SotM Africa 2019, held in Ivory Coast was my first ever SotM Africa conference attended. The conference lasted for three days from 21st November, 2019 to 23rd November, 2019. My journey started with a road trip that took ten hours by bus from Cape Coast in Ghana through to VITIB in Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast. The journey although long, was fun and an exciting adventure.

Arriving there, I was quick to realize the importance of being a bilingual speaker which unfortunately I am not. With my little understanding, I could pick up little words in exchanging pleasantries to make an introduction and the word ‘mange’ when it came to food.

The first day of the conference which was held in conjunction with Understanding Risk Africa in Abidjan was a massive way to kick start the conference with more than 200 participants. This being that it provided a view into Africa’s use of OSM to understand how resilience is being built and the massive contributions being made in OSM in not just Africa but the world as a whole. A highlight of the first day for me would be the showcasing of the contributions of OSM contributors through a simulation video for a number of years. This made me happy because it showed that no matter how little the contributions are into OSM, they are counted significant.

I had my presentation on the first day, under the gender and local empowerment session. It provided me with the opportunity to share how through YouthMappers, perspective was being added to mapping in OSM as well as learn about the various ways people were using OSM for local empowerment across Africa. The session ended with a much needed discussion on how to address the issue of inclusion of diversity, what worked and what did not work.

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