Activity Mapping - Main Users / Purpose

files/images_static/user.jpg International, Governmental and non-governmental development agencies, line ministries in charge of development issues.
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Targeting and planning of activities and services starts with the question: Where is the highest demand or where can we reach the most people? Activity Mapping is an approach to take quickly the right decision or choose the right area with optimal ignorance. When major and minor players in a selected scope of activities have been identified, their geographical outreach is inventoried in order to identify gaps and target future development activities. Furthermore, the entire development community working in one area has the opportunity to identify its own service portfolio, its coverage as well as overlaps with other related organizations and institutions. This transparency helps all stakeholders to discuss their current/future role showing the overall picture. Future activities and projects can focus more optimized on sharing and complementing work and can create an atmosphere of discussions and dialogue, where often competition amongst development organizations/institutions is perceived as a driving force. As a result, an ongoing development dialogue can be triggered by this activity mapping exercise.

The inventory is merely a snapshot of ongoing development activities. The quality of information on coverage depends on the predefined activities and their quality standards, in case they can be defined. Finally, results of inventoried activities can be processed and visualized and set into relation to demographic, social or economic parameters.