“[The organization] shared some maps with us, and when we reviewed with our data, we realized some health facilities that were mapped had been closed and no longer in use. This highlights the importance of sharing data among organizations working on the ground.” - Key Informant Interview
When it comes to creating and utilizing health catchment area geospatial databases, data that is not shared is not useful to organizations working within the same communities, and more importantly to the community itself. A review of the methods for sharing data among stakeholders in the health and humanitarian sector raises serious concerns with data sharing policies which seem to encourage restrictions on access to data, further propagating data silos. However, organizations that have shared data with or used data from the OSM community are inherently bound by its open data policy, making it easier to synchronize and integrate OSM data in partnership projects to some extent.22 There is an urgent need for governments and non-governmental organizations to initiate a review of their data sharing policies ahead of their commitment to contribute or benefit from this collaborative on health catchment area databases as this is the linchpin to its success.
Get in contact to join this work stream
https://health-catchment-areas-working-g.gitbook.io/health-catchment-areas/data-sharing