What this Document Hopes to Achieve

The purpose of this document is to summarize the current methodologies used by health and humanitarian organizations to create and distribute health catchment area geospatial databases, which will serve as an important backdrop to guide the work of the health catchment area working group. In this document, I will attempt to describe existing methodologies from different organizations in the form of case studies, as well as provide adequate contextual nuance through key informant interviews and user stories. Additionally, I will discuss the composition of health catchment area databases, stressing on data components, data sources, data validation and data sharing policies. Subsequently, I will attempt to summarize the process of creating a health catchment area geospatial database taking into consideration the wide variety of data sources, data components, tools and open data policies, followed by a summary of relevant challenges of this process. Finally, I will outline key considerations and recommendations from experts in the field, highlighting feasible strategies that could make this process more efficient.

This guide will inform the strategies and workplan of the health catchment area working group and its key implementing partners. More importantly, it will serve as a single source of evidence to guide organizations aiming to create and utilize health catchment areas geospatial databases in their programmes and contribute to formalizing an efficient and accessible geospatial data ecosystem. It is my hope that this document will strengthen the already existing collaboration and inspire a wider network of governments and health sector actors to join this initiative. Additionally, with the background that this document provides, it is my belief that subsequent versions of this document will focus on the key task of achieving a uniform definition of essential geospatial data components and guide the formalization of partnerships between governments and other stakeholders in the health cluster to host, maintain and distribute health catchment area geospatial databases.