Humanitarian OSM Team/HOT Microgrants/Community Impact Microgrants 2021/Proposal/OSM Somaliland Community

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statusproposed
OSM Somaliland Community
The aim of the project is to create the first OSM Community in Somaliland and start its first activities such as: mapping the city of Wajaale in the field, creating Mapathons, creating social network profiles, establishing collaborations with other OSM Communities in the Horn of Africa and in the world in order to prepare a long-term sustainable urban development plan for the town of Wajaale and its municipal territory.
start-date2021-03-01
end-date2021-08-30
budget (USD)5000
grant_typeGroup
location(s)Wajaale (Somaliland)
granteeAbdullahi Hassan
contact(s)• osmsomaliland@gmail.com
organization (if applicable)• kaltoonhu@gmail.com


OSM Somaliland Community

This is an opportunity for you to tell us about your project. In this section we'd like to hear about your community, which local challenge your project addresses, what you plan to do and how, your sustainability plan, and how you plan to share your stories.

General Information

GIS & CADASTRAL SURVEY – GCS Hargeisa: The technicians of GCS Office are experienced GIS experts partnering with the Somaliland Ministry of Agriculture, the group was originally part of an earlier UNDP project, the “Somaliland Cadastral Survey” very active and successful.

Names & OSM usernames of any additional individuals who will be leads on the project:

NAME OSM USERNAME EMAIL GROUP
Abdullahi Hassan Abdullah2020 osmsomaliland@gmail.com GCS – Hargeisa, Somaliland
Fatuma Hussain Fatimahu kaltoonhu@gmail.com GCS – Hargeisa, Somaliland
Hibak Ramadan Hibak hibak.ramadan@gmail.com GCS – Hargeisa, Somaliland
Khadar Qalinle Khadar Qalinle khadarmcismaan@mail.com GCS – Hargeisa, Somaliland
Giuseppe Maria Battisti Giuseppe Maria Battisti gmbattisti@mapforfuture.world MFF – Rome, Italy
Valerio De Luca valerio_de_luca vdeluca@mapforfuture.world MFF – Rome, Italy

Describe the local challenge your project is addressing

In this section please describe in detail the challenge that your project addresses. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

Wajaale is a town located in Northwest of Somaliland, on the border with Ethiopia. It is the second town in the district, after the capital Gabiley. With a total population of 70,450, Wajaale is located on the major Somali trade route that connects Addis Ababa, in landlocked Ethiopia, to the Somali Port of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden.

Berbera has recently become the main port that provides access to the sea for Ethiopia, consequently, cross-border traffic between Berbera and Addis Ababa has grown exponentially. Due to the increased traffic, Wajaale is undergoing major urban transformations, with an important increase in population, made of new traders, workers, and settlers in search of employment.

Such growth requires new economic and trade infrastructures and special attention to population needs. Wajaale’s urban peripheric human settlements are experiencing an important expansion, municipal authorities are well aware of the challenges faced by their population and they want to properly address them. They want to prepare new “Urban Development Plans” for long-term sustainable growth and provide better living conditions for their growing community, addressing the areas of housing, water and sanitation/waste collection, health and education, viability, etc. In this endeavour, the Municipality of Wajaale needs support for the preparation of technical documentation and tools to be utilized in the preparation of future plans. Local authorities are interested in applying and utilizing a new set of tools and methodologies based on GIS technologies. New geographical data on local settlements needs to be elaborated, this is why local authorities consider the NGO “GCS - GIS and Cadastral Survey” a good candidate to support the municipality in the preparation of the necessary mapping materials. They are also interested in acquiring proper knowledge in the utilization of newer geographical methodologies and techniques, also becoming part of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) community for Somaliland.

Community members and their groups or organizations will be encouraged to become active OSM members, the municipality of Wajaale will study ways to favour their participation and training. GCS, well known in the region for a similar support it previously provided to the district capital Gabiley, is interested to cooperate with the municipal authorities in this effort, which will finally result in better living conditions for the civilian population of Wajaale and its hinterland.

Describe your project

In this section, please provide specific details about your mapping objectives. This should include: how you will contribute to help solve the local challenge you are addressing, what you aim to achieve with funding, what volume of mapping you plan to complete and how, and the number individuals are you aiming to include in mapping activities. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

The main objective of the project is to support the Municipality of Wajaale to provide better living conditions for its growing population. Municipal authorities are planning to prepare new “Urban Development Plans” for long-term sustainable growth paying special attention to the needs and priorities of local communities.

In order to identify these needs and priorities, the Municipality of Wajaale and the Ministry of Agriculture, supported by GCS, will gather qualitative data of all buildings and farms on the municipal territory, dividing the town in urban and rural. This work will provide the necessary data for the preparation of the new Wajaale “Urban Development Plans.” External backing to this operation will be provided by the Italian group of GIS cartographers “MFF-Map For Future.” During the year 2020, GCS & MFF had worked together, through online interactions, establishing the first Geo-Portal for Somaliland. With a small project, MFF with GCS and the town of Wajaale, purchased Satellite Images for 100 sqkm of Wajaale’s territories. Also organizing a number of initial mapathons, initiating a preliminary phase of the mapping exercise. A portion of Wajaale’s buildings (HOT Tasking Manager Cod. Ref. #9349) were covered, reporting this data on the HOT (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team) platform. A total of 6.625 buildings have been identified, marked, validated and successfully uploaded on OSM.

Once completed, the new data will be presented and discussed with local communities, to inform and obtain valuable comments and inputs from the final beneficiaries. The new project will support analytical assessments of 2013 and 2018 satellite images. Field surveys will be organized to evaluate Wajaale’s urban sprawl, major features of buildings and farms, and food productivity trends. Existing geographical data will be compared, verified, integrated and enriched with satellite images and field surveys of ‘ground truth.’ All data produced will be made available to the Municipality of Wajaale. In support of this operation, GCS selected four GIS experts. Additional expertise will be sought when necessary and provided by MFF. Once the project is approved, the GCS project manager will join the municipality in Wajaale and work closely with them.

Office space and local transportation will be provided by the municipality as an in-kind contribution to this project. The project manager and the technical office of the Wajaale will prepare a workplan for the duration of the project indicating when other GCS experts will join and support the resident team in Wajaale with additional technical skills.

Describe your sustainability plan

In this section please describe how your activities will continue post-funding. If you are applying for funding to purchase equipment, explain who will store/use the equipment you purchase, and if you have long term sustainability plans for your community's development. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

During the year 2020, GCS from Hargeisa and MFF from Rome, with the support of “FORUM-UN.ITALIA,” an association of former UN and other international experts created in Rome in 2019, collaborated online to a joint project titled “International Mapping Partnership Rome – Hargeisa.” This project established the first Geo-Portal for Somaliland, Hargeisa, preparing training materials for the use of the geo-portal, purchasing “Satellite Images” of Wajaale and its urban and rural surroundings, and organizing initial Mapathons for this town and its rural areas. All this work and the materials it produced is now available to be utilized and by this new project. The same project team has been working at the preparation of this project proposal.

If this project is approved, this team will carry out all activities. All training provided to GCS will be extended to the technical staff of the municipality of Wajaale and other local public and private entities that are interested. The need of expanding training opportunities as much as possible in Somaliland, has already been agreed by all parties in this project and constitutes a way of strengthening the sustainability of the initiative.

Once this project is approved, field operations will be carried out in synergy with the technicians of the Wajaale municipality and other interested partners, who will learn the relevant techniques required for the management of the “OSM Somaliland Community.” All local personnel participating in this project will acquire a number of skills associated with the management of the Geo-Portal, the organization of urban and rural surveys, the organization of mapathons, various techniques of geographical analysis, and a number of GIS techniques and competencies. At the end of the project, all maps will be available for urban planning to the Municipality of Wajaale. They will be, together with the geo-portal and the new OSM Somaliland Community, a set of valuable tools for all users.

While this Microgrant project will be implemented, if approved, the initial “International Mapping Partnership Rome – Hargeisa” will complete the preparation of its “Phase-Two” project proposal. This document will be presented to donors. Preliminary contacts have already been made with some of them. When approved, this new project will project, expand and complete the actions of this initiative on the base of new objectives and activities to be identified in the coming months. Local geographical capacities acquired in Somaliland with this microgrant project will be further consolidated.

What are your community defined project goals, and how do you define project success?

Please explain you project goals. This can include: setting goals such as "we will train X number of new mappers", "we will register as a legal entity", or "the data will be used by X", and why these goals are important to your community such as "we intent to be legally registered so that we can receive more grant funding in the future", "we intend to engage X number of women in mapping activities so that we can empower local women" or "we want to build a partnership with X so that our data will be used and trusted". We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

Goal 1) Full set of GIS data, analysis and maps on the city of Wajaale and its urban and rural hinterland, ready and available to the technical offices of the Municipality of Wajaale, responsible for the preparation of the Municipal Development Plan.

Success = The Municipality of Wajaale provided with the necessary geographical material and training sessions, necessary to initiate the preparation phase of its Municipal Development Plan.

Goal 2) OSM fully operational in Somaliland Once the project starts, GCS supported by MFF will complete the establishment of the OSM Community for Somaliland and they will make sure that all users are properly registered. The pool of OSM users will be expanded ensuring proper participation of women.

A new Facebook page and a detailed mailing list will be used to spread the information on OSM Somaliland in local communities and abroad. Wikimedia OSM Italia will support OSM Somaliland to create a digital network and to improve new collaborations with other OSM worldwide Communities. New contacts will be sought to expand national and international participation to this project.

In due time GCS intends to register locally the new “OSM Somaliland Community" so that they will be fully functional and eligible for financial support from other sources.

Success = OSM Somaliland established and fully operational

Goal 3) Strengthening local capacities in the use of OSM in Somaliland. Once the project is approved, GCS will train 10 to 15 new local mappers, organizing two Mapathons for Wajaale and ad-hoc training courses.

Success = 10 to 15 Somali local mappers, including 3 to 5 women, trained in the use of OSM and actively utilizing it.

Goal 4) Increased Women participation in the use of OSM Somaliland The OSM Regional Coordinator from GCS, Fatuma Hussain, will manage the OSM Community and promote the participation of women in its activities. Supported by the “Women in GIS Assistant” she will prompt the participation of at least 3 to 5 women in its initial activities.

Success = 3 to 5 Somali women mappers trained in the use of OSM and actively utilizing it.

What are your community's long term goals?

Please give describe your community's vision. This can include: where you see your community in five years time, how you want your data to be used, future partnerships you'd like to establish, or how you would like your community to grow (or not!). We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

Once a local “Geographical Information System” is established in Somaliland through a local Geo-Portal and a new OSM Community, it is important to ensure its functionality and duration in time.

As this system will have to be utilized and expanded during several years, accompanying the development and growth of local communities in Somaliland, it will be necessary to plan for a systematic training scheme for the personnel that will have to maintain it and further develop it in the future.

Local authorities in Somaliland and GCS, supported by their partners, will have to discuss this issue and design a system to be adopted in Somaliland to maintain all GIS systems and assets in the long term.

In order to utilize the full potential of the systems set up in Somaliland, Geo-Portal, GIS capacity, and OSM Community and expand its life-time, the access to these facilities by private sector companies and individuals should be encouraged and promoted. A system of moderate fees for private use could provide the same useful financial resources that could be used for its maintenance.

The new technologies to be adopted will allow the preparation of tools that are easy to use, effective, and inexpensive. They constitute an advanced system of land management, which can help Somaliland overcome past difficulties. The GCS group with the support of the Italian team of GIS Specialists “Map-For-Future”, can map streets, buildings and vacant plots, allocate postal addresses, enter into a complementary database the names of real estate owners, the physical attributes of each building, their postal addresses, the size of plots, the number of rooms of each building, and other relevant information. The aim is to provide a set of very detailed Wajaale’s cartography in the next five years.

The project national and international teams are therefore planning to stay engaged in this initiative for the near future, in order to establish in Wajaale a full urban development Planning capacity. This could be achieved through a Phase-II of the ongoing project titled “International Mapping Partnership Rome – Hargeisa,” if the necessary resources will be found.

List the tools you intend to use during your project and why

Please describe which tools you plan to use to collect, update, clean, or store you data and why. For example: "we plan to use HOT's Tasking Manager to coordinate volunteers" or "we will upload our data to X platform because..." We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

Data mapping is a crucial design step in data collection. It includes mapping data fields from a source format to a target format.

Acting as OSM Somaliland Community GCS will use smartphone apps, which will facilitate their data collection in the field. They will work with the App named “MAPIT GIS – version PRO.” This is a professional mapping and surveying tool designed to enhance productivity while in field surveys. The app is easy to use, powerful and it can get a centimetre level accuracy when needed. It can be used to design survey forms, organise data on layers, working offline. The app is widely used by professionals around the world and can be easily adopted for different applications from agriculture and forestry to land surveying, etc.

Once gathered, the survey results can be moved to the HOT Tasking Manager for mapping immediately, this will be done by MFF. The Italian group will integrate collected data on QGIS, an Open-Source geographical data software. It will upload all data on OSM through JOSM.

Moreover, MFF will upload all collected data on the Geoportal of Hargeisa, GeoNode server based, that will be managed by GCS and it will be accessible for GIS technicians of the Municipality of Wajaale.

Explain how you plan to share your stories

Please give examples of how you will use share your stories with others. This can include: how you will publicise your news, where you will collect media content, how you will use social media channels, and if you will reach out beyond your immediate network to share your stories. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

Our stories would be shared through local media. Local government has radio services, websites and TV channels. There are also private media channels. We will conduct a survey and ask the community about their main source of getting news. Then based on the results of our data, we would have used the main source that the community uses. After getting the results, our advocacy and communication team would come up with a plan to publish our stories through the main sources of news of the community.

We also plan to publish our stories in our social media accounts. Therefore, before publishing we would have prepared our stories by preferring to have the entire story written and edited before we start a series of posts. This may be the best way to stay organized and ensure our stories are proofread and polished. Thus, we do not want to write the complete story, therefore, before we start publishing the stories on blogs or another social media platform, at least have an idea or outline of how the story unfolds so we do not veer off track. To get our readers and followers excited! We announce our social media publishing venture to our followers before we start posting. We let our readers know the start date and when they can expect to see instalments. Tease our followers with small snippets or a log line to get them interested.

To promote our activities and share our personal experiences with people from all over the world we will need to create a new Facebook page of OSM Somaliland, Twitter and Linkedin. The management of the social media will be 1 team leader of GCS. Every month it will take 10 hours per month and it will enable us to introduce OSM Somaliland in all these social platforms.

Partnerships

Successful applications will demonstrate one or more partnerships with a local data user. Priority will be given to applications for which the data has been requested by a partnering organisation, or where the partner organisation has expressed interest in collecting the data for a specific use or intervention. Example partners include local non-government organisations (NGOs), community based organisations (CBOs), local governments, companies, universities, schools, and other academic institutions.

Partnerships

  • Wajaale Municipality, requesting digitized geographic data for urban planning;
  • GIS & Cadastral Survey, Data collection in the field;
  • Map For Future, Technical Support;
  • FORUM-UN.ITALIA, Technical advise;
  • Wikimedia OSM Italy, support for the creation of the local OSM community;
  • Somaliland Ministry of Agriculture, local institutional patronage.

Describe who will use your data

It is important that the data you generate during the project is useful, and that it will be used to advance humanitarian and/or development challenges locally. In this section, please include: if the data you will be collecting has been requested by a partnering organisation, if there is an established formal relationship with the partnering organisation, if there is an existing MoU between you and the partnering organisation, and how long have you been working with the partnering organisation. If your organisation or community is going to be the data user, please describe how you will use the data, and how it ties in with your organisation's work. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

The Somaliland Government is interested in having a closer exchange of views with its citizens, a shift that has been aided by technologies like geographic information systems (GIS) which allow them to capture, manipulate, analyse and present data in geographical formats. Wajaale local government is planning to use these maps to establish paths of two-way communication between themselves and their citizens. Geographic information is the key to better decision-making; just about everything a community, business, or public agency does, whether in day-to-day operations or long-term planning, is related to its geography. For instance, a geographic information system allows emergency planners to easily calculate emergency response time and the movement of response resources (for logistics) in the case of a natural disaster or fire.

Besides, Geographic information systems are used to find wetlands especially in Wajaale that need protection strategies regarding pollution. The authorities of Wajaale asked to print maps that will be produced from data collected by GCS operations on the field. At the end of on-site operation, GCS will produce a format A1 paper of Land Cover Map 2013 and Land Cover Map 2018 of the municipal territory of Wajaale. Moreover, GCS will also produce a format A1 of Change Detection Map and other maps related with Wajaale Settlement transformation.

In addition, two reports of operation in the field will be written by 1 team leader of GCS. This effort will enable us to introduce our activities to the Municipality.

Describe any other partnerships you plan to mobilise or establish for the purpose of the project

In this section, please describe any additional partners you might be working with. If there are no additional partners (beyond the data user) this must be stated here. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

MAP FOR FUTURE: MFF provides support in Information Technology (IT) for this project, is an Italian group and a Laboratory of Digital Cartography. It was established in 2019 in Rome by a Geomatic Engineer, Dr Valerio De Luca and a Geographer, Giuseppe Maria Battisiti. MFF's main objective is to provide assistance to the consolidation of digital geographical services in support of developing areas of the world. After a number of projects in several countries, such as Tanzania and The Philippines, in December 2019 MFF was requested, by the UN Logistics Base in Brindisi (Italy), to work in the preparation of a series of maps of the Somali territory; this exercise was successfully carried out. Subsequently, MFF engaged during the year 2020 in a project, promoted by “FORUM-UN.ITALIA,” supporting an ongoing “International Mapping Initiative” in Somaliland. The present HOT project-proposal is an offspring of this initiative.

FORUM-UN.ITALIA: in the occasion of the work for the UN Mission in Brindisi, the Italian group of cartographers invited Mr. Andrea Tamagnini, former UNDP Country Director for Somalia (1999-2004). Mr. Tamagnini, a retired UN Director, had founded in Rome an association of ‘former UN & other international experts’ named “FORUM-UN.ITALIA - FORUNIT,” with the aim of putting the experience of former UN staff to the disposal of Italian groups and companies from various sectors. A solid collaboration began between MFF and FORUNIT. The former UN Director proposed, in January 2020, to initiate a partnership between MFF in Rome and the Somali geo-technicians of the group “GIS & Cadastral Survey - GCS” in Hargeisa in Somaliland. GCS is a team of cartographers he had known during his assignment in the country and with whom he maintained contacts. In 2020 MFF and GCS started to work on a project called “International Mapping Partnership Rome – Hargeisa 2020”. “FORUM-UN.ITALIA” will provide ‘technical advice’ to this project presented to HOT.

Wikimedia Italia - OSM Italia: OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a collaborative project aimed at creating free content maps of the world. The project aims at a worldwide collection of geographic data, with the main purpose of creating maps and cartographies. Since 2014, Wikimedia Italy has officially added OpenStreetMap to the free knowledge projects it supports, in addition to the Wikimedia projects. Since 2016 it officially acts as OpenStreetMap Italy chapter. Wikimedia Italia - OSM Italia will provide Technical Lead in setting up the first OSM Somaliland community.

Inclusivity

Successful applications will include a developed strategy for the inclusion of women, girls, and marginalised groups in mapping activities. This includes the number of women, girls or marginalised groups you plan to engage, and the way in which you plan to interact with them.

The entire project activities will include women in every step, whether it’s engaging in the actual field mapping tasks or when it comes to the decision-making role. As a result of implementing gender inclusivity policies, it would not only address inequality, but it would give opportunities for the women who are interested in the field.

How will you ensure that your project activities are inclusive?

Please describe how you will engage women and girls, or other marginalised communities in your mapping activities. Please include the number of women, girls or marginalised groups you plan to work with and how, and at which point in your activities you plan to engage them. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

In our country women in mapping is something new, a part of the desire to have our cities properly mapped in OpenStreetMap and facilitate NGOs’ work in the field, we also want to bring this new wave closer to our culture in order to empower women and to have our community grow from scratch with a gender balanced representation.

To make this happen we will give special attention to collaborate with NGOs in our country that empowers women and gender equality, also private companies such as consultancy, banks like Micro Finance department for women where they gets advices and loans before they commerce new business, also the minority clans will be specially invited to be part of the mapping for them to participate in the community so they won’t feel left out.

To involve them in our activities, We will organize various events where we are planning to teach women of different ages, and backgrounds how to map and all the needed knowledge to continue doing this activity even autonomously and encourage them to pass their knowledge to newer volunteers that we will have throughout the whole duration of the project, making them feel more confident about their capabilities and more motivated to help less experienced contributors get involved in our (newborn) community.

The entire project activities will include women in every step, whether it’s engaging in the actual field mapping tasks or when it comes to the decision-making role. Women are not usually known for attributing in the mapping or the GIS field in the Somali community. As a result of implementing gender inclusivity policies, it would not only address inequality, but it would give opportunities for the women who are interested in the field. We will train at least three women and this number may increase depending on their participation.

Expansion

Successful applications will show how communities intend to grow community engagement. This includes a practical approach on how many new mappers you aim to recruit and how they will be involved in community activities. Priority will be given to communities that also include a plan for ongoing engagement beyond the grant period. If this is not relevant to your project, please explain why.

Explain how you plan to expand your mapping community

In this section, please include: your approach to recruiting new mappers, how will you engage new mappers, how many new members you plan to recruit, and how will you retain community members throughout the duration of project and beyond. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.

We are planning to have presentations in various universities and high schools throughout the country in order to teach students about OpenStreetMap, its multiple benefits as a simple user and also the inestimable contribution that they can give back to the project while improving significantly their country. We would like to collaborate with other cities in our country so we are planning to train some of the members of our community and expand our core team so that we can work simultaneously in different cities.

Based on cultural background one successful method to have people join the community is by word of mouth. Our city is a rather small place, this leads to everyone knowing each other, and the word spreads quite rapidly about something relatively new. We expect citizens to find our project as a new and innovative way to give a contribution for their country.

Another method we want to use is social media coverage which provides visibility on a much wider scale so we would like to have a social media manager to help us build our online presence which at the moment is non-existent and connect to a wider network of potential volunteers. We would like to create our identity and promote our events using these dedicated platforms.

We want the visual to be attractive for people who virtually encounter our community so we will have a facebook page with dedicated design material.

Another thing we want to do is to have radio ads to promote our events as radio is currently one of the most followed media in our country.

Collaboration

Priority will be given to applications that collaborate with other OSM communities in the region. This can be country specific or regional and can include collaboration with Youth Mappers Chapters, or members of the HOT community to help with training, validation (as examples). For support in sourcing collaborators, email microgrants@hotosm.org.

Describe other OSM communities you are already working with

This may include Youth Mappers chapters, or members of OSMF (as examples). If you are not already collaborating with an OSM community, please state this and explain how you plan to work with other communities in your project in the following question.

This is an ongoing project so we have been collaborating very closely for the last year with Map For Future, a local group from the Italian OpenStreetMap community mostly dedicated to humanitarian mapping. They have held multiple virtual events on mapping Somaliland where members of various local informal groups have participated, like Polimappers (Italian youthmappers Local Chapter).

Apart from the local OSM groups we also have the support of the Italian OSM Local Chapter (Wikimedia Italia) in the creation and expansion of our community We have been collaborating with CartONG from France and they asked us to organize a Mapathon together.

Email is by far the primary communication for OSM communities users and developers. So, to create a mailing list and to answer to all volunteers that will join OSM Somaliland it will be necessary to invest in the secretary. The management of the secretary of OSM Somaliland will be 1 team member of GCS who will be engaged as OSM Regional Coordinator with a full-time contract.

The OSM Somaliland community will be available on the new Facebook Page for interactive questions and answers to everyone who would join in the new community. The management of the Social Media of OSM Somaliland who will be engaged as Social Media Manager with a part-time contract.

Describe other OSM communities you plan to approach, or establish relationships with, for the purpose of the project

We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words..

We are a relatively new as community and as such we are very enthusiastic about getting to know other OSM communities around the world and see other cases where OSM has brought together communities and groups from very different realities. We would definitely like to collaborate with other communities. Initially we want to get in touch with countries that we share border for example the OSM community in Kenya, the OSM community in Somalia and the OSM community in Ethiopia. We would also like to contact other communities in other countries that are closer to us geographically like Djibouti and Uganda, having that we are a new community we would like to start building an OSM network in the territory and then of course expand and approach other OSM communities or specific groups being them formal as youthmappers chapters or informal small groups from different countries such as Map For Future from Italy who have been collaborating with us for some time already. We would also like to approach the OSM Belgium community, which is very active and also OSM Kosovo community and invite them to get involved in our initiatives and work together in improving OSM while our community keeps growing.

Project plan and budget

Priority will be given to applications that collaborate with other OSM communities in the region. This can be country specific or regional and can include collaboration with Youth Mappers Chapters, or members of the HOT community to help with training, validation (as examples). For support in sourcing collaborators, email microgrants@hotosm.org.

Budget breakdown

Give your budget breakdown here. If you would like to present your budget in a tabular format, you can use this tool to convert your spreadsheet into a wikitable and paste the code below here

What do you plan to spend the money on? Unit being purchased Expected cost (in US Dollars) Total cost for budget item Why is it needed? (please give as much detail as possible)
MAPIT GIS application for mobile. 4 25,00 100,00 This app for mobile will allow us to draw maps on-site. At the moment we do not have this app access so cannot draw a map with it. Having this app will enable us to grow our skills and achieve our goals.
Transportation costs 10 75,00 750,00 We will rent a car for $10 per day and to complete our field mapping activities, we will need to buy the fuel for going to Wajaale from Hargeisa. The trip will take around 5 hours per return journey and another 6 hours for going to different parts of the city by car. We plan for 3 staff members of GCS to make 8 return journeys during the course of the project, and we allocate $65 per return journey (this may fluctuate).
Project Manager(full-time) 6 150,00 per month 900,00 To stay in Wajaale two months and continue on working as Project Manager of OSM Somaliland Community. We plan for 1 team leader of GCS that will guide the operation in the field and will work with local government technicians of Wajaale for the entire duration of the project.
GIS Specialist(part-time) 6 100,00 per month 600,00 To do the survey operation in the field we engage 1 GIS Specialist of GCS. He will support the management of collected data and integration on OSM.
OSM Regional Coordinator(full-time) 6 100,00 per month 600,00 To become the first OSM Somaliland community. There are currently no other OSM communities in Somaliland. The management of the new OSM Somaliland Community will be managed by 1 staff member of GCS, GIS assistant supported by Wikimedia OSM Italia, A woman will hold the position of Regional coordinator and will be responsible for promoting women in GIS.
Social Media Manager(part-time) 6 50 per month 300,00 To promote our activities and share our personal experiences with people from all over the world we will need to create a new FB page of OSM Somaliland, Twitter and Instagram. The management of the social media will be 1 team leader of GCS. Every month it will take 10 hours per month and it will enable us to introduce OSM Somaliland in all these social platforms.
IT Technical Support 2 250,00 500,00 To upload all geographical data in our Geoportal of Hargeisa, we will need to integrate the characteristics of MAPIT GIS application to GIS Desktop . We plan for 2 team members of Map For Future that will make the integration on OpenStreetMap. Every upload will take 6 hours and will enable us to understand how to upload GIS Data collected on-site into OpenStreetMap layers, correctly.
Mapathon ExpensesZoomcosts 1 169,70 per year 169,70 We will organize two different Mapathon. We need to buy a Zoom Pro Version for making people available to join our events. The annual Zoom Premium Account costs
SecretaryExpenses 6 50,00 300,00 To create a mailing list and to answer to all volunteers that will join OSM Somaliland it will be necessary to invest in the secretary. The management of the secretary of OSM Somaliland will be 1 team member of GCS.
Typography & Print costs 4 30,00 120,00 Print A1 paper Land Cover Map of 2013 and Land Cover Map 2018. Change Detection Map and other maps of Wajaale Settlement for the Municipality. The report of operation in the field will be written by 1 team leader of GCS. Every month it will take 4 hours per month and it will enable us to introduce our activities to the Municipality.
General Expenses 1 180,30 180,30 For the success of the project, the organisation of the new OSM community in Somaliland and the inclusion of women in GIS.To avoid issues about the travel and on-site activities or other critical aspects that could compromise the project. To maintain a flexible budget just in case something goes wrong we decided to insert general expenses.
Report Writing and Consolidation 6 80,00 480,00 These costs cover meetings, studies and expenses arising from translation, reports, publication and public relations. MFF interpreter could make it in english.
Total $5000,00 Total for Budget_Plan_OSM_Somaliland_Community

Project plan

Give your project plan here. If you would like to present your project plan in a tabular format, you can use this tool to convert your spreadsheet into a wikitable and paste the code below here

Project Plan “OSM Somaliland Community” Month
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6
Activities Description / Weeks n° w1 w2 w3 w4 w1 w2 w3 w4 w1 w2 w3 w4 w1 w2 w3 w4 w1 w2 w3 w4 w1 w2 w3 w4
Phase 1 (eg. Preliminary)
Activity 1 - Purchasing of projects supplies and application MAPIT GIS.
Activity 2 - Create OSM Somaliland Facebook Page, Instagram and Twitter.
Activity 3 - Operative MAPIT GIS training for OSM Somaliland community members.
Phase 2 (Data collection)
Activity 1 - Operations in the field: mapping buildings and farms characteristics in the municipal territory of Wajaale (100sq km).
Activity 2 - Reporting operations on OSM Somaliland Facebook Page, Instagram and Twitter.
Activity 3 - 1st Mapathon OSM Somaliland: training community members in using iD editor.
Phase 3 (Data validation)
Activity 1 - Validation training of OSM Somaliland community members.
Activity 2 - Validation of data collected in the field.
Activity 3 - 2st Mapathon OSM Somaliland: training community members in using iD editor.
Phase 4 (Data integration)
Activity 1 - Uploading validated data on OSM & HOT.
Activity 2 - Uploading validated data on the Geoportal of Hargeisa.
Activity 3 - Webinar "The new OSM Somaliland Community"

Declaration

By submitting this form to Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, you certify the information contained in this application is correct, and that if you are awarded a grant, you will use it only for the purposes described above. You will provide written documentation and receipts for all of your expenses to Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team to demonstrate this. You understand that the decisions made by the HOT Microgrants committee are final.

Yes, I agree.

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here! Please note: We will take endorsements into consideration in the final review but credit will be given to the quality of the application as well as the endorsement (this is not a popularity contest). Endorsements will be checked by HOT’s community team prior to selection to ensure the integrity of the endorsement (ie. that applications are not only endorsed by members of the community that submitted the application)

HOT staff, voting members and board members are welcome to endorse, and give feedback to all proposals. However, those who are taking part in the selection process will not be endorsing or giving feedback due to conflict of interest.

Instructions for Endorsement

- Log in to the wiki if you are not already logged in.
- Scroll down to Endorsements and click 'Edit source'. 
- Add your reason for the endorsement followed by four tilde signs --~~~~ 
Note: The ~~~~ automatically inserts your name and the current date.

Below is an example an endorsement.

  • I fully endorse this project - strong idea and detailed project plan --Kateregga1 (talk) 13:26, 2 February 2021 (UTC)


  • Municipality of Wajaale (Somaliland): Letter of endorsement
  • Wikimedia Italia, as OSM Italian Local Chapter: Letter of endorsement
  • As the mentor of this project application, I feel comfortable saying that the project team and the partner organizations are focused, knowledgeable and competitive in the subject matter. They were always positive during the proposal pareparation period and were able to respond to constructive suggestions throughout the process. Unen (talk) 16:27, 5 February 2021 (UTC)
  • I did some Mapathons whit MFF and I think their work is reamarkable. I believe in this project. It's a pleasure for me to endorse it. Giu.gent93 (talk) 12:28, 9 February 2021 (UTC)
  • I fully endorse this project that have great potentials. I really appreciate the idea and the goals for involving and empowering a local community through an international collaboration of volunteers promoted by Map For Future, a very enthusiastic OSM group. Tars4815 (talk) 12:55, 9 February 2021 (UTC)
  • I totaly endorse this great project! Professionality, enthusiasm and strenght for achieving goals is what i saw in several Mapathons done with Map For Future. It shows the project's potentiallity but moreover the amazing people that everyday work hard together to reach it. Malkav (talk) 15:42, 9 February 2021 (UTC)
  • I totally endorse this project! I love what Map For Future does and this idea is very interesting. Jlemon (talk) 22:28, 9 February 2021 (UTC)
  • I totally endorse this project! I really trust this collaboration tion between Italy and Somaliland. Erelyn86 (talk) 08:21, 10 February 2021 (UTC)
  • I do endorse the project cause not only creates value for NGOs working on the field but also helps creating new OSM locale chapters were needed --Lucamoiana (talk) 09:12, 11 February 2021 (UTC)
  • Competence and will to put themselves on the line really belongs to the amazing people involved in this project. Automatically, endorse and respect their hard work become the least one can do. BCScout (talk) 10:25, 11 February 2021 (UTC)
  • I strongly endorse this project promoted by Map For Future as they are a professional OpenStreetMap group and their enthusiasm is contagious. I support and share the idea and the goals of the project to involve and to empower the local community through the collaboration of international volunteers. Merilou (talk) 09:03, 12 February 2021 (UTC)
  • I fully endorse this application. This project is a jump starter and very important for the OSM Somaliland community. I admire and appreciate the dedication and enthusiasm that the local community and Map For Future have put into this collaboration. AnisKoutsi (talk) 09:16, 12 February 2021 (UTC)
  • I fully endorse this project! I had the pleasure to meet the Map for future’s team during some online events and since from the beginning I was struck by their passione, professionality and their will to share the aims of the project and the purpose of their daily efforts. Other volunteers and Im We had the pleasure to talk with one of the future GIS-Cartographer of Somaliland feeling part of this dream. Last but not least, I love the goals of this project since I’ve found them feasibles and with a great potential! Let’s give them a chance! 20:31, 15 February 2021 (UTC)