapping activities. Luckily some of the students participated in the Resilience Academy Internship Program for a period of two weeks, a program I myself was coordinating. In this program, students performed field mapping, and few of them worked with Spatial collective to validate the data into the OSM. Resilience Academy is a program under the Tanzanian Urban Resilience Program (More info at https://resilienceacademy.ac.tz/). In addition to the members of the SUZA Youthmappers in which about 50 active mappers can participate in the mapping activities, there is also SUMAIT University chapter, in which there are students who are really willing to work with SUZA Youthmappers chapter, but they lack computers and are completely new to the field. We hope to include about 10 members from their chapter so that they get an insight on how the mapping activities are conducted. With this activity, we are planning to start with the urban region and we are planning to map about 1500 schools across Zanzibar.

Raya Idrissa Ahmada is an Assistant Lecturer at the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA), a mentor and student advisor. She is also keen in mentoring the students to come up with innovative ideas to solve existing problems in the community. She has worked with students in several development projects such as the STEM for Success Project Zanzibar, as a technical assistant with Kiokit and with the Resilience Academy as an internship coordinator to help equip the youths with the tools, knowledge and skills to ensure resilient urban development. She is also the faculty mentor for the SUZA YouthMapper’s chapter.