Health and WASH data collaborative

The Malawi Red Cross and 510, the humanitarian data initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross, developed a framework with five dimensions (actors, data supply, data infrastructure, data demand, and data ecosystem governance) to characterize the data ecosystem for SDG 6.1.1. (water services) in Malawi. Results showed that many governmental and NGOs were involved in water supply projects with different funding sources and little overall governance. 

In addition to SDG 6 - Clean water and sanitation, this project also addressed the following SDGs: SDG 3 - Good health and well-being and SDG 11 - Sustainable cities and communities. There was a large variety of geospatial data-sharing platforms and online accessible information management systems, but they had low adoption due to limited internet connectivity and data capacity.  This and the lack of open data resulted in an immature data ecosystem. 

The characterization of the data ecosystem using the framework unveiled gaps in data at the geographical level and in terms of dimensionality (attributes per water point) as well as collaboration gaps. The data supply dimension of the framework allowed identification of datasets that had the right quality and lowest cost of data extraction to enrich official statistics.

Related Links

*WASH - Water and Sanitation 

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