State of the Map Africa 2021

Im an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas. My work is in Water Resources and Climate as well as Disaster Risk and Mitigation.
In addition, I am a member of the Africa Science and Technology Advisory Group of the African Union for Disaster Risk Reduction in Africa.
I also work as an international consultant in project related to my professional field.
I am from Comoros.

Agraw is a GIS research analyst at the WRI Africa regional office. He works to present technical experience, analysis and administrative assist to the WRI Africa Cities Program focusing on the scaling of transit mapping in African cities for improved transport planning.
Prior to joining WRI, Agraw worked as a research associate in a laboratory at the University of Seoul. Before that, He worked at the Addis Ababa Science and Technology University as an assistant lecturer. In addition to that, he has participated in various GIS, urban planning and design projects in Ethiopia.

I am a web developer and GIS professional. I have started OSM mapping in 2009. I have participated in various mapping projects for both business and community works, that enabled me to train more than 15 people on the OSM based mapping, visualization and editing using QGIS and JOSM. I love open-source projects and technologies as they are the best solution for developing a well trained and equipped mappers and IT professionals for developing countries like mine (Ethiopia).

Dr Alessandra Feliciotti holds a Phd in Urban Design from the University of Strathclyde, and a Master’s degree in architecture at IUAV in Venice. Currently, she is Lecturer in Urban Design at the Urban Design Studies at the Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde. She also works at MindEarth as GIS Analyst.

Amour Nyalusi is a Community Microgant manager and Quality Assurance Supervisor at OpenMap Development Tanzania. He is an expert in OSM data quality checks, field data cleaning and delivering workshops on the use of OSM and open mapping tools i.e QGIS and JOSM. He believes in the use of geospatial technologies to solve different community challenges through evidence-based decisions.

Bahati Samson is a Policy Analyst working as a Policy and Advocacy Officer at Agri Thamani Foundation which is a National NGO, focused on contributing towards ending malnutrition in Tanzania, through innovative and sustainable interventions.

Currently, Bahati Samson is co-ordinating an OSM community in Kagera Region to implementing a project; "Mapping Nutrition Interventions and the Most Vulnerable Households in Bukoba Municipal".

Bitange Ndemo is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi’s Faculty of Business and Management Sciences. His research centers on the link between ICTs and small and medium enterprises with emphasis on how ICTs influence economic development in Africa. He Chairs the Kenya Distributed Ledgers and Artificial Intelligence Taskforce that is developing the country’s a road map for digital transformation. He is an advisor and Board member to several organizations including Safaricom one of the leading telecommunication company in Africa, a member of the: OECD Expert Panel on Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, World Economic Forum’s Global Blockchain Council (part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Fourth Industrial Revolution Councils). He is a former Permanent Secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communication in Kenya where he was credited with facilitating many transformative ICT projects including building of the undersea cables, open data initiatives and the Silicon Savanah. He is a Senior advisor to UN’s Global Pulse (Big Data initiatives) and the UNCDF’s Better than Cash Alliance and UNICEF’s Innovation Council. He is an Open Data/Big Data evangelist and dedicated to simplification (visualization) of data for ordinary citizens to consume. He writes two columns every week for the Business Daily and Nation on-line.

Hi! My name is Christina Reuben, Quality Assurance at Open Map Development Tanzania (OMDTZ) Digitization team. I joined OpenStreetMap/OMDTZ team as a graduate with a bachelor of science in environmental science and management. In a short time, I was able to master the mapping processes and now Quality Assurance. My daily activities focus on data validation and quality checks, communication, coordination, training, learning, reporting, and work performance monitoring. Also, I involve with field works for community engagement, data collection, cleaning (analysis), and uploading to OSM. Currently have been working on the road import project in Tanzania using artificial intelligent data to create a road network database, which can be used in disaster response, community service provision, and development initiatives.

Christine is a GIS Data Analyst and Business Development Expert. she has a degree in Physical Planning with 5 years’ work experience working in the role of Business development under MHub (Malawi’s first innovation and technology Hub) and Sparc Systems Limited (leader in system integration for enterprise IT in Africa). She also lead the Mapathon activity under mHub. An initiative that seeked to create a community of young mappers across Malawi using open source tools like OSM, QGIS & Google Maps. She is also part of the GeOsm team responsible for the Communications and Business development within the GeOsm Family.

Spécialiste en Sciences géospatiales, je propose un savoir-faire répondant aux besoins de cartographie, de gestion de données géographiques, de planification et d'aménagement du territoire/des écosystèmes.
Grâce à la géomatique j'analyse des données et les informations géoréférencées, de nature qualitative ou quantitative, que je représente de manière à faciliter leur compréhension et leur utilisation comme instrument d'aide à la gestion des milieux naturels et humains. Je suis actuellement Assistant solution numériques et Système d'information Géographique sur le Projet Bouaké Ville durable cofinancé par l'Union Européenne.

My Name is Dativah Nuwashaba and I am the founder of the Center For Life Change and Development (CLCD) a community-based organization that is working to end Gender-Based Violence in Western Uganda.
I am a Psychologist by profession and a new member of the OpenStreetMap Community. I recently attended the OSM internship program at MapUganda where I acquired all the skills and knowledge in the use of Open Map tools and I have decided to use the same tools to fight GBV in Western Uganda where CLCD is operating.

David is the Regional Partnerships Manager for the Easter and Southern Africa Open Mapping Hub. In this role, he supports the building of partnerships in the region between mapping communities, humanitarian organisations, development partners, academia, local governments and government agencies to further mapping efforts with the aim of creating and using map data for discussion making. Previously, working with HOT as Programs Manager, David supported mapping projects in both urban and rural settings on projects focused on sustainable cities, disaster preparedness, and government service delivery. His work cuts across Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Dorice Lucas Mawona,
Mapping Quality Assurance Officer at OMDTZ/HOT Tanzania.

In July 2017, it was my pleasure to join HOT as a volunteer mapper where I was able to contribute to the project of Dar Raman Huria through tracing roads and buildings. The project aimed to create map data that will be potentially useful in helping communities to prepare and escape from floods.

In the mid of February 2018, I was appointed to be a supervisor/ Quality assurance Officer in the digitization team. Within my role, I have been ensuring the quality of the data provided by digitizers through revising their works done every day, creating tasks to be performed, taking statistics of digitized buildings or roads, and reporting to the project manager about the progress of the work. As a supervisor, it is also my responsibility to guide the team and to make them understand the reasons behind why we are digitizing.

Here are the projects I worked on so far, Minigrid Tanzania, Minigrid Zambia, METEOR project, and road coverage in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Tanzania.

Free / Libre and Open Source Software, Open Data advocate and participates Communities of Practice such as OprenStreetMap, Open Source Geospatial Foundation, Wikimedia Ghana User Group, Linux Accra User Group, etc, you can find me on here

I am organized, meticulous and adaptive environmental scientist and Geographical
Information System (GIS) specialist with three years of experience in spatial and non-spatial
data visualization, management, mapping, modeling and analysis. I am also capable of
conducting training on applications on geospatial technology techniques for field workers and
learners in various fields. These skills and experience makes me a great team player focused
on adding value to any enterprise. My career lies upon these skills to support decision makers
with accurate and updated information to address different environmental challenges with
their solutions and sustainable use of natural resources through research and consultations.

Geoffrey Kateregga is the Community Manager at Eastern and Southern Africa Open Mapping Hub of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. Geoffrey has been working with HOT since 2015. He is also an active member of the OpenStreetMap Africa community - a network of local OpenStreetMap communities from all over Africa organizing State of the Map Africa and joining hands to share resources and collaborate to grow and produce a complete and well-detailed map of Africa on OpenStreetMap in order to advance the quality, completeness, and sustainability of geospatial data in Africa.

Guy Pacome Adingra
Mindearth Responsible of field Mission
Environmental and geo-data scientist with experience in project management and community mapping in global south cities.
Member de Openstreetmap Côte d'Ivoire, YouthMappers Regional Ambassador
Chair of the Local organising comity of the State Of The Map Africa 2019 in Grand Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire

Hon. Neema Lugangira (MP) is a specialist in policy, extractives, agriculture and nutrition. She currently serves as a Member of Parliament in Tanzania. In her previous position as the Director of the Policy Department in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), she ensured sector policies contributed to an enabling environment for trade and investment to flourish in the agricultural sector (crops, livestock and fisheries). Hon. Lugangira is also the Founder and Executive Director of Agri Thamani Foundation, a National NGO focused on contributing towards ending malnutrition in Tanzania through innovative and sustainable interventions.

This panel session is co-designed and organised by the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) [1] and the Humanitarian Open Mapping Community Working Group (CWG) [2].

The lead organisers are Florian Marembo (from SDFN) and Pete Masters (from the CWG).

[1] https://www.shackdwellersnamibia.com/
[2] https://loomio.hotosm.org/community-working-group/

A Zimbabwean by birth, and a Capetonian by adoption, Oxford-educated Isla Haddow-Flood is a writer, editor and project strategist who is passionate about harnessing technology and media platforms to advance access to, and contribution of, knowledge – especially knowledge that relates to and enhances the narratives of Africa online via the Open Movement.

James Magige is a Data Manager/Geospatial analyst at CCORD. He is also the East Africa IAYG program Manager. James is also the program coordinator for the OpenStreetMap (OSM) Kenya and the communication committee member at the State of the Map Africa. As a program Manager at IAYG, James has helped in organizing for the East Africa regional competition in GIS, inviting students and young professionals under 25 to submit mapping projects focused on Geovisualizing. In 2020, he published a research on Application of GIS and Remote Sensing in Etourism, a research that published by springer.

Jess Beutler is the Program Director at OpenStreetMap US. Her focus is to strengthen the impact and breadth of programs for the OSM US community as well as support TeachOSM, a program designed to assist educators using OpenStreetMap in the classroom. Jess has led participatory mapping projects and supported OpenStreetMap communities across sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. She helped organize the first State of the Map Africa in 2017 and is a member of OSM Liberia.

Community Mapping supervisor, Open data consultant and Project Supervisor, Best trainer award on the Open Data Day community mapping training March 2018 in collaboration with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and Tanzania Development Trust training covered open data, OpenStreetMap, ID editor, Maps.me, Field Papers, Kobo Collect, OpenDataKit, OpenMapKit, JOSM, and QGIS.

I participated in different projects countrywide level and outside the country, Projects Like Tanzania Rural electrification (Tanzania Minigrid), REA Phase III as well as Zambia off-grid, Lusaka Facilities, and Sanitation Programme as GIS and Open Data Expert.

I am currently a volunteer and trainer with OpenStreetMap Uganda, an NGO registered here in Uganda. I am also a graduate student of Geo-information science and technology and passionate about GIS and remote sensing.
It is and has always been a pleasure sharing knowledge and learning in a multicultural environment and I am confident that this opportunity will be a great fit for me because I derive satisfaction in sharing and learning from people who come from multiple backgrounds.

Kazeem is a GIS/Information Management specialist and a certified project manager (PMP) in various capacity of deployment, management, and implementation and development of ICT/geospatial solutions.
He has been mapping on OSM for the past 8years, he is a user of free and Open Source geospatial solutions. He is the coordinator of the humanitarian mappers in Nigeria.

Lukas Mocek
International Community & Partnership Development @SensorCommunity

Sensor.Community is a contributors driven global sensor network that creates Open
Environmental Data.
Our mission is to inspire and enrich people’s lives by offering a platform for the collective
curiosity in nature that is genuine, joyful and positive.

The global Sensor.Community platform has grown to more than 14.000 sensors in over 70 countries and has generated >13.000.000.000 data-points (July 2021).

Our Guides are available in 24 languages on:
https://sensor.community/en/

Martijn is an OSM mapper since 2007. He created various tools for the OSM community, including MapRoulette, a micro-task platform, and Meet Your Mappers, a tool that lets you find out who the active mappers around you are. He has served on the OSMF board between 2014 and 2017, and is currently on the board of OpenStreetMap US. He has worked professionally in GIS for over 15 years.

Créée en 2015 au Burundi avec un capital social de 210.000.000 BIF, MEDIABOX est une société de services en ingénierie informatique et Telecom spécialisée entre autres dans les systèmes d’information critiques, les systèmes automatisés et d’aide à la prise de décision, les systèmes d’information géographiques, les outils de reporting spécifiques et de business intelligence, les applications mobiles (Android et IOS), le développement mobile 2G (flux USSD) et les systèmes de paiement mobile.

Michael Montani has a Master of Science in Geoinformatics Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. He works as Geographic Information Systems Consultant at the United Nations Global Service Center (UNGSC), where he is the coordinator of the crowdsourcing activities of Unite Maps.

Formerly he has been co-founder of PoliMappers, the first European YouthMappers chapter, and YouthMappers Research Fellow, for which he conducted a research project in Senegal to fight schistosomiasis with OpenStreetMap data.
He is an active contributor to the map and OSM communities in Africa since 2016.

In the last years, with UN Mappers we delivered trainings to different local communities in African countries like Somalia, Mali, Uganda, Cameroon, Mauritania.

Msilikale Msilikale is a former student of Ramani Tandale project in 2011 which is one of the original World Bank pilot projects for community mapping using OpenStreetMap. Msilikale has acquired more experiences since then by organizing Mapathons, training university students and other OSM communities using OSM tools. However, his background is in Geospatial, urban planning, and community mapping. Msilikale has been working with World Bank and other partners after his Masters. Now he is working as a project coordinator to deliver resilience academy programs for Mass internship program, e-learning materials development, research and geospatial climate risk database.

Consultante en CartoNumérique & SIG, Cofondatrice d'OpenStreetMap Mali, Point Focal de CAFDO au Mali, Ancienne Membre du Conseil d'Administration de HOTOSM. Très interéssée et engagée dans la la Promotion de la Cartographie Numérique Collaborative OPenStreetMap, les OpenSources, les Données Ouvertes et l’autonomisation de la femme à l’aide des Outils Numériques.

Neelam Thapa Magar is a Project Coordination and Research Officer at Naxa Private Limited, a Geo-IT service provider company based in Kathmandu, Nepal. Neelam supports the GIS team at Naxa by documenting, managing and reporting project outputs relevant to disaster risk reduction and management. She is also the focal person of communication and coordination between her team of GIS professionals and various national and international humanitarian agencies.

She holds a Master Degree in Human and Natural Resources Studies from Kathmandu University School of Arts. She also received the ERASMUS scholarship to study in Bielefeld University, Germany for a semester during her graduate study. Her subjects of interest revolve around human geography, people and places and risk management. She enjoys home cooking and loves to watch grand slam tournaments.

Connect with Neelam:
Email: neelam.naxa@gmail.com / neelamthapamagar@gmail.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neelam-thapa-magar-999a76179/

I am Neema Justus Alphonce, a Mapping Quality Assurance at Open Map Development Tanzania (OMDTZ). I joined OMDTZ after graduating Bachelor of Science in Land Management and Valuation from Ardhi University Dar es Salaam Tanzania since 2017 as volunteer. I have been working in several projects. In 2018 , I participated in Tanzania Mini grid Mapping project that buildings were only mapped. In 2019 up to date , I am working in Road Import Project as Quality Assurance . My duties based on data quality and quantity, data collection, mapping and providing training to community related to mapping activities and site visit for ground truthing.

I am Olatunde Opeyemi, a Graduate of Federal University of Technology Akure (Futa) with 4+ years of experience in Geomatics. I am currently working on the Lagos enterprise GIS project. This project focuses on establishing a Digital Records interface of both Land Documented Records and Vector Shapefile of each individual’s property, in replacement to the analog system of filing and storage.
Also, the Chief Operating Officer for Geohazards Risk Mapping Initiative (GRMI).
GRMI focuses on supporting the immediate society with mapping for disaster risk preparedness. And has had her focus solely on Flooding in Nigeria for the year 2021.

Patricia Solís, PhD, geographer, is co-founder and director of YouthMappers, a
consortium of student-led humanitarian mapping chapters on more than 291 university
campuses in 62+ countries. The program creates and uses open, volunteered spatial
data in collaboration with USAID, including projects to combat malaria in Africa, flooding
in East Asia, hurricanes and earthquakes in Latin America and the Caribbean, rural
electrification in West Africa and heat related deaths in Arizona. Solís is Executive
Director of the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at Arizona State University, an
interdisciplinary effort to link multi-sector community needs with research innovations
around resilience to economic shocks, social disruption, and environmental threats. She
is an Associate Research Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban
Planning at ASU. Her disciplinary expertise centers on the application of participatory
geospatial technologies for humanitarian, environment and development needs. Solís
also serves a diplomatic appointment as President of the PanAmerican Institute of
Geography and History for the Organization of American States and on the Fulbright
Roster of Experts.

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.

I'm Shabani Magawila from Tanzania, I had been joined in OSM Community in 2017. I used to be YouthMapper's President at the Institute of Rural Development-Mwanza. I'm taking Bachelor in Urban Planning and Environment Management here at IRDP-Dodoma. I got volunteered and participated in various OSM Projects and Events. I'm skilful in OSM Tools, GIS and Remote Sensing Technology.

Willy Franck SOB is the CEO of SOGEFI, a company specialized in geospatial and land management. He is passionate about the implementation of open source location intelligence platforms  in developing countries. He is an active member in the OpenStreetMap Community with which he created GeOsm (https://geo.sm), a key infrastructure of developing countries digital transformation. His expertise is recognised by several international institutions(The World Bank, GIZ, UNESCO, UN-Habitat, AFD, etc.),

Stellamaris is EverywhereSheMaps YouthMappers Regional Ambassador contributing to active engagement and empowerment of young women in technology. She is currently attending her graduate program in Geography at the University of West Virginia, United States. She holds a BSc. in Geomatics & Land Surveying and experience in geospatial technologies for land and socio-economic development, obtained through numerous projects and as a YouthMappers. She is also a sitting board member of MapUganda, a Uganda NGO working to promote the power of geo-crowdsourcing [OpenStreetMap] for the public good.

Taiwo is a GIS expert and Environmental Risk Consultant with five years of working experience in GIS field survey and cartography mapping within the humanitarian and disaster management sector. Having contributed immensely to humanitarian support aid in Northeastern Nigeria and currently working with the UN International Organisation for Migration as a GIS and Information Management Consultant. He is passionate about Volunteered Geographic Information/Crowd-source mapping for Sustainable Development and Disaster response which led him to the founding of Geohazard Risk Mapping Initiative .

Associate Project Manager at OpenMap Development Tanzania (OMDTZ) basing in Tanzania. I joined HOT as a volunteer mapper in March 2015. My first professional engagement with HOT was in a project called Ramani Huria, a project based on Community Mapping for Flood Resilience in Dar es Salaam city. During this project, I experienced data collecting using GPS and field papers at different wards affected by Floods across Dar es salaam. Also experienced in using JOSM editor for cleaning and uploading data to OpenStreetMap as well as remote mapping. I also worked on a project on Malaria Elimination through remote mapping.

Lecturer-Geospatial Information Science at the Geography and Environmental Management , University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. National Coordinator at Unique Mappers Network, Nigeria. Member-ISPRS. Local Community leader for OpenStreetMap in Nigeria, GeoForAll & Participatory Citizen Science, Nigeria. As well as GODAN - Nigeria Capacity Development Lead,Chair-Rivers State Chapter of Nigerian Geoinformantion Society.