The world has been in a pandemic mode for about a year and a half. We all had hoped that there would be a significant decline in the cases being reported after infection curves were either flattened or stagnated in most countries worldwide. However, the situation now seems direr with newly announced variants. Many countries are going through an unavoidable resurgence of cases, forced lockdowns, increase in the death toll due to premature easing of covid 19 restrictions. Therefore, most countries are going through increased job losses, government debt, education setbacks, anxiety, and economic decline. Despite all of this, we have people taking charge and seeking a more desirable future for themselves and their communities.

We had the pleasure of speaking to Maria Virginia Monayar, one of our deployers, who gave us an insight into their project and goals.

What is/was the primary purpose of your deployment?

The Solidarity Cartography was initiated to record the production of updated information on the problems, needs of the sectors with the greatest socio-territorial vulnerability, the strategies, and work developed by social organizations in the framework of the COVID 19 pandemic. For this reason, the Faculty of Social Sciences of the National University of Córdoba, together with the organizations with whom the Faculty maintains workspaces proposed a collaborative mapping project.

The pandemic deepened the health sector crisis and the social and economic communities’ deficiencies and demands. We felt challenged to build concrete contributions by collaborating with these communities. Thus, cartography’s proposal arises as a tool that would allow us to continue working with organizations, accompanying them in the crisis.

The information recorded includes the location of nodes of the social economy, plans for daily needs, care networks, socio-educational and recreational strategies, access to public policies (Emergency Family Income, Alimentar Card, etc.), accompaniment, and advice in the event of violence. We also recorded the definition of lines of action to respond to the needs and problems from the knowledge and practices developed territorially from the organizations with work in the popular neighborhoods.

What problems do you use Ushahidi deployment to solve?

  • Perhaps we are still in the learning stage, but the work carried out has made it possible to update the registered organizations and their work.
  • We record the State’s absences and presences through the different policies. This knowledge can guide;
    • Better practices,
    • More successful designs of public policies, and
    • Make subjects/groups and specific needs visible.
  • The organizations had a strong expectation that the platform will help bring together resources, either from the state or the citizenry.

Although the project has tried to articulate with other spaces -programs, this objective has not been achieved yet. To use cartography in this way, we believe that it needs a communications strategy that we hope to develop this year when we have the monetary resources required.

What was the situation like before the deployment?

This project was started in April 2020, amid the Covid 19 pandemic. With a collective health policy of isolation in this framework, the construction of this cartography was proposed to make demands, problems, and work strategies of social organizations visible in the Province of Córdoba.

Impact

In what way has your deployment been of help in COVID mitigation?

Although we do not consider that the implementation directly helps in COVID-19 issues, it collaborates to contribute to social organizations’ work to sustain the links, registration, diagnosis, and visibility of their actions and their work in this sanitary crisis and economic consequence. It also shows the absence or limitations of public policies in addressing the deepening of social problems in these communities at this juncture.

Give an instance where you used data collected in your deployment to solve an issue around COVID-19?

  • The data collected has been publicly used to expose the territories’ conditions and demands deepened by the pandemic.
  • Videos and journalistic notes have been generated, and together with the partner organizations, we are planning to build concrete demands to the state based on the needs identified.

What would you say has been the most significant result?

The creation of cartography allows us to recognize the geolocations of social organizations. Their work has enabled us to think about possible collaborations within the network based on territorial proximity.

Usability

How did you inform users about your platform?

  • A communication strategy and call for social organizations were carried out through WhatsApp and phone calls, inviting them to participate in the proposal and tutorials on its use.
  • We created a publication of the cartography on the Faculty of Social Sciences website of the National University of Córdoba.

What new features would be most valuable for you to see implemented, and how would you use them?

One of the applications that would be valuable for the project and that arises as a direct demand of the organization is the possibility of showing territorial networks, that is, articulations/connections between the same organizations that participate in the mapping.

Support

How do you plan to sustain the project for the foreseeable future, and what advice would you give to anyone looking to run a project like yours?

In the short term, we can financially sustain this work with finances approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Nation of Argentina for this project. In the long term, we must create strategies to attract additional resources for it. We also hope for contributions to the use, appropriation, and support of cartography by philanthropic organizations.

Advice

  • It is possible to sustain a project with the continuity of calls to other social organizations to join a mapping project.
  • Coordinate with other actions that allow recovering ways of going through the pandemic and the knowledge built in the organizations’ practices and strategies.
  • Build diagnoses that can be translated into concrete demands on the states through public policies.

Thank you so much to Maria Virginia Monayar and the solidarity mapping work team for all your great work and your commitment to curb the pandemic’s impact. Watch and Meet the solidarity mapping work team from Argentina in the province of Córdoba as they talk about their solidarity, demands, and commitments to Covid-19.