By Toby Wicks and Sylvie Chesneau

Sylvie and I arrived in Niamey (capital of Niger) on Friday 19 August. The UN Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) will, as Niger is French speaking, be known as the Centre d’Information Humanitaire (CIH). We have had our first discussions with Mark McCarthy, the UN data coordinator for HIC-Darfur, who is to be the CIH Niger Manager. We will be working for him over the next two weeks and so our first discussions with him about the CIH concept, expectations and deliverables went on into the early hours.

Today (Saturday) we continued with meetings. The CIH presently has just 5 members including us as GIS officers. Today was the first day of the CIH – it is located in house, not far from the UNDP HQ. We have been setting up the mapping cell with some big IBM computers, which come with all of the licenses we need and an enormous printer, which we understand is all being funded by DfID. The GIS room is ideal and we have been able to set it up properly. Our first GIS effort has been the production of the CIH logo. (see below)

Already we are overflowed by data coming from different sources: WFP, WHO, UNICEF, etc. This is all of differing quality but it will present a challenge to sort it all out.

The CCA (Committee Contre la Crise Alimentaire) GIS Officer, came to meet us this afternoon and we have fixed an appointment on Monday to collect data from him. Work is going to be very interesting for the next two weeks, as we work with all of the different actors.

Briefly our initial objectives are to:

1. compile a central repository for the existing data;
2. understand and respond to the immediate needs for spatial data;
3. provide base maps on which to depict the evolving situation.

It is now very late in the evening and we’re impatient to get producing maps.

Since our last report, things have moved on considerably. The first few days of our time here were characterized by long days pouring over gigabytes of data from disparate sources in an attempt to identify the most useful spatial data on which to depict the evolving crisis. As the leading element of the CIH Mapping Cell one of our important tasks is to complete a detailed data inventory for those who follow us.

Monday saw several long meetings with various GIS and data providers within Niamey. We met Souleman of the CCA first thing, which was very constructive as he supported our thoughts on the data we had been trawling through. He also very kindly volunteered to chaperone us that afternoon. Together we visited a number of organizations in an attempt to gain access to a detailed dataset of the 18,000 villages and other information we need, but at the moment it is proving a little difficult to get our hands on some of the data that is available.

Part of a Niger village. Bottom left are the characteristic “Greniers" (granaries) who emptiness was symbolic of the crisis

Nevertheless and in spite of two long power cuts over the last two days, we have managed to make progress and the maps are beginning to take shape.

Sorry there have been no reports for a few days, but we have been without power for 60 hours and have temporarily re-located to a meeting room in the UNDP HQ where they have a semi-functional generator.

We are well into our second week now and it continues to be hard work to build our database. The end of last week was full of meetings, data processing and making thematic maps. After much persuasion we finally received the database from SIGNER (the GIS service of Niger associated with the Ministry of Health Water and Sanitation). This database took us (we are now 3 GIS Officers, having been joined by a colleague from Burundi) 2 days to clean up, but it has been worth it.

Mark (CIH manager), Toby and Catherine (OCHA Burundi), half of the CIH team, walking in the sandy streets during a lunch break

We have had numerous meetings, some successful from a data collection point of view and others less so. Our French has been appreciated here as the other members of the UN team speak only few words and we even had to translate a PhD abstract in gynaecology in exchange for data.

This afternoon (Monday) I was in the UNICEF Water and Sanitation 3rd meeting, they have 93 cases of cholera reported and are planning a campaign albeit a little delayed. We are collecting data from every organization (mostly UN) and the centralized database will be the platform for all the information needs of the field actors. UNICEF gave us the location of villages where nutrition centres have been set up, WHO provided data on the medical facilities and WFP the food distribution centres. This has all merged onto a map, after a big matching process. Villages are just all over the place!

We have been so busy and have not had time for a field trip ourselves but to go anywhere takes a whole day and our priority is to set up the mapping cell. Our Liaison Officer went to the field, after a little training on GPS, and we expect her back tomorrow with, hopefully, lots of GPS coordinates of different nutrition centres.

Our second week began with a real push to co-ordinate the existing GIS activity in country to ensure consistency and minimise duplication of effort. Now three French-speakers strong, the CIH GIS team was becoming quite a force to be reckoned with. We defined the central repository for spatial data and after a painful 24 hours of data cleaning (Sylvie’s Access skills coming to the rescue) the original 24,000 record dataset of villages in Niger was trimmed to a more accurate 8,000 in which we had great confidence.

Arriving at a small village

Meanwhile we continued to train OCHA Field Officers in GPS and field data collection despite continual power cuts (where was the MapAction generator when we needed it??). We realised what a slick and relatively robust outfit MapAction has become over the last few months, although there’s still a way to go…

Days were long and prolonged further by the immense difficulty of getting food. We were grateful for the ration packs that David provided pre-departure. Even so, we had no choice other than to eat at the local “Maquis” for lunch and not surprisingly both fell ill during the second week. A short bout of fever followed by the inevitable (even Imodium struggled) passed in three days but you’d be proud of our synchronisation as we managed to avoid being ill at the same time so there was never a drop in map production.

After what seemed like weeks of effort, the CIH website was operational and we were able to provide Mark (CIH Manager) with a vast number of maps for public consumption and dissemination.

Still without internet access or power Mark decided that our skills would be best employed in the field for our last few days in Niger. We weren’t complaining and jumped at the opportunity to learn more about the situation and how CIH could better meet people’s needs. So at 5.00 on Wednesday morning the GIS team found ourselves at Niamey airport, waiting for a chartered UN WFP (World Food Program) jet to take us to Tahoua (an hour flight avoided a six hour 4x4 trip). The three of us were met by three delightful UNDP drivers so we each had a 4x4 and personal chauffer for the next three days.

WFP Beechcraft crew and the GIS Team

The task was simple: Cover as much ground as possible in three days to:

1. verify the locations of the villages that we had in our database;
2. locate the food distribution centres and medical centres;
3. assess the need for spatial data and maps;
4. publicise the existence of the CIH and its role.

After a rattle around the town to ensure collaboration with the various actors and agencies on the ground, to check needs and attempt to ascertain gaps in information that we may be able to fill, we divided the area into three and were able to get going. The plan was such that Sylvie headed north, Toby south and west and Catherine (our colleague from OCHA Burundi) mopped-up the east. Long days on the road gave us an insight into the troubles faced by this population, although, the three of us independently gained great comfort in seeing the women of various villages working hard on their own harvested crops – the photographs attached give an idea of the country … don’t forget this is the height of the rainy season in Niger!

WFP had asked the Prefets of each Department to be our escorts for the three days. Unfortunately no-one told us so we set about our duties without taking up this generous offer. Toby met the Prefet of Tahoua pre-departure in an attempt to smooth things over! Each action in Niger should be in close collaboration with the government. We took part at the weekly meeting organised by the government with most of the NGOs working in the area. Main subjects were food distribution and quantities. Some NGOs make a differentiation based on the size of the family: (1 to 4, and 5+), considering that the average Niger family is composed of 8 members. Also the NGOs didn’t distribute the same quantities, or the same products. ACF (Action against hanger) had bought its own products; most of the others were distributing PAM food.

The Ministry of Hydrology was providing maps to NGOs, with their distribution plan: a great job. We met the man that was in charge of the GIS on our last day, he gave us Shapefiles, with the village positions: Yet more data!

The who does what where (w3) database and accompanying maps were also gathering a head of steam, much to the delight of the CIH Manager.

Three long days in the field saw us briefly return to Niamey with our private WFP jet – great to be met on the tarmac by our CIH driver “Joe” (he had finally stopped listening to Phil Collins and only to replace him with Michael Bolton) to establish a final, definitive data repository for Catherine to take forward and a complete map catalogue of the fortnight’s efforts. We attempted to go for a quick beer and sandwich but time got the better of us as we worked late and skipped the food to head straight for the airport.

What an experience and a great insight into UN-OCHA! We left the CIH confident in the knowledge that they had a mapping cell and data repository fit for the job – MapAction can certainly take comfort in the fact that we are heading in the right direction in all that we are attempting to achieve!

To see the latest maps visit: www.humanitarianinfo.org/niger