2016 ICT4D Conference

CRS-Madagascar has received a Development Food Assistance Program funded by USAID. This project (Fararano) provides food rations to pregnant/lactating women and children under 2. Fararano plans to target 42,000 mother-child pairs by distributing food rations on a monthly basis from approximately 200 distribution sites.
Historically, distribution site selection is based on local context and includes basic criteria such as existence of large space, shelter, and water supply and often results in inadequate coverage of beneficiaries with some individuals having to walk 18 km (one way) to receive distributions. This has obvious implications including - Absenteeism from food distribution events, Increased fuel costs associated with returning remaining food, Commodity planning and supply chain disruption, Beneficiary women are exposed in high risk rape because they leave home at 4am to join the distribution site. Faced for these issues, CRS proposed applying geospatial analysis to help optimize site selection. Optimization was not based on average walk times but reduction of outlier walking distances. Our goals were to optimize the placement of distribution sites based on a maximum walking distance of 5km, to optimize the routes traveled by delivery trucks to the distribution sites, to increase the efficiency of all operations and transport. CRS contracted with ESRI to develop spatial tools to assist in food distribution site planning and management. The key tools to address this problem were Predictive Analysis toolset including the Speed Model Builder, Route Finder Tool and Distance/Speed Tool, classical analysis tools including Buffers, iFormBuilder integration tools developed by Esri Professional Services
Site selection, or suitability analysis, is the type of spatial analysis that we used to identify the best location for a particular facility or activity.
Goods distributions are common across many projects. A successful model using the GIS Solution and technology which are less expensive, scalable and sustainable could be readily adapted by other projects