Malaria prevention and control is a major U.S. foreign assistance objective and critical for ending preventable child and maternal deaths for populations suffering extreme poverty. Remote mapping onto OSM for these districts was completed by numerous YouthMappers chapters around the world so that USAID and Peace Corps Volunteers along with their counterparts on the ground could add local knowledge. The data improved the efficiency and reach of spraying campaigns for malaria prevention. The Presidents Malaria Initiative strategy works with supported countries and partners to further reduce malaria deaths and decrease malaria morbidity, towards the long-term goal of elimination. Data created from remote imagery of sites in this mapping effort informed PMI's Indoor Residual Spraying program planning. The updated maps enable smart choices on exactly where to spray, and provide project managers with improved estimates of the number of households and structures, as well as distances that deployment teams must travel to achieve adequate coverage.
R. T. Ziemer, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (ret), leader of the President's Malaria Initiative told the USAID Global Development Lab this effort “…showcased [how] creativity and the use of existing open mapping tools can be applied to improve the effectiveness of the planning and use of indoor residual spraying for the first time [including] youthmappers, volunteers from the mapping community, several universities, Peace Corps volunteers, [USAID and PMI staff].
Your team demonstrated how innovation was being directly linked to improving the impact of the President's Malaria Initiative to save more lives and improve communities. Kudos …”
