CartODD: SDGs through Participatory Mapping

Description

In 2023, CartONG participated in the European project Mindchangers, which aimed to train a new generation of European citizens aware of and committed to sustainable development. Within the framework of this initiative, CartONG launched a brand new project combining mapping and awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): CartODD.

Building on CartONG’s 8+ years of experience in implementing participatory mapping projects, CartODD gathered a team of young volunteers in the French region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to design new activities and materials that used mapping to raise awareness about climate change, gender inequality, and the living conditions of displaced populations.

Through games, map exhibitions, interviews, mapathons, and mapping workshops, the project facilitated the emergence of debates between young audiences, broadened their understanding of the key challenges of their generation, and helped them discover different ways to take action!

From organizing the 2023 GeoNight where more than 230 participants produced geographic data on OpenStreetMap (OSM) in support of various actors working in line with the SDGs in Togo, Benin, and Madagascar, to creating a serious game where participatory mapping principles are used to help the main character, an internally displaced woman, overcome challenges related to gender inequality or climate change; the project was designed by and for young people.

If those actions were developed as part of the MindChangers initiative, our team pursued its efforts around those topics notably by developing the English version of the CartODD game and making it available internationally particularly to OSM local communities.