Education is the key to unlocking human potential and shaping a more sustainable future for all. Each year, on the 24th of January, the world comes together to celebrate the International Day of Education, a day dedicated to recognising the transformative power of learning.
Can you guess when the International Day of Education first began? It might shock you to hear that it was established in 2018, only seven years ago.
In 2015, education became a core addition to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), as SDG 4.
The Sustainable Development Goals recognise urgent and stressing humanitarian crises that affect vast populations around the world.
The lack of access to quality education is marked as one of these pressing matters and we hope it is rectified by 2030.
Why Education Matters
Education is a driving force in accelerating themes of sustainability, human rights, environmentalism and more. With climate change and natural disasters increasing at a rapid pace, one of the key changes we can make is educating others and building more inclusive education systems. The world is on fire, and education helps to break harmful cycles like the encroachment of human rights, conflict, and other preventable disasters.
In developing countries, education is an important step towards economic growth, workforce development and innovation. Education can also lead to better healthcare services through medical training and coaching. Additionally, learning empowers individuals to pursue their aspirations and financial independence, which leads to high levels of national happiness. These are just a few factors that help to build a stronger and more resilient country.
How Can We Use GIS to Support SDG 4 Initiatives?
This International Day of Education’s theme is AI and Education: Human Agency in an Automated World. The world of GIS is constantly bridging new pathways and scaling up technological abilities, and more recently we’ve seen the rise of AI. While AI is not a core component to our research, it is great to see the progressive role of technology being recognised in humanitarian spheres.
We believe that Geographic information systems (GIS) are crucial to understanding the world, and all of it’s complexities. In the past, we’ve used GIS to understand the aftermath of natural disasters, policy changes, and internal displacement. For more on how we use GIS to prevent, prepare, respond and recover from natural disasters, click here
In 2022, we worked with the NGO Seeds for Development to support their initiatives in bringing food security to remote villages in Uganda. When COVID-19 struck in 2020, the team at Seeds for Development were unable to visit the communities that they support due to travel restrictions. Without the ability to ground truth or to check on project progress, our team at Alcis were able to provide Seeds for Development with data-driven, geospatial insights instead.
We started this project by locating missing huts on OpenStreetMap, where they had previously been undocumented, and with that, forgotten. Our search resulted in over ten thousand huts being added to the map, and with that number, we found three thousand families.
Using information about the location of each community, we began assessing the populations most at risk of food insecurity. Using circular buffer zones, as illustrated in Figure 1, we measured distances of 500 meters, 1 kilometre, 2 kilometres, and 3 kilometres radiating outward from schools. All around the world, schools act as great places for learning and socialising. In places like Lamogi, Uganda, they also act as food distribution hubs.
The green dots in Figure 2 represent the houses outside of these buffer zones, and further than 3 kilometres from schools. Children and young adults living in the outer edges of these buffer zones must walk long distances to school every day. This is quite common, and many children make the journey. However, families living further from the buffers will be faced with longer travel, which on empty stomachs can mean a world of difference.
Finally, we developed an interactive dashboard so that members of Seeds for Development could understand how many people lived where and the vulnerable people in each community. They can track the progress of their emergency food distribution efforts, see Figure 3. Now that travel restrictions have lifted, ground truthing is possible, but being able to access quality data from your desk has never been easier with the help of geospatial technologies.
With this information, Seeds for Development can distribute emergency food effectively, ensuring that the people in greatest need are prioritised.
This project stands to show that while the focus of our research was on locating communities most at risk of food insecurity, this analysis can also help identify which children face the greatest challenges in accessing education, based on their proximity to schools.
At Alcis, we try to be as much involved with furthering the Sustainable Development Goals as we possibly can. This means that we prioritise our efforts with like-minded organisations, like Seeds for Development, towards strengthening the goals.
Seeds for Development has built three nursery schools, like The Peace and Learning Centre Nursery School.
Nursery aged children attend the school in the mornings, and then in the afternoon, the building is used by young adults to learn skills such as hairdressing and tailoring.
The efforts of Seeds for Development, and other organisations, are essential to the completion of SDG 4, and have transformed the lives of young people who have been hindered by conflict, food insecurity and a lack of access to quality education.
For more information on our work with Seeds for Development, take a look at our StoryMap: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ca3867611cbc4547a8a14ecaa06d8161
Find Seeds for Development here: https://www.seedsfordevelopment.org/
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