INFORM Africa Research Hub Builds Capacity on Place Resilience Index (PRI) and Reveal Platform
The INFORM Africa Research Hub successfully hosted a Workshop on Place Resilience Index (PRI) Development & Utilization and the Reveal Platform from 11–13 February 2025, bringing together researchers, public health professionals, government stakeholders, members of the DS-I Africa Consortium, and the wider scientific community. The workshop combined open sessions and practical training to strengthen participants’ capacity to apply the Place Resilience Index (PRI) and utilize the Reveal platform for public health research and decision-making.
The workshop commenced with a welcome address by Alash’le Abimiku, who welcomed both virtual and in-person participants. She highlighted the INFORM Africa project’s mission to understand infection dynamics in Nigeria and South Africa by leveraging diverse epidemic data sources, including HIV and COVID-19 datasets. She further emphasized the project’s interdisciplinary approach to understanding how mobility patterns and the resilience of people and places influence disease transmission and health outcomes, providing evidence to support ministries and government agencies in preparing for future public health emergencies.
The technical sessions were facilitated by Lanre Lawal and Christina Riley, who guided participants through the concepts, development, and practical application of the Place Resilience Index (PRI) and introduced the Reveal platform as a tool for visualizing and exploring resilience data.
The workshop was designed to build participants’ capacity to utilize the PRI developed within the INFORM Africa project and provided a comprehensive introduction to the methodologies, datasets, and digital tools that underpin resilience assessment.
Key areas covered during the training included:
- An overview of the Place Resilience Index (PRI) and its application in public health and disaster preparedness.
- Understanding the relationship between hazards, risks, vulnerabilities, and resilience in shaping health outcomes.
- An introduction to the Reveal platform, including its features for exploring, visualizing, and interpreting resilience and public health data.
- Practical discussions on applying PRI and Reveal to support evidence-informed planning, policy development, and public health decision-making.
The highly interactive sessions encouraged participants to share experiences from their respective institutions while exploring practical applications of the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), Place Resilience Index (PRI), and the Reveal platform in research and programme implementation. The workshop also fostered collaboration among researchers and public health practitioners interested in leveraging geospatial and resilience data to strengthen pandemic preparedness and health systems.
The PRI and Reveal training forms part of INFORM Africa’s broader commitment to advancing data science capacity across Africa by equipping researchers, policymakers, and government institutions with innovative tools that support collaborative research, data-driven decision-making, and resilient public health systems.
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