Volunteers Supported Implementation of Direct Relief’s Global Midwives’ Hub Site

Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies – without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay. Direct Relief’s humanitarian health efforts place particular emphasis on protecting women and babies through the critical periods of pregnancy and childbirth. As a part of this focus on maternal health, Direct Relief supports a midwife-led continuity of care (MLCC) as midwives are foundational for health outcomes for babies and mothers.

Direct Relief and the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) collaborated to create the Global Midwives’ Hub, an online resource housing actionable information and data to support midwives in advocating for their profession and improved health outcomes. The Global Midwives’ Hub features data from the 2021 State of the World’s Midwifery Report as well as related data provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA).

The goal of this project was to compile large amounts of data from a variety of reputable sources and upload the data to ArcGIS Hub so that it could be easily accessed by professionals globally. Additionally, the project supported the implementation of named ArcGIS Hub users on the Global Midwives’ Hub. The project also supported the implementation of ArcGIS Hub community users on the Global Midwives’ Hub. Multiple GISCorps volunteers (Mara Stoica, Heidi Moring, and Jessica Lott) from Dymaptic, an Esri Silver Partner, were selected for the project.

The combination of open data, mapping tools, and named users available on the Global Midwives’ Hub provides critical information in an accessible format, putting tools for effective advocacy into the hands of midwives around the world.

Project completed