2025-11-29 –, Audition Room - 1st Floor Language: English
Background:
The past four State of the Map Africa events have offered a diverse range of presentations, interactions, and learnings that highlighted the potential for practical utilization of GIS and remote sensing to accelerate Africa's path towards sustainable development. While the previous events have improved the ecosystem for geospatial sciences in Africa, there is need for a paradigm shift in how future State-of-the-map events could be organized as well as how the OSM at large should be run.
This abstract provides a proposition that translates to the following objectives for a paradigm shift, to expound on new opportunities for OpenStreetMap Africa.
- To develop a repository for talks, presentations, data and research for OSM Africa available in real time for its members and interested parties.
- To devise a standardized framework that is expert-led on how user case applications of OpenStreetMap and free open-source software can be applied across Africa.
- To define new mandate for OpenStreetMap Africa institutional structure to foster research and publication of African-based innovations and solutions to the geospatial industry.
- To develop an OpenStreetMap Africa strategy
The African Union vision 2063 calls upon sound institutional structures that govern the line of action to foster sustainable development. Governed by this African Vision of 2063, OSM Africa could set the path for institutional capacity development, to foster the interest of the African tailor-made geospatial solutions to development. The State of the Map Africa events and OSM at large therefore, provides an opportunity to establish such sustainable structures that speak to the continent's interest, while building from the previous isolated geospatial work of country OSM. This proposition offers an opportunity for discussion during the state of the map 2025 on how to leverage individual and country potentials, amidst the changing global environment in resource pool and utilization.
Outcomes
The outcome of this proposition aims to have:
1. A developed integrated OpenStreetMap Africa platform that becomes a repository for talks data, and presentations for every state of the map Africa Event and other interested researchers interested in sharing their work.
2. A standardized framework on user case applications of OpenStreetMap and free and open-source software across Africa
3. A revised institutional structure of OpenStreetMap Africa that fosters research and publications of African- based innovations and solutions to the geospatial industry.
4. A developed OpenStreetMap Africa strategy.
A Climate Change and Geospatial Science Professional, working with Trocaire Malawi as a Programme Officer for Resilience and Livelihood, fostering nature-based solution systems and disaster resilience programming for communities vulnerable to climate change impacts. I have over five years’ experience in climate resilience and livelihood programming, and humanitarian openstreet mapping. I have extensive research Knowledge in climate finance, agriculture, natural resources management and applications of geography in preventing environmental risks. As a Programme officer with Trocaire Malawi, I provide strategic nexus between climate resilience and livelihood by working with 16 local partner organizations to enhance community-led approaches in sustainable agriculture practices, community natural resource management, social security measures, and social entrepreneurship, by working with over 100,000 households in southern Malawi, that have either been displaced or forced to adapt within an ecosystem frequently prone to disasters such as floods and drought, in districts of Nsanje, Chikwawa, Balaka, Zomba, Machinga and Phalombe. At global level, I am the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) expert reviewer, where I review reports submitted by both developed and developing nations on how they are emitting greenhouse gases and efforts undertaken to reduce them. I also review the tracking of climate mitigation and adaptation plans undertaken by countries. I am a member of the global coordination team on policy of the constituency of youth and children to UNFCCC, developing and presenting youth statements and positions in relation to policy frameworks surrounding UNFCCC process. With an extensive OpenStreetMap volunteering background spanning over seven years, I volunteer with OpenStreetMap Malawi to advance geospatial industry in Malawi.