The MUMSA Initiative, a youth-driven non-profit organization, successfully held a two-day hackathon titled “Hacking for Healthy Food & Green Futures” at Ningi, Nigeria on March 6th and 7th, 2024. This event aligned perfectly with Open Data Day 2024 and empowered young people in Ningi to address critical local challenges through the power of open data.
Thematic Focus: open data for advancing sustainable development goals (SDGs) – specifically, SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), and SDG 13 (Climate Action)
The hackathon brought together passionate young minds from different schools and inside the community to tackle interconnected issues of food security, mental health, and climate change. Participants leveraged local and national open datasets on agriculture, nutrition, weather, mental health resources, and environmental indicators.
Over the two days, teams observed to develop groundbreaking solutions that directly impact their community. These solutions included:
- Data-driven strategies for identifying areas with food insecurity and optimizing crop selection based on climate data. This aims to empowers local farmers to make informed decisions and improve food production.
- Development of interventions to address local mental health needs and create awareness campaigns based on real-time data. With esense to increases access to resources and promotes mental well-being.
- Promotion of climate-smart agricultural practices through data analysis. This approach facilitates the reduction of food waste and fosters progress towards environmental goals.
MUMSA Initiative ensured a well-rounded experience by offering:
Equipping participants with the skills to access, analyze, and utilize open data effectively and connecting participant in teams the facilitators provide guidance and support throughout the hackathon. And encourage the participants to share their note of ideas for wider impact, maximizing the reach and potential of their solutions.
The “Hacking for Healthy Food & Green Futures” hackathon is a testament to the power of engaged youth. This event serves as a model for other organizations and communities seeking to empower young people to use open data and tackle real-world challenges.
About Open Data Day
Open Data Day (ODD) is an annual celebration of open data all over the world. Groups from many countries create local events on the day where they will use open data in their communities.
As a way to increase the representation of different cultures, since 2023 we offer the opportunity for organisations to host an Open Data Day event on the best date within a one-week period. In 2024, a total of 287 events happened all over the world between March 2nd-8th, in 60+ countries using 15 different languages.
All outputs are open for everyone to use and re-use.
In 2024, Open Data Day was also a part of the HOT OpenSummit ’23-24 initiative, a creative programme of global event collaborations that leverages experience, passion and connection to drive strong networks and collective action across the humanitarian open mapping movement
For more information, you can reach out to the Open Knowledge Foundation team by emailing opendataday@okfn.org. You can also join the Open Data Day Google Group to ask for advice or share tips and get connected with others.
