SITE PLACEMENT OPTIMISATION

Optimising the placement of vaccination service points in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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This dashboard is a decision-making support tool to assist with microplanning in the provinces of Haut Lomami and Tanganyika, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as part of GRID3 Mapping for Health (GRID3 Cartographie pour la santé) . It presents outputs from the optimisation algorithm developed by Flowminder that modelled the locations of new mobile and outreach vaccination sites based on gridded population estimates and existing fixed vaccination site locations. New sites suggested by the algorithm are presented on this dashboard in rank order of the amount of unserviced people living within 3km of the location, alongside existing fixed sites.

After 100% coverage had been modelled, sites were categorised into priority levels:
◾ Priority 1: existing fixed sites.
◾ Priority 2: sites with more than 1,000 people in their circular catchment area.
◾ Priority 3: sites with fewer than 1,000 people in their circular catchment area but covering more than 150 additional people.
◾ Unselected (Priority 4): sites covering fewer than 150 additional people.

Use the sliders to explore the relationship between the number of sites and coverage of the population and to alter the thresholds between priority levels to view different scenarios on the map and graph. Unselected sites can be toggled on using the checkbox below.


Figures for selected sites only (Priority 4 is excluded).



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About

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has launched a nationwide campaign to increase vaccination coverage and lift child vaccination rates from 48% to 95% across the country.

To support this work, the GRID3 Mapping for Health team is optimising the placement of vaccination sites to reach 100% population coverage in the provinces of Haut Lomami and Tanganyika, using Flowminder’s optimisation algorithm. The GRID3 team at Flowminder has run the algorithm to model locations of mobile and outreach vaccination sites in these two provinces.

Data presented on this dashboard were used by Acasus to support local health teams with their micro-planning. Sites that had at least 150 people living within 3km of their location fed into the georeferenced documents used to support microplanning, enabling vaccination teams on the ground to receive suggested locations of advanced vaccination sites to increase coverage.

GRID3 Mapping for Health

These data were produced by the Flowminder Foundation, building from its previous optimisation work in Tanzania and Nigeria, to model locations of mobile and outreach vaccination sites in these two provinces, as part of the GRID3 work in the DRC.

Further work will be carried out in 7 priority provinces to continue the GRID3 Mapping for Health (GRID3 Cartographie pour la santé) project. This project is delivered under the leadership of the Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and funded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The project is led by the Flowminder Foundation and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, in collaboration with WorldPop at the University of Southampton and national partners including the National Statistical Institute, via its Census Bureau, and the Kinshasa School of Public Health.

GRID3 Mapping for Health aims to strengthen the effectiveness and equity of vaccination interventions in DRC through timely access to high-resolution geospatial data solutions. The project directly supports DRC's Mashako Plan goal to boost vaccine coverage by contributing to more effective and equitable vaccination interventions.

GRID3 Mapping for Health is a continuation of the GRID3 (Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development) programme funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (INV 009579, formerly OPP 1182425).

Flowminder

Flowminder is a GRID3 founder and core partner that uses mobile operator, geospatial and survey data to improve the wellbeing of vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries. Its mission is to enable decision makers to access the data they need to transform the lives of vulnerable people, at scale. Flowminder is striving to create a world in which decisions that can improve the lives of vulnerable people are based on the most appropriate evidence.