News — 18 June, 2020
The Audacious Project
The HOT community received funding from The Audacious Project, a collaborative philanthropic initiative that serves as a springboard for social impact on a grand scale. Over the next five years, this funding will enable HOT to scale up its support to local mapping communities with the aim of mapping an area home to one billion people, adding places at high risk of natural disaster or experiencing poverty.
HOT will continue to develop crisis response capacity and expertise and this investment from Audacious donors will enable HOT’s work to be more proactive, mapping with communities before they are in crisis. Maps and geodata are most useful if they can be used by responders before disaster strikes, such as when planning a response based on a hurricane forecast or in the early stages of an outbreak.
Over five years, we plan to:
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Set up a network of regional hubs in South Asia, East Africa, West Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, which will engage with local mapping communities, facilitate knowledge exchanges, distribute funding, and provide training and support in order to massively scale local edits to OpenStreetMap in 94 countries
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Invest in technologies that enhance mapping contributions on mobile to enable scaling of local contributions to OpenStreetMap
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Invest in map data quality and ethical collection and use of map data
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Work with humanitarian organizations, governments, and other actors to help them use OpenStreetMap to deliver more effective and efficient aid
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Work more closely with the OSM community/OpenStreeMap Foundation (OSMF), supporting the community and core systems and software
By 2025, communities across 94 countries vulnerable to disaster or experiencing multidimensional poverty will be visible on the map. Our goals are:
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That missing maps are no longer a factor in human suffering or loss of life in humanitarian crises.
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That communities are equipped and able to map the locations where they live and work.
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That decision-makers are able to rely on maps and geodata to better allocate resources for the improvement of public health, water, sanitation and hygiene, early childhood development and education, infrastructure, and better reach target communities - including the world’s children.
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That women and girls are fully represented on the map.
All data will be available publicly in OpenStreetMap. With this open, up-to-date, free, and digital public good, information will be readily available to make better and faster decisions. As this data is open, the possibilities of impact are limitless.
See the FAQ for more information about how The Audacious Project will support HOT’s mission, and how we will work with OSM communities and the regional hubs.