Open Cities Accra Project Continues in Akweteyman and Nima

The Open Cities Accra project has entered its second phase. This phase is just an extension of the work done in the communities the team previously worked in earlier. Last year, we mapped and collected accurate geospatial data in Alogboshie, Alajo, Akweteyman and Nima. All 4 areas were remotely mapped however field data collection was done only in Alogboshie. In this phase of the project, the team is in the field Over the next few weeks collecting field data in Akweteyman and Nima as well. This week the field mappers completed data collection in Akweteyman. 

First of all, we recruited a new set of mappers while having some of the old ones play a more supervisory role on the field. All the mappers were taken through a 5-day training program to bring them up to speed concerning the way data collection is done on the Open Cities Accra project. They were taken through the process of collecting data with some mobile applications to collect data from the field. These applications include Open data collect and Open Map kit. On the final day of the training, the mappers were taken out of the training venue to practice collecting data on the field. The exercise went very well. 

The mappers, numbering 58 in all, were in the field this week to commence work in Akweteyman. On the field they collected data on building types, building levels, building materials, streets, area name, popular landmarks, flood history etc. They also had the opportunity to interact with the community members.

Today, the Open Cities Accra project team had the opportunity to meet the chief and other traditional leaders of Akweteyman to formally introduce the project. The Chief and the other leaders were very happy about the project. The team shared with them the progress of the work we are doing in the area and also a map of the area we developed in the first phase of the project. 

The team had a debriefing session today at Mobile Web Ghana. The session helped the individual participants look back at their work in Akweteyman, right their wrongs and identify the things they did right. All this was to help the team work better in Nima where they will be working in the next few weeks.