A Geographic Information System as Support to the Healthcare Services of Nomadic Community, the Filtu Woreda Case Study

It has been estimated that there are 50–100 million nomads and semi-nomads in the developing world, over 60% living in Africa. In Ethiopia, pastoral land covers about 60% of the total land area with an estimation of 8 million pastoralists. Nomads have the least access to the healthcare delivery system, due to their traditional lifestyles entailing seasonal movements and spread settlement patterns. Moreover being also strongly affected by extreme weather conditions, nomadic pastoralists enact different strategies aimed at maintaining the health status of their household groups. The main purpose of this research was to identify and analyse pastoralists’ needs, perceptions and behaviours towards human and animal health, in relation to the local socio-ecological context. A special attention was given to the strategies of adaptation to the environment also in relation to climate change. In the last years, developments in remote sensing technologies, cartographic services and GPS applications have enabled the creation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capable to integrate spatial data with climatological products. This paper presents a methodology to collect and integrate environmental and social data to strengthen the monitoring capacity of stakeholders working close to the nomadic community in Filtu Woreda, Ethiopia. Data collected in the field (e.g. human and animal health services, water sources, precipitation) using mobile and portable devices are integrated with satellite data into a GIS, to enable stakeholders to generate an effective database for the analysis of pastoralists and livestock health behaviours, according to seasonal movements and to climatological variations.