We are a specialised water development agency:
Our vision is to help provide clean water for irrigation, improved food supply, and drinking, for small farmers, in Ethiopia.
Our method is to achieve this by development of an AI system called WellMapr© to detect (shallow) groundwater, that we have been working on since January 2020. As of 2024 we are ready for a field development and testing phase.
Our maps that relate mostly to shallow groundwater availability and help donors and development agencies to save money and reach more small farmers & their families in the greatest need, of which there are 47 million in Ethiopia.
Why is this important:
Ever tried to find your way in a foreign country without a map ? Did you ever need a sat-nav after dark ? What would happen if the BBC weather lady, or man, refused to show everyone a UK weather map, and told us to download the written report ?
Aid donors and development agencies, the food and security decision makers, have the unenviable task of trying to deliver aid, where it will make the most impact.
It's our job at Global MapAid, to do the survey work, to make the maps that show where water for small farmers could be sustainably sourced, and make the information easy-to-understand.
We carry out the following basic procedure:
i) Visit the country concerned, in this case, it is Ethiopia.
ii) Approach a local university and ask to see their geography, earth sciences, and business economics departments and explain our mission. We suggest a collaborative MOU. Currently we are working with the University of Arba Minch in southern Ethiopia.
iii) We identify with them, one at most two keystone development solutions and a small test area. We have done this in Bilate watershed, north of Arba Minch.
iv) We map the area, for the solution, in relation to population densities, and immediately show the first maps to a few relevant donors and ask for feedback. We go back and re-work the survey or the data or the style of map. We revisit the donor and repeat. After awhile, (like learning to cook a good soufflé that sometime takes repeated attempts), we have then co-created with the donors something they find useful, or even indispensable. Actually, this iterative approach is similar to the "lean-agile" methods used in Silicon Valley to develop products hand-in-hand with the customer. And is it also conceptually close to the methodology known as "Participatory Rural Development" for arriving at solutions for rural poverty, hand-in-hand with all the members of a village community.
Then we suggest a subscription model, so that everyone shares the costs, making it sustainable.
v) The rest of the development community get the maps for free. And the donors get the "halo effect" being thanks on all the maps.
