-
Collaboration : Makererere University & AidData-HESN Labs
AidData – HESN Lab engages Makerere University students from the Department Geomatics and Land Management at College of Engineering Design Art and Technology through the RAN HESN Lab
12 Third year students from Makerere University – College of Engineering pursuing Land Survey and Geomatics worked on a Spatial Vulnerability assessment project in partnership with the AidData HESN lab. The students started working on the project at the beginning of the semester in February 2015 and completed in May 2015. The students did the final pitch of their project on Wednesday 27th May 2015 at the Department of Geomatics and Land survey.
The students were specifically looking at “Maternal Health Mortality factors”; Analysis of what makes mothers more vulnerable, which communities in Uganda are more vulnerable to maternal Health, mapping of the existing donor investment towards Maternal Health visa-viv the communities that are most vulnerable. Their study was to specifically spatially assess prospective location for maternal health focused facilities to improve health based services on the vulnerability model generated and to investigate the funding patterns in relation to vulnerability and therefore develop policy recommendations directed at guiding future locations of investments in the sector. They used existing shape files, Uganda Bureau of Standards (UBOS) data and Demographic Health Survey reports. The project will eventually contribute 30% to the student’s academic credentials. The AidData team helped to give comparison data on existing aid for Mothers and online assistance to the students through Skype calls and one Google hangout session.
This is one of the ways the AidData is building capacity of students in Geocoding Data and Spatial Analysis through the HESN Inter University collaboration. The use of Geocoded data and spatial analysis techniques as a basis to develop policy decisions is a relatively new field of exploration on how to utilize data attached to position values. We hope to continue leveraging from AidData’s expertise to have more students and faculty trained in the near future.
