This presentation was shared by Isabel Brodsky and Andrea Vazzano at the June 2016 MEASURE Evaluation GIS Working Group Meeting.

1. Maps as a tool for data use
Considerations for improvement
Isabel Brodsky and Andrea Vazzano
MEASURE Evaluation
Palladium
June 23, 2016
GIS TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP

2. Objectives
During this session we will seek to answer
the following questions:
How are spatial data being used in
decision making?
What factors contribute to the use of maps
in decision making?

3. Data availability
As electronic health information systems improve,
spatial data have become increasingly available.

4. What does this allow us to
do?
• Layer multiple data
sets on a single map
• Query maps to ask
questions in order to
understand the
relationships
between different
data sets

5. What are spatial data
being used for?
• Program planning and targeting
• Program monitoring
• Commodities distribution and
tracking
• Disease outbreak

6. Program planning &
targeting
Source: Hally Mahler, Sarah Searle, Marya Plotkin, Yusuph Kulindwa, Seth Greenberg, Erick Mlanga, Emmanuel Njeuhmeli, and Gissenje Lija
How can spatial data
be used to improve the
delivery and coverage
of VMMC services to
target regions in
Tanzania?

7. Program monitoring
How can countries easily visualize data from
siloed information systems to better understand
national programs?
DHIS
DATIM
HMIS
DMPPT

8. Commodities distribution &
tracking
How can maps
explain the low
numbers of CD4
testing in Tanzania?

9. Disease outbreak
• Using mobile phones to map Ebola outbreaks in
Sierra Leone
• Tracking the spread of Zika Virus to understand its
characteristics and its carrier’s breeding grounds

10. How do spatial data contribute
to decision making?
A map isn’t a magic bullet. What other factors
facilitate decision making?

11. How do spatial data contribute
to decision making?
• Interviewed 45 people from 17
PEPFAR implementing partners
to understand how data
visualizations have been used
to facilitate HIV program
targeting and improvement
• Found only 5 examples of
projects that could point to
specific decisions resulting
from their data visualizations

12. Involvement of end data user

13. Balancing specificity and
generalizability

14. Sustaining a culture of data use

15. Discussion
1.What are the questions that you would ask
to help you make this decision?
2.How would you visualize the answers to
those questions?
3.What challenges do you foresee in doing
this? How would you overcome those
challenges?
4.What steps could you take to foster the
sustainability of this process?

16. This presentation was produced with the support of the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of MEASURE
Evaluation cooperative agreement AID-OAA-L-14-00004. MEASURE
Evaluation is implemented by the Carolina Population Center, University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partnership with ICF International; John
Snow, Inc.; Management Sciences for Health; Palladium; and Tulane
University. Views expressed are not necessarily those of USAID or the United
States government .
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