Designer Katja Ulbert traveled from Berlin, Germany, to “the jungle,” a migrant encampment in Calais, France, to map the constantly evolving landscape. In a makeshift library beneath a tin roof and behind a painted canvas reading “Jungle Books,” she worked with migrants to plot their paths to the camp with Post-it notes, pencils, and giant prints of countries and borders.
Maps provide the people who live in informal settlements, often for longer than they had envisioned, with tools to track down the resources they need, from doctors to Wi-Fi to mosques. And they enable humanitarian responders to provide recovery and relief.
There are a growing number of ways to apply cartography to humanitarian and development missions. While some organizations develop new technology and launch new platforms, others are going back to basics, using pencil and paper. Devex spoke with a range of experts who said the global development community can do more to leverage both high and low tech solutions to put more people and places on the map.