As the first snowflakes recently made their way to Chambéry, it is already time to take a look back at 2022! A rich year for CartONG, in many aspects, which was marked by a return to face-to-face associative gatherings, with our first in-person staff & volunteer Get-Together in more than two years, and a progressive return of in-person support in the field. This year, we carried out 13 missions, far more than the 5 we did the preceding year.
In particular, as part of our support to the MSF GIS Centre in their response to the war in Ukraine, two of our staff were deployed in the field for long-term GIS missions – a first, in the last 3 years. After a long period of no in-country missions, CartONG also supported UNHCR’s first Health Access and Utilization Survey in Pakistan. This deployment helped provide valuable information on how Afghan refugees access health care services in the country and to help allocate resources where they are most needed.
In 2022, beyond our support of two historical partners, MSF and UNHCR, we continued to accompany a wide range of aid actors – learn more about our support to Terre des hommes, Expertise France and Sidaction by clicking on the links – as well as the sector as a whole, for instance through the launch of the Learning Corner in early 2022 or by organizing the 8th edition of the GeOnG forum in the fall; an opportunity to gather our partners and counterparts to exchange, share good practices and learn collectively (discover the playlist of recorded sessions from the event below).
Two long-term projects initiated and carried out by CartONG also came to an end, the second phase of the Maps from here & abroad project, as well as the three-year Strengthening data practices within francophone CSOs project. This was an opportunity for CartONG to reflect on what had been achieved and what we had learned in the process, and on how best to continue to support the sector through innovative initiatives and approaches aiming both at small and large scale organizations. And this is what we came up with: CartONG worked on structuring its volunteer community thanks to funding received from FONJEP, thus multiplying its pro bono support to small sized NGOs and local associations. CartONG also strengthened and developed its participatory mapping support offer, which led to the release of a new service portfolio. What’s more, we launched two new projects with the support, respectively, of the European Union through the Erasmus+ program and the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs: MapInclusive which aims at supporting the social inclusion of migrants in Europe through digital mapping, as well as a two-year initiative to advance responsible data practices within the aid sector.
In 2022, we also managed to keep working on consolidating our internal processes and strengthening our existing team. In particular, following the publication of our first multi-year strategy last year, CartONG focused this year on restructuring its management and governance processes. A long-term endeavor, marked by numerous exchanges, team consultations and participative decision-making exercises, which resulted in a new governance model – based on the philosophy of collective intelligence – being adopted this past November. More information to come on the topic in January.
For the time being, we wish you all Happy Holidays. See you in 2023 for new adventures!
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~ An innovative initiative coming to an end! And more to come! ~
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~ CartONG strengthens its participatory mapping support offer ~
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Since 2015, CartONG has been supporting local, national and international solidarity projects by providing mapping methods and tools taking better account of local communities and their decision-making capacity. The numerous projects carried out in recent years have reinforced our conviction of the potential of participatory mapping to improve the positive impact of aid and to bring new perspectives to such projects - mobilizing local communities, overcoming information gaps and facilitating knowledge sharing. Our team has built on its various experiences to consolidate a customized support offer around 4 complementary activity modules that we invite you to discover in our 2022 portfolio presenting our work and expertise. Learn more here.
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~ Maps from here & abroad: a look back at two years of subjective mapping workshops with migrant people ~
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In 2020, CartONG launched a new phase of the Maps from here & abroad project with a renewed focus on creating spaces of expression for migrant people in a state of psychological suffering. Over the course of two years, CartONG worked with an art therapist to develop a methodology for group art mediation workshops based on subjective mapping and set up partnerships to organize cycles of workshop sessions. In total, we facilitated 47 workshops in France, welcoming 148 migrant persons. Have a look back at this innovative project here!
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~ Creating an OSM communities sustainability programme ~
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Following the 2022 GeOnG and as part of the HOT UnSummit, we organized a 2-day interactive workshop with the Humanitarian OSM Team (HOT) that aimed to share learnings between OSM community organizations seeking improved sustainability. We invited, in-person and remotely, 10 representatives from OSM-focused community organizations to help them build action plans to reinforce their sustainability, linking with needs of their local ecosystems (CSOs, governments, etc.). We also started to explore how international decision makers can support this change towards more localized approaches. We will continue this program over the course of 2023 in partnership with HOT and with the support, in particular, of the French Development Agency, starting with a new workshop at SOTM Tanzania in January. This program is a direct output of CartONG’s strategy to build local data & GIS capacities to better support the humanitarian and development sector, complementing our own service offer.
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RENEWAL OF OUR MoU WITH SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL - Following a first MoU with Solidarités International signed in 2019, CartONG is happy to announce its renewal for a further 3 years, until 2025. After numerous successful collaborations centered on both Information Management and GIS topics, we are looking forward to building on the work already achieved and strengthening our partnership. Immediately following its signature in November, we have put our second MoU to good use with a new GIS project underway with Solidarités International Syria Mission.
A RENEWED FOCUS ON STRENGTHENING CSOs’ DATA PRACTICES - Following the end of the 3-year initiative “Strengthening CSOs' Information Management” in November, CartONG will continue its focus on strengthening the data practices of NGOs through the tech watch behind the IM Resource Portal, the improvement of its Learning Corner and a study on the needs of local NGOs in 2023 with the support of the French Development Agency.
A SECOND PHASE FOR THE FONJEP PROJECT AT CARTONG! - CartONG is pleased to announce the continuation of the FONJEP VEC funding for the year 2023. CartONG will keep implementing its activities with and for its community of volunteers: pro bono missions in support of small organizations, mapathons, participation in public events and more.
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CARTONG IN NUMBERS THIS YEAR
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MISSIONS AND TRAINING ACTIVITIES
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MISSION - In partnership with the UNHCR Livelihoods and Economic Inclusion team at Headquarters and in Egypt, CartONG has conducted a field mission in Cairo on the week of the 27th November. The aim of the mission was to train UNHCR’s implementing partners in Egypt on Monitoring and Evaluation, as well as on the Livelihoods Information System and its tools in preparation of the launching of the 2023 Monitoring cycle. CartONG also liaised with current Local Social Enterprises as well as potential ones in Egypt in order to discuss adhesion procedures and tools to MADE51, a platform supported by UNHCR to bring beautiful refugee-made products to a global market, and ways of improvement.
MISSION - During the last week of November, CartONG resumed its support in Egypt with CNRS and CEDEJ, continuing a training which had originally started in 2018 and 2019. This week of training focused on data visualization, in particular high quality maps and layouts, in order to allow the GIS teams of the Egyptian Institute of Statistics (CAPMAS) to train themselves to produce an atlas next year.
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TRAININGS - For the first time ever, we offered a 3-day training on Mobile Data Collection for the IRAM (Institut de Recherches et d’Applications des Méthodes de Développement) team and a 2-day intervention at the IRCOM training institute. We also continued our usual interventions at Bioforce.
MENTORING - As a direct practical application of the Data Analysis Toolbox, developed in part with the support of Action Contre la Faim (ACF) France, we are working with the M&E team of ACF Nigeria offering mentoring sessions in quantitative data analysis to help them find solutions to their most common hurdles and improve their analysis and visualization skills.
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~ Thank you for your support to Missing Maps! ~
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Thank you to everyone who has contributed to OpenStreetMap through the Missing Maps project this year! In 2022, we have supported 30 projects located in 12 countries through these weekly online gatherings, as well as via 16 in-person mapathons as part of our “Tour de France”. Thanks to your support, we have mapped more than 230,000 buildings and 7,700 km of roads! We can't wait to see what's coming in 2023! Sign up to future online mapathons here.
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~ Ongoing volunteer support ~
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We have started 2 volunteer missions lately: the first is in support of APDRA, an association supporting fish farming. Our volunteers will be building an interactive map to track their operations in Madagascar and facilitate the management of their projects. The second is an internal mission to CartONG, its aim is to build the infrastructure of a service on QGIS that offers automatic maps with minimal or no human input. The tool will serve to generate maps highlighting important information according to a specific situation, for example a forest fire.
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CartONG is currently looking for a:
- a GIS / WebDev Project Manager - more information here
- a Cartographer-GIS Officer - more information here
- an Information Management Officer - more information here
- a Data Management & Learning Intern - more information here
- a Communication & Content Intern - more information here
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