Brazzaville — To mark Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day on 19 November, World Health Organization (WHO) in the African region launched the AFRO Geodatabase (AFRO GDB) to enhance the use of trusted administrative boundary data to strengthen geospatial governance and empower data-driven health decisions across Africa.
The platform enables countries to store, manage and share verified health and administrative boundary datasets, while allowing integration through APIs (digital interfaces that enable different systems to share information), creating opportunities for seamless data exchange with other systems and platforms used across the health sector.
The AFRO GDB serves as a centralized digital platform that brings together key geospatial data on administrative boundaries (health and political), health facilities and population into one repository. Developed through a collaborative, country-endorsed approach, the platform reflects official and validated data from countries, ensuring accuracy, ownership and consistency across the region.
The platform enhances data accuracy, promotes integration and supports evidence-based decision-making, all essential ingredients for stronger health systems. Availability of updated Administrative Boundaries through the AFRO GDB will make it easier for countries to link field-collected and national data and conduct population-based analyses to improve timely data-driven decision making for polio eradication and other health programmes.
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At its core, the platform provides a dynamic and user-friendly environment for managing and validating geospatial information. Verified users can upload changes in geographies, population figures, and health facility lists and make this readily available for different programmatic use. The system automatically compares these updates with previous versions, performs quality checks, and notifies users once the data has been validated and approved.
Since countries have the primary responsibility for providing authoritative geospatial data at various administrative levels, GIS focal points at country level, including WHO country offices as well as ministry of health data managers, are currently being onboarded. They will ensure routine upload of updated geographic information including changes in boundaries, population data and health facility locations.
The AFRO GIS Centre will provide training, maintenance support and ensure that these geospatial datasets are integrated with regional and global data sources. During this phase, focal points are being supported to familiarize themselves with the system’s tools and workflows. This mechanism will facilitate baseline data harmonization, support more accurate mapping and enable consistent calculation of indicators, thereby contributing to improved public health information management and data dissemination.
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“Reliable and integrated data are fundamental to effective health planning and emergency response. By consolidating verified national datasets, the AFRO Geodatabase will enable countries and partners to work from a single, trusted source of truth.” — says Kebba Touray, head of the WHO AFRO GIS Centre.
Through this platform, Ministries of Health will be able to easily upload and maintain official data on health facilities, administrative boundaries, and population coverage, thereby enhancing data accuracy, interoperability, and regional coordination.
This initiative reaffirms WHO in Africa’s commitment to supporting countries in leveraging digital technologies to make better, faster and more coordinated decisions, guided by accurate and authoritative geospatial data. In doing so, it contributes to the realization of WHO’s vision of improving health for everyone, everywhere.
