Giving Compass' Take:

· With the help of satellite images, Facebook was able to create a detailed map of where everyone in Africa lives to help aid workers become more efficient.

· How did Facebook gather the data needed to create this population density map of Africa? How can this method be used to improve aid work in other countries?

· Here's more on how Facebook has used map to help with humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

One of the biggest challenges in humanitarian aid is actually delivering the product to the people who need it most. Vaccines, disease-battling insecticides, and new advancements in solar technology can all help people in developing countries stay healthier and have better-quality lives. That is, if you can locate them. In many places, smaller communities are spread out over vast and relatively uncharted terrain.

Facebook is trying to help change that by creating a high-resolution population density map for nearly the entire continent of Africa. Developed by the company’s Boston-based World.AI team, it’s really a demonstration of the company’s immense computational and processing power (and a play to help telecom services get internet service to more of the continent faster, which means more Facebook users).

The more immediate hope is to share this information with nonprofit groups and aid organizations working in areas like disease control and disaster preparedness. “Accurate population density forms arguably the backbone for any public sector or social service intervention you can think of,” says Laura McGorman, a public policy manager with Facebook’s Data for Good division. “The fact that these exist means that organizations working across a range of foreign assistance and poverty alleviation interventions will now have much more accurate maps to do their work.”

Read the full article about Facebook's new map of Africa by Ben Paynter at Fast Company.