Borders, Rules and Governance: Mapping to catalyse changes in policy and management

While researchers have long used mapping techniques and satellite imagery to analyse local situations for academic purposes and for making recommendations to donors and government, NGOs are now increasingly bringing this analytical power to the local level for improving local decisions and enabling local analyses to be shared with outsiders in order to improve national level policies. Maps communicate information immediately and convey a sense of authority. Mapping programmes can empower civil society efforts to bring accountability and transparency to local and national governments. This paper uses numerous examples to highlight the power of maps in bringing about such local change.