Open Data for Resilience and Risk Management Initiative: Open Cities Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) (St Lucia) – Local Implementation Partners

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team is soliciting proposals for the Open Data for Resilience and Risk Management Initiatives as part of the project Open Cities Latin America and Caribbean (St Lucia).

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team is soliciting proposals for the Open Data for Resilience and Risk Management Initiatives as part of the project Open Cities Latin America and Caribbean (St Lucia).

Saint Lucia is a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) located in the Eastern Caribbean with a population of approximately 170,000. It is highly vulnerable to a range of natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanic events. The mountainous terrain increases hazard susceptibility with events such as landslides and flash flooding in the riverbank communities. The terrain also influences the higher densities of the population living near vulnerable coastal areas. The effects of climate change related impacts are expected to affect tropical cyclone intensity, sea-level rise and other precipitation related phenomena. Many of the region’s critical services are hindered due to inadequate infrastructure, vulnerable transport networks and inadequate updating of integral assets. Poverty levels are increasing with the fragile economy, heavily dependent on tourism, agriculture and the natural environment, making it highly susceptible to natural and economic shocks.

The island’s population has suffered numerous virus/disease outbreaks such as dengue fever, chikungunya and zika. The Pan American Health organization (PAHO) shows an increase of zika cases in Saint Lucia between 2014 and 2016. This is mindful as Zika is known to particularly affect pregnant women due to high probability of complications. These diseases are a substantive threat during the rainy season when the mosquito vector thrives.Poor sanitation and pollution of their riverworks further exacerbate dense living conditions in their densely populated unplanned settlements. This lack of sufficient data in these areas provides an unintended strain on the more vulnerable populations having communities not being fully accounted for.

In light of these various environmental and health factors, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) is well positioned to provide mapping and other related support to assist in managing the vulnerability to natural hazards and economic stresses in Saint Lucia, by supporting the creation of local-scale data and strategies for geospatial information management, as well as participating in the development of integrative methodologies. The OpenCities Latin-America and Caribbean project would focus on capacity building through the OpenStreetMap community and open mapping / open data overall. The training, sharing and creation of tools and strengthening of local communities through participatory assessments, follows the previous OpenCities Africa and OpenCities South Asia projects. It is tailored to empower agencies to enhance their decision making, through better data access and to gain the ability to create, analyze and utilize open data as part of their decision systems and culture.

HOT through the Open Cities pilot intends to:

• Densify and increase the volume and quality of data and layers for the the country for better overall usability
• Provide a strategy for data production, sharing and integration between global volunteer open mapping communities;
• Train authorities, representatives of local committees and designated groups of inhabitants, possible disseminators of the acquired skills and work methodologies.
• Coordinate the necessary work for the production of data remotely, in the field with the Community Committees and as needed with support materials such as drone and street-level images,including the implementation of innovative technologies.
• Define and provide technical support for the assimilation of the data flow produced, its permanent updating from the local level.
• Inspire and instigate a local OSM community of avid mappers and validators, for quality promotion and increase of user base.

The terms of reference are available here.

The technical proposal shall be presented electronically in Adobe PDF format, in English using the templates provided. The proposal consists in three parts: (a) Technical Proposal (b) Financial Proposal (c) Firm Qualification Questionnaire. Links to templates are available in the Terms of Reference.