Drone & Data Aid uses drones to serve people’s medical needs faster

Malawi

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Project
Facts

Estimated reach: 250 K people

Launch date: 11/2020

Status: Implemented

Project type: Health and Technology

Purpose of Project

Saving lives, improving public service delivery and reducing patient waiting times

The Drone and Data Aid (D+D Aid) project supports technological capacity development in Malawi by strengthening existing systems with innovative solutions to solve real life challenges. The project sets out to achieve this in three key ways: Firstly, by strengthening the Malawi medical supply chain with the help of the drone company Wingcopter, which uses drones to deliver urgent medical supplies. Ten facilities and over 260,000 people are already serviced in Kasungu District with plans to scale up to the Ntchisi and Dowa District. Secondly, D+D Aid supports the UNICEF Africa Data and Drone Academy (ADDA), where young university graduates are trained in various drone-related technologies. The program links the training component implemented by UNICEF with the drone operations implemented by Wingcopter to both develop local skills and expose students to hands-on experience. Finally, the project supports an innovative regulatory ecosystem that ensures public safety and effective stewardship of the young and developing drone industry in the country.

Local team

Implementing
solutions

Florian Moder

Head of SDF, Project Drone and Data Aid

Kawamba Visual observer retrieving delivery

Drone pilot with children from around the Kasungu Aerodrome

Ministry of Health and Civil Aviation visiting operations

Community members observing a delivery at kawamba

Ntchisi Community Engagement

Kawamba Trading Center

Kawamba Audience

GIZ engaging with Kawamba Community

Kawamba Landing spot, Standing from left: Civil Aviation, GIZ, Kasungu DHO and MOH kneeling Visual observer from Kawamba HC

Smart Facts

Facts about Drone & Data Aid

257 young people
are already trained at African Drone and Data Academy.

Training will be scaled up to
Niger and Ethiopia.

Over 222 kgs of medicines and medical supplies
have already been flown over a distance of more than 15,000 km.

The training will be institutionalized with the local Malawi University of Science and Technology.

Already over 257,000 people serviced by 10 health facilities in Kasungu benefited from Drone & Data Aid.

By now the project is
scaled up to phase 2
in the city of Ntchisi.