Bluesquare at Geopalooza 4.0: A look at the latest in geospatial innovation

Bluesquare participated at Geopalooza 4.0 from July 22 to 26, 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya where the team highlighted innovative approaches to use routine activity field data for more precise and regularly updated georegistries.

Empowered by geospatial data and technology 

On opening day, Bluesquare’s Claire Halleux (Sr. Geospatial Data Manager) joined a panel discussion (moderated by Femi Adebols, DevAfrique) alongside fellow experts Abubakar Shehu (eHealth), Dahiru Hassan (National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA)), and Rocco Panciera (UNICEF). The panel covered how geospatial data and technology can empower governments and implementers to reach last-mile users. The panel dug into some of the common critical deployment challenges, the importance of culturally relevant applications, and individual lessons learned from the field. 

“Geospatial tools create feedback loops between health workers and decision-makers, which is crucial to improve services in hard-to-reach areas.”

Claire Halleux

Senior Geospatial Data Manager, Bluesquare

Building Georegistries Through campaign planning: a hybrid approach

On Day 3, Martin De Wulf (Chief Technology Officer, Bluesquare) presented an in-depth session titled “Building Georegistries Through Campaign Planning: A Hybrid Approach.” The session offered a detailed overview of Bluesquare’s health campaign digitization efforts, with  particular focus on building  precise geospatial data management solutions to support and enhance immunization efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Martin introduced the audience to Bluesquare’s hybrid microplanning approach;  a process which involves the digital collection of critical data such as household locations, population numbers, and equipment availability, as well as validating and aggregating budgets. Traditionally, these tasks are managed using a mix of paper, spreadsheets, and messaging apps, which hinders data reuse from one campaign to the other. Bluesquare’s open-source tool, IASO, addresses this issue head on by offering users a transformative solution that enables health workers to digitalize these processes-hence gathering all relevant and fresh data from the field into one single repository. Repeated for each campaign, the use of IASO leads to a continually updated georegistry, which improves the overall efficiency of future campaigns. 

One standout example shared during the breakout session was Cameroon’s Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), where Bluesquare’s digital tools played a pivotal role in the successful vaccination of 4.9 million people against measles in 2023. By digitizing the Master Facility List (MFL) and mapping hard-to-reach areas, Bluesquare helped  health teams track and locate under-vaccinated populations and zero-dose children in real-time. Read more via our dedicated blog post titled “Measles Vaccination Campaign Digitalization with IASO in Cameroon”.

“Different countries are at different stages of implementing georegistries and digital campaign management, and we need to adapt to each situation while maintaining simplicity in the tools developed to ensure maximum impact.”

Martin De Wulf

Chief Technology Officer, Bluesquare

Bluesquare’s hybrid approach is gaining momentum in countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Niger, where digital tools are being combined with traditional systems to improve the efficiency of health programs and campaigns.

🔗 If you want to know more about Bluesquare’s activities, please visit our IASO website for further content and use cases on campaign digitalization and georegistries.