Nairobi, 12 June 2020 -  UN-Habitat has just launched the COVID-19 Campaign Survey - a crowdsourcing survey open to everyone living in an urban area to collect data on the impact of  COVID-19 in cities across the world.

Data collected from residents of 300 cities during the first three days of the survey showed that more than 90 per cent of respondents faced economic challenges such as reduced incomes, job losses, inability to pay for basic needs and recurrent bills. Other challenges included juggling between childcare and economic activities.

The data shows that residents in most cities have limited access to handwashing facilities in public places, despite its proven effectiveness in preventing the spread. Nearly three quarters of residents said their cities were implementing targeted rather than mass testing for COVID-19.

The series of surveys are being posted online for two weeks at a time as part of the COVID-19 Campaign. They consist of a series of questions on different topics requesting city residents to provide information on what is happening in their cities in terms of COVID-19 infections, testing, prevention and control measures and its impact on their daily lives.  

The data and findings will be available for all actors and governments to help with their interventions

The Chief of UN-Habitat’s Data and Analytics Unit, Robert Ndugwa said the data is very significant.

“This COVID-19 Campaign Survey will help understand at a more granular level what is happening at the city and neighbourhood levels. When combined with other ongoing initiatives such as the vulnerability mapping we are undertaking across cities, this data will contribute greatly to UN-Habitat’s COVID-19 Response Plan,” he said.

The crowdsourcing data application has been developed in partnership with ESRI, which provides geospatial information solutions software, and will be used to continuously collect data on the COVID-19 city-specific situations while monitoring  measures put in place to control the pandemic and accelerate local recovery. 

Everyone living in an urban area is encouraged to take part in the COVID-19 Campaign Survey by accessing the link here. A real-time dashboard on who is responding where can be accessed here.