From January 21 to 25, 2025, Martin De Wulf, Bluesquare’s CTO, attended the WHO AFRO GIS Summit in Brazzaville, where more than 150 experts from 47 countries across Africa gathered to discuss the role of GIS in health campaign microplanning.
It was a great privilege for Martin to represent Bluesquare and present its work alongside key partners like Novel-T, Ona, ODK, ESRI, GRID3, and the Gates Foundation. The summit provided an opportunity to hear firsthand about the remarkable work happening at the AFRO level, particularly how GIS is being leveraged for microplanning in public health campaigns.
During the presentation, Martin shared how Bluesquare, since 2021, has been working with WHO AFRO on the polio outbreaks platform—a tool built on IASO, Bluesquare’s open-source geo-powered data collection and microplanning platform. The platform supports polio campaigns by managing geographic data, tracking activities, and providing real-time decision-making dashboards. This collaboration has been instrumental in supporting GPEI efforts, and the summit was an opportunity to showcase Bluesquare’s contributions in this space. More details on this project can be found here.
The event also provided valuable insights from other presentations, deepening the understanding of ongoing GIS efforts across the region.
It was inspiring to see GIS becoming a central tool in health microplanning, and Bluesquare’s contributions to these efforts were prominently recognized. The momentum in this field continues to grow, offering exciting prospects for improving health campaigns across Africa.
