About GeoBongo Hub
GEO BONGO HUB was set up in 2019 by GIS practitioners in Tanzania who have been connected from different regions with different professionals but centered on geography; Geo Bongo Hub is the center created to promote the application of Geospatial technology in achieving sustainable development goals by engaging youth in different level and grow opportunities and spatial and data ecosystem within the county. The name Geo Bongo comes from the native word “BONGO,” which means “LAND” or “TANZANIA.”
Geo Bongo hub operates in the country with a headquarters office in Dar es salaam. Our initial focus is to reach all regions with a high youth population to promote spatial innovation and solution provision to the surrounding community.
Centered initially around mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It presently includes the full range of Information Management expertise, including GIS Integration for community-related issues, Promoting data collection, and dissemination for public use. This includes conducting Mapathon, Engaging in data processing, Research and Training, and capacity building in different sectors in relation to spatial data utilization for informing decision making.
Without defining itself as an advocacy organization, at GEO-BONGO HUB, we position ourselves on several subjects that we consider essential for the different sectors in the country and globe, such as responsible data practices and data use, open data, and the pooling of resources to improve the overall efficiency and impact of humanitarian and development ecosystems. We thus actively promote the sharing of data, tools development, and collaboration with academic institutions, NGOs, and methodologies that are usable and accessible to all communities.
GEO- Bongo collaborates with an incredibly diverse range of partner organizations worldwide. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, we support organizations tackling critical issues of differing scales and complexity. The transformative nature of the 2030 Agenda requires new and innovative data sources and integration approaches to implement the SDGs and to ‘leave no one behind. The SDGs are highly dependent on geospatial information and enabling technologies as the primary data and tools for relating people to their location, place, and environment and to measure ‘where’ progress is, or is not, being made, especially at local levels.
The SDG Data Alliance’s technology, expertise, and financial support will help countries worldwide measure their progress in achieving global equity and make the data accessible in a way that is easy to use. To align with SDG 2030 agenda, GEO BONGO centered itself around the following activities
- Education and Vocational Skills;
- Business, Job Creation, and Entrepreneurship;
- Universal Health Coverage;
- Environmental Preservation and Climate Change
Youth unemployability due to skill gaps and lack of economic prospects of the urban slum youth are pushing many into long-term unemployment, leading young people to marginalization and social exclusion. With a majority of youth either out of school or unemployed, many turn to informal unproductive employment options that offer less possibilities for long sustainable development. With limited outcomes, there is a need for initiatives that provide for active youth development.
GEO-BONGO HUB aims to reduce poverty in rural coastal areas prone to climate change by empowering youth (especially young women) to secure viable employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. This project will facilitate youth (young women and men) to gain better employment opportunities by strengthening their capacity, helping them to develop the right attitudes and behaviors for work; generating and improving new economic opportunities in the form of entrepreneurship and paid employment; enabling them to engage with companies to get better work environments; and assisting them to claim their rights to better health, and to enjoy social environments that support their growth and potential. Parents and community members will be involved in creating an enabling and healthy environment for youth to become self-reliant and to develop their enterprises and entrepreneurship. Government and companies will be engaged and made accountable for increased gender-sensitive and youth-friendly policies.
GEO-BONGO HUB is in line with the UN’s commitment to implement Security Council Resolution 2250 on youth, peace, and security, as well as with different global partnerships and strategies recently adopted by other UN agencies, especially as these partnerships grant important avenues for African youth to ally with international actors, leverage resources and exchange practices, to make their voices heard
GEO-BONGO HUB will
- Support young people to move from skills development into entrepreneurial endeavors by strengthening the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem.
- Connect adolescents and youth with ministries at country and regional levels.
- Support systemic participation across age groups and provide a wider audience and platform for young voices to be heard.
- Identify and scale grassroots solutions for young social innovators and entrepreneurs and use innovative approaches to ensure meaningful participation of young people.
- Expand government and partner tools and programs for adolescent and youth development.
GEO-BONGO HUB is intended to be a hub that will establish community GIS /ICT hubs for the purpose of;
Providing the community with access to skill training and empowerment, offering opportunities for education through ICT, Acting as a platform for promoting youth Spatial /digital entrepreneurship