Made in Tanzania, serving Global

March 2025 wasn’t just the end of a cohort—it marked the beginning of a movement.

At the Better Tomorrow Program Cohort 1 Closing Ceremony hosted by ROOTGIS, we saw young innovators pitch projects that tackled everything from waste management to housing access. But one powerful element tied these innovations together—geospatial intelligence powered by open data. And more specifically: OpenStreetMap.

🗺️ Why OpenStreetMap Matters

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is more than a map—it’s a platform. A canvas. A growing, living dataset built by volunteers and available to everyone. In a country like Tanzania, where commercial mapping tools are often inaccessible or outdated, OSM becomes a critical tool for innovation.

ROOTGIS has long been a champion of OSM, training youth and women in mapping, storytelling, and community data collection. This digital foundation made it possible for the young minds in this cohort to think spatially, act locally, and build globally relevant solutions.

Let’s break it down—team by team—to see how OSM played a role.

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♻️ EcoCycle Tanzania (Team: Neon Nexius)

Turning organic waste into fertilizer and animal feed.

OSM relevance: Their approach requires identifying areas with large volumes of organic waste—markets, residential zones, and farming clusters. By overlaying OSM data layers like land use, landfills, markets, and transport routes, they can optimize where to collect and distribute products.

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🏡 Nyumba Nyumbani (Team: Learning Hub)

Helping visitors and locals find homes before or after arriving in the country.

OSM relevance: This innovation is inherently map-based. Using OSM as the basemap, they can geotag apartments, neighborhoods, landmarks, and points of interest. It’s a true example of how open mapping can unlock trust and transparency in housing—a critical issue for urban newcomers.

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🚛 Intelligent Cargo Optimization System (ICOS) (Team: Innovation Hub)

Matching delivery trucks with return cargo to cut transportation costs.

OSM relevance: This project depends on road networks, routing, and logistic corridors. OSM’s detailed mapping of Tanzanian roads—even in rural areas—helps them model routes, calculate optimal paths, and identify bottlenecks. OSM + logistics = efficiency.

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🧱 Plastic Waste to Tiles (Team: Jenga Link)

Recycling plastic waste into construction tiles.

OSM relevance: To collect plastic waste effectively, they need spatial data on residential density, waste hotspots, and informal dumping grounds. Using OSM’s building footprints and land use tags, they can plan smarter collection routes and identify high-waste areas for community engagement.

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🔥 Eco-Bamboo Charcoal (Team: Creators)

A sustainable energy solution replacing wood charcoal with bamboo briquettes.

OSM relevance: Mapping deforested areas, biomass-rich zones, and charcoal distribution points through OSM helps the team understand environmental impact and optimize production sites. They can also use satellite + OSM overlays to track and validate bamboo availability.

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💡 A Foundation Built on Open Data

Every one of these teams used data as fuel—not just passion. And it’s data from the community, for the community.

ROOTGIS, as a regional leader in open mapping, made this possible by:

• Training youth in OSM data collection using smartphones and field apps like ODK, OSMAnd, and KoboToolbox.
• Encouraging innovators to treat geographic information as infrastructure, not just as a background layer.
• Hosting Mapathons and digital literacy camps to build a mapping culture across Tanzania.

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🏆 Spotlight on the Winners

Two teams stood out and won development support:

• 🥇 Innovation Hub with ICOS: For tackling transportation inefficiencies.
• 🥈 Learning Hub with Nyumba Nyumbani: For creating a real-time housing discovery solution.

Their success isn’t just technical—it’s spatial. It’s a testament to what happens when young minds have access to the right data and the right mindset.

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🔄 A Call to the OSM Community

To my fellow mappers: your edits matter more than you know. That footpath you traced? It might become a delivery route. That school you added? A reference point in someone’s housing search. That garbage dump you mapped? A launchpad for waste recycling innovation.

We often say that maps change lives. In Tanzania, we’re now watching that happen in real-time.

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Let’s keep mapping. Let’s keep empowering. Let’s build a better tomorrow, one node at a time.

🗺️❤️🇹🇿

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Posted by a mapper who believes innovation grows best when it’s rooted in open data.