IASO @ WHO AFRO GIS Summit

February 6, 2025

Martin De Wulf, Bluesquare’s Chief Technical Officer, attended the WHO AFRO GIS Summit in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, from 21 to 25 January 2025. He presented IASO and the support its has brought to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative since 2021.

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.

Martin De Wulf’s presentation about Bluesquare’s work with WHO AFRO using IASO

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.

Always great to see Bluesquare’s dashboards endorsed by WHO AFRO partners themselves

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.

Please find here2025-01-20 GIS Summit_Martin De Wulf_Bluesquare the presentation given by Martin De Wulf, CTO of Bluesquare

Trusted by

IASO has become a trusted name for health data management with implementations in 12 countries and two large-scale multi-country projects, in support to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and UN nutrition programs.
  • World Health Organization
  • The World Bank
    The World Bank
  • USAID
  • PMI logo
    U.S. President's Malaria Initiative
  • Unicef
  • GAVI logo
    Gavi
  • Gates Foundation
  • Clinton Health Access Initiative
  • Cordaid
  • Lifenet logo
    Lifenet international
  • Abt Associates
    Abt Associates
  • Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue
    Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue
  • SANRU - Soins de Santé primaires en milieu Rural (DRC)
    SANRU - Soins de Santé primaires en milieu Rural (DRC)
  • Cameroon Expanded Programme on Immunization
    Cameroon Expanded Programme On Immunisation
  • Ministry of Health Burkina Faso
    Burkina Faso Ministry of Health
  • Cote d'Ivoire Malaria National Programme
    Cote d'Ivoire Malaria National Programme
  • Democratic Republic of Congo Ministry of Health
    Democratic Republic of Congo Ministry of Health
  • Niger Ministry of Health
    Niger Ministry of Health

Latest about IASO

In the vast Democratic Republic of Congo, managing and updating health system geographic data is a major challenge. While the National Health Information System Directorate (DSNIS) uses DHIS2, it falls short in addressing key issues of data validation, control, and coordination. To overcome this, DSNIS adopted IASO, Bluesquare’s open-source georegistry, through the USAID PROSANI project.

With the addition of Entities and Workflows, IASO can today handle nutritional programmes tracking, and is currently used for the tracking of children under five and pregnant or breastfeeding women by the World Food Programme, helping to ensure they receive the necessary nutritional support.

IASO is an open-source platform for digitalizing health campaigns with geospatial precision. It supports planning, field execution, monitoring, and data reuse across campaigns. User-friendly and configurable without coding, it empowers national health teams from immunization to malaria, nutrition and NTDs interventions.

In 2024, Bluesquare worked hand in hand with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) in Côte d’Ivoire to digitalize the microplanning, household enumeration, and distribution processes of Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) through the IASO digital platform.

Many health systems struggle with visibility on vehicle usage, delivery patterns, and overall supply chain efficiency. IASO’s entities and workflow features provide a powerful and flexible solution to track and optimize the distribution of medical and pharmaceutical products.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), fragmented health facility data poses significant challenges to resource allocation and service delivery. IASO is implemented in the DRC to identify health facilities location and their available equipment and improve healthcare access assessment.

In Cameroon, the micro-planning of vaccination campaigns has traditionally been a manual, often cumbersome process. The digitization of this process, particularly through tools like IASO, marks a significant advancement in enhancing the efficiency and impact of these campaigns.

As part of efforts to improve healthcare coverage in Niger, the georegistry features of IASO have played a crucial role in identifying and managing 329 community health workers in the Tahoua and Dosso regions in 2024.

IASO has partnered with LifeNet International to develop a unified M&E platform that spans six countries—Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, and Ghana. This platform integrates geo-structured data collection, decentralized user management, and seamless DHIS2 integration, empowering LifeNet to improve healthcare coordination across its extensive network.

Polio vaccination campaigns calendar based on IASO

Bluesquare has brought forward IASO’s advanced geographic data management capabilities to develop a more integrated approach to managing polio vaccination campaigns across Africa with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

In fields like public health, access to comprehensive geographic data is crucial for designing targeted and effective interventions. That’s exactly the need Bluesquare set out to meet with IASO, its geographic data management platform now rolled out in 14 countries. Let’s dive into the 5 essential features that make IASO a go-to georegistry solution.

DHIS2 is the world’s most widely used platform for national health information systems. IASO builds on its foundation and adds agility, field-level precision, and advanced workflows needed for complex operational contexts. Learn more about the differences and complementarities of these two platforms.

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