Over 65 percent of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) live more than 5 kilometres from a health facility, compromising their ability to access timely healthcare. DRC’s National Program for the Elimination of Cholera and the Control of Other Diarrheal Diseases partnered with GRID3 and the Clinton Health Access Initiative to use GRID3 geospatial data to gain a better understanding of access to healthcare within communities.

The GRID3 Mapping for Health project has reached a major milestone in its 19-month effort to support vaccination interventions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Dans le cadre du projet GRID3 Cartographie pour la santé, cinq nouveaux jeux de données GRID3 (localités, limites des aires et des zones de santé, établissements de santé, écoles et centres religieux) ont été publiés pour les provinces du Haut-Katanga, Kinshasa, Kasaï, Kasaï-Oriental, Kinshasa et Lomami en République démocratique du Congo (RDC).

As part of the GRID3 Mapping for Health project, five new GRID3 datasets have been published for the provinces of Haut-Katanga, Kinshasa, Kasaï, Kasaï-Oriental, Kinshasa, and Lomami in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). These datasets, along with basemaps, will be included in the DRC’s national health database and, together with GRID3 DRC population estimates, can inform planning, delivery and surveillance of health interventions.

From 22-25 November, stakeholders in DRC participated in “Towards Digital Microplanning”, a four-day forum organised by the GRID3 Mapping for Health project, promoting innovative geospatial data and gender equity solutions that will support vaccination interventions in the country.

As part of a broader push to strengthen the capacity of health actors to use geo-referenced data to improve immunisation outcomes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, GRID3 carried out extensive stakeholder engagement and field exercises aimed at evaluating the impact of the pilot phase of its geo-referenced microplanning work over the course of the last three months.

The GRID3 Mapping for Health team at Flowminder launched a country-wide phone survey in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The GRID3 Mapping for Health project in DRC aims to strengthen the effectiveness and equity of the country’s vaccination interventions; data from the phone survey will  inform the production of mobility estimates (based on Call Detail Records, CDR) used to design these interventions. 

As DRC has one of the highest rates of maternal, child, and infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, one aspect of the GRID3 M4H project focuses on the integration of gender and social inclusion (GESI) into vaccination programmes. This work achieved a milestone in May with the organisation of a roundtable focused on the intersection of gender and vaccination.

GRID3 and the team working on the Mapping for Health project hosted a three-day workshop in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with health sector stakeholders from the entire Kwilu Province. The aim of the workshop was to make progress toward incorporating geospatial data into immunisation microplanning in DRC.

GRID3 produced 121 maps of health zones in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to support a six-month rapid-response measles vaccination campaign.