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Mission Statement

• GMA's mission is to assist aid and environmental efforts by exposing the needs and solutions of long-term poverty, using maps. It does this by training and preparation of sustainable local teams , in advance of disasters, as proven after Katrina.

• The purpose of GMA is to get accurate maps of poverty and disaster relief areas into the hands of aid workers in the field, as quickly as possible, so that they can both navigate and plan effectively, in the effort to save or improve lives.
  
  
• It will do this in two ways:-   First, GMA will meet with the main agencies already in high risk area, to find out what kind of information and maps they need. Second, GMA will send out it's teams of local aid workers to collect data on handheld PDA's. At regular intervals the information collected will be sent rapidly to a mapping base located in the disaster area itself. The data will then be made into maps that can be printed and given to aid and environmental workers. These maps can be also downloaded onto the Internet and made available to aid and environmental workers working globally.
  
  
• Technically, all this can be done but there are stumbling blocks, too. At present, the greatest of these is the need for funds. GMA has had some success in looking for funds from government and corporations in the USA. Additionally it intends to become an "Implementation Partner" to intergovernmental organizations working in a specific disaster relief area. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is an example of such an intergovernmental organization.

About Us

Global MapAid, a not-for-profit organization, was initiated to supply specialist maps to those assisting victims and rehabilitating damage.
The focus is to map poverty crises hotspots by capturing data about orphanage programs, drought, food security, HIV monitoring, and
environmental rehabilitation. GMA's mission is to support help towards the hungry poor by providing and assisting in the creation and
communication of maps to different agencies with these same goals.

1.1 Target organizations are as follows:

• United Nations
• World Food Program
• Aid Agencies

GMA is currently seeking funding to collaborate with World Vision International, the world’s largest aid agency, in setting up a pilot project in Zimbabwe to survey and map famine according to standard United Nations guidelines.

The Group consists of experienced Aid Workers, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Analysts, web developers, and twelve core volunteers from Stanford University.The Stanford volunteer’s duties will encompass short-term assignments where they will be responsible for data collection and project proposal writing.

1.2 GMA consists of skilled people in each of the following categories:

• Humanitarian Response
• Geographic Information Systems
• Web Site Development
• Surveys and Statistics
• Communications
• Project Evaluation

The GIS and web development resources have already undertaken extensive commercial mapping and web site development in the southern African region, where mapping is subject to relatively difficult local conditions.

In the medium term the vision is for GMA to learn from the African experience and use it as a basis for mapping social needs in other continents. Such needs may include population explosion, global warming, AIDS, refugee crises, famine, slums, street children and slavery.

GMA Core Values and Team Strategies

These Core Values and Strategies have been partly inspired by over 20 years of humanitarian experience, on the part of the founder of GMA.

Additionally they have been inspired by Stanford University Business School and particular Professor Jim Collins, who wrote 'Good to Great' and 'Good to Great and the Social Sectors' and also 'Built to Last.'

Core Values

• Recruit the right people, no compromise.
• The Team leader looks after and cares for his or her team first, starting first and finishing last, day-by-day.
• Non-charismatic leadership. Results of Leadership measured by benchmarking and channelling outcomes accordingly. Measuring results is the rule.
• Leadership style that is collaborative during 'development mapping [1]', yet prescriptive during 'emergency mapping [2]'. Train for both types.
• Freedom of speech and initiative by all, during 'development mapping'.
• People to be constrained by loyalty on one hand and truth on the other.
• At all times, where there is a finely balanced decision, or in emergency mapping, the Team members shall totally respect the Team Leaders decision, the final responsibility rests on that Leaders shoulders and not on the Team.
• Teams remain loyal to GMA as a whole, ready to swiftly move to another country or region to help out, money is not the issue.

Core Strategies

• Local people mapping locally.
• Teams financially self-sustaining and self-recruiting.
• Teams remain small, ten maximum.
• All team members and the Leader to be able to do all tasks from populating a GIS database to very humble duties, such as cleaning, gladly.
• Training to be tutorial based, not lecture based.
• Training by outsiders to encourage cross-fertilisation of ideas and knowledge.
• Benchmarking and measurement of results drives direction and vision.
• Paid Team members and Volunteer sign up to renewable term contract, not 'employment.'
• Legal 'franchise' contract to underpin mutual loyalty between GMA Teams.

Foot Notes

[1] 'Development mapping' means mapping in slower time or poverty, environmental mapping, disaster prevention mapping, between disasters.

[2] 'Emergency mapping' means mapping in a 'full on' emergency disaster.