Establishment of a GIS at the Technical Promotion and Support Office zone 10 (TPSO-10) project

Through the Social Sentinel Surveillance Project, UNESCO offers assistance to NGOs and government agencies to build databases and GIS-capabilities to fight human trafficking and track the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

One example has been the successful partnership with the government organization TPSO 10 (Technical Promotion and Support Office zone10 under the Department of Social Development and Welfare), in Thailand northern area, where emphasis was put on geo-coding training for local staff. 

Objectives

The objective of the project is to collect complete and accurate geographic, socio-demographic and ethnographic data as well as data on existing government support at the district (19), sub-district and village (1,474) levels to match them with the already available data on HIV/AIDS, ethnicity and socio-demography of Chiang Mai province.

A major capacity-building effort is required to train the TPSO Zone 10 staff in developing GIS and geo-coding in a pilot zone (Chiang Mai province). Activities will then be extended to the 19 other provinces in Zone 10. Data issued from this project can be used at the national as well as at the community level.

Project Methodology

Step 1: Data cleaning 
The amount of time and effort this consumes, as well as the importance of doing this, is often underestimated.

Step 2: Geo-coding training
For 20 provinces, data from 4 different databases will be matched at the district and sub-district level.
For one province (Chiang Mai), data will be matched at district, sub-district and at the village level.
For this project, information in 4 databases must be verified and matched

 
1. Ministry of Interior (MOI): location of registered village locations
 
2. Land Development Department (LDD): location of "registered villages" and "hamlet villages" 
 
3. National Rural Development Committee Survey(NRD2C): codes for registered village 
 
4. TPSO10: hill tribe socio-economics database at the hamlet level

Step 3: Training Workshops
Checking and updating highland village locations (Chiang Mai);
Introduction workshop on GIS and GPS techniques and usage;

Step 4: Establishment of a highland centre network 
The center will oversee and update data according to constant changing of village information and locations.

Step 5: Development and establishment of a standardized geo-coding system
This standardized system will be implemented for every hill tribe and ethnic minority official and non-official villages, satellite villages and hamlets in 20 northern Thai provinces. The standardized geo-coding system will be adopted for usage by all government agencies.

After this stage, TPSO-10 will be able to replicate steps 2 and 3 in other provinces. 

Geo-Coding Methodology 

In this project, the aims of the geo-coding are as follows:

• Development of a village mapping and coding methodology to map all villages – both the ones registered by the Minister of Interior (MOI) and ‘hamlets’ - in the upland and lowland areas in zone 10;
• Update of the existing database with new MOI village codes and introduction of a new coding system for villages (hamlets) not registered by the MOI;
• Matching of names, locations and codes to villages from the 4 existing databases.

Key Achievements 

• Establishment of a UNESCO-supported GIS Unit at the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security’s Technical Promotion and Support Office Zone 10 (TPSO-10) in Chiang Mai.
• Training workshop on GIS for TPSO-10 officials from Thai northern provinces.
• Follow-up training sessions for system support and management and problem solving over a period of 1 year.
• Data cleaning for 20 northern Thai provinces.
• Development and testing of geo-coding methodology for actual application by TPSO-10 in its highland development activities in 20 provinces, inhabited by hill tribe and ethnic minorities.
• Training workshop on geo-coding methodology for TPSO-10 officials.
• Follow-up training sessions on geo-coding methodology and problem-solving techniques.
• Development and establishment of a standardized geo-coding system for every hill tribe and ethnic minority official and non-official villages, satellite villages and hamlets in 20 northern Thai provinces. The standardized geo-coding system will be adopted for usage by all government agencies.
• Training workshop to check and update highland village locations in Chiang Mai and to introduce GIS and Global Position System (GPS) for 40 officials of TPSO-10 ground survey teams.
• Updated highland village database for TPSO-10; location, status, and demographic information.Production of maps of highland people and distribution to each unit of Chiang Mai provincial hill-tribe welfare and development center.

Future Plans

• Establish a highland centre network to oversee the updating of the constant changing of village information and locations.
• Conduct a pilot spatial analysis and statistic analysis: correlation of HIV/AIDS spatial distribution for highland and lowland people in zone 10; migration, health facility, demographic, sex service venue, land use, transportation etc.
• Follow up on the pilot phase: development of a GIS unit for the Technical Promotion and Support Office Zone 10 Project: replication of the methodology developed in the pilot phase to generate data for the remaining area of zone 10.
• Teach more knowledge for 2 GIS core staff + GIS staff.
• Share knowledge with other 11 TPSOs.
• Develop a methodology to verify hamlet position in 19 other provinces.
• Organize workshops for 11 TPSOs + 13 Hill Tribe Welfare and Development Centre.
• Update hamlet location from 14 Hill Tribe Welfare and Development Centre.
• Set up the GIS viewer structure for 11 TPSOs.