Dev-Afrique, in collaboration with DevGlobal, assisted the GIST team of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in responding to a support request for geospatial assistance from grantees VillageReach and the Solina Centre for International Development and Research (SCIDaR). The focus of the grantees’ work is on implementing telehealth and telemedicine interventions in unreached and underserved communities in Lagos State.
Our involvement included providing geospatial support to identify these underserved communities by analyzing tabular and spatial data from various governmental and public sources. This data was then categorized into low, medium, and high classifications, creating an index based on educational, residential, and employment levels to assess human capital advantage. Further categorization involved utilizing health and telecommunication service indices to gauge the telehealth service readiness of the underserved communities.
Using QGIS, we overlaid all the collected data, identifying and mapping areas with low socio-economic advantage and inadequate health service systems. The resulting maps and data will be integrated into a survey plan for an upcoming telehealth study.