The Drone Frontier

We speak to Tendai Pasipanodya and Hans-Peter Thamm from the Drones Doing Good Alliance. Tendai is a systems change expert with 17 years of experience in identifying, developing, supporting and co-creating innovative solutions to tackling development challenges. Hans-Peter is a drone manufacturer who developed one of the first ever VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) drones in the world.Both guests discuss the importance of localisation and the value of local manufacturing of drones. They also discuss what it might mean to encourage more local solutions in order to grow drone ecosystems in the future.Links:Drones Doing Good Alliance - https://www.ddgalliance.org/Wakanda Beyond - https://endeva.org/blog/making-africa-the-safest-place-to-fly-drones-wakanda-beyondFTL UAV Portfolio Review - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/resources/uav-portfolio-reviewFrontier Technology Hub Website - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/

We speak to Tautvydas Juskauskas, Drones Specialist at UNICEF Supply Division and member of the Interagency Supply Chain Group, about how to best implement drone solutions within existing programmes and share global learning. We then talk with Olivier Defawe and Luciana Maxim of VillageReach, who have been at the forefront of testing UAVs for healthcare delivery. We discuss what they have learnt from their FTL pilot in Mozambique, as well as what they recommend to others who wish to integrate drones in existing systems.Both guests frame discussion around their experience of drones for supply chain delivery, where  in some developing country contexts, rural locations and poor roads often mean that drones can leapfrog existing processes. The key question being: how do you make sure that these activities are sustained and manage to slot into existing systems?Links:UPDWG - UAV for Payload Delivery Working Group - ​​https://www.updwg.org/World Bank, Unlocking the Lower Skies: The Costs and Benefits of Deploying Drones across Use Cases in East Africa - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35593FTL UAV Portfolio Review - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/resources/uav-portfolio-reviewFrontier Technology Hub Website - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/

In this episode we are joined by Nigel Breyley, drones expert and independent technical advisor on all seven drone projects conducted with the Frontier Technologies Hub to date.We also speak to Anne Nderitu, who is co-founder and Chief Operations Officer at Swift Lab in Kenya. Anne is an aerospace engineer and a drone pilot who is developing her drone cargo delivery business in the country.With Nigel and Anne we discuss regulation, both from a global and local perspective. We also look at how implementers can empower local stakeholders and design for sustainability, as well as exploring the knowledge necessary to operate drones in different countries.LinksJARUS (Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems) - http://jarus-rpas.org/ICAO (The International Civil Aviation Organization ) - https://www.icao.int/UPDWG - UAV for Payload Delivery Working Group - ​​https://www.updwg.org/FTL UAV Portfolio Review - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/resources/uav-portfolio-reviewFrontier Technology Hub Website - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/

We first speak to Ruth McPake from the Frontier Technologies Hub. Ruth is a Senior Consultant at IMC Worldwide, one of the partner organisations that make up the Hub. The Hub has explored the use of drones predominantly through its Livestreaming programme, which since 2016 has partnered FCDO staff with technologists and other actors to test an idea for impact within a pilot project. Ruth talks about what we’ve learned from testing drone technology in a wide variety of use cases.  Next, we hear from Kush Gadhia, Senior Business Development Manager at Astral Aerial Solutions, a drone company and affiliate of Astral Aviation, an all-cargo airline based in Kenya. Kush has been working on one of the pilots supported by the programme, which has looked specifically at whether drones can be used as a complementary solution to tackle the desert locust problem in East Africa.  We discuss Kush’s experience of leading a small, local team, and what the next steps are when it comes to testing drones in this nascent use case.Links:Village Reach Evidence Generation Guide - https://www.updwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/UAS-Evidence-Generation-Toolkit-V2-Nov-2019.pdfUNICEF sustainability toolkit - https://unicef.github.io/drone-4sdgtoolkit/FTL UAV Portfolio Review - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/resources/uav-portfolio-reviewFrontier Technology Hub Website - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/

We speak to Jonty Slater, Managing Director of The Blue Globe, who has worked with international development innovation programmes for the last eight years, and with drones for the last four years. Jonty speaks to us about which drone use cases are showing the most potential in the sector, as well as how infrastructure and local ownership should continue to form key considerations when it comes to building projects in the future.Links:FTL UAV Portfolio Review - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/resources/uav-portfolio-reviewFrontier Technology Hub Website - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/

We talk to Harriet Cross, the UK High Commissioner to Trinidad & Tobago. We hear about Harriet’s interests in making better use of frontier data technologies in her team’s work, including both her outward facing diplomacy work and the efficient running of the High Comission. Harriet also shares her important insights on how data technology experts and diplomats can work better together in the future.LinksFrontier Technology Hub blog post: MediumFull FCDO report: Frontier Data Study - releasing the power of digital data for development

We talk to Emmanual Letouze, Director and co-Founder of Data-Pop Alliance, a coalition on Big Data and development co-created in 2013 by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, MIT Media Lab, and Overseas Development Institute. Emmanual takes a philosophical approach to understanding how new data opportunities fit within wider global trends, explaining how new data opportunities provide a lens on the nature of our challenges as well as a lever to help solve them. Of particular importance to him are socially inclusive ways of innovating with data and building bridges between different disciplines, sectors, and social groups.Links: Data Science and the Art of Persuasion, (Harvard Business Review): https://hbr.org/2019/01/data-science-and-the-art-of-persuasionFrontier Technology Hub blog post: MediumFull FCDO report: Frontier Data Study - releasing the power of digital data for development

We talk to Stefaan Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (The GovLab) at New York University (NYU), about his extensive work and insights on improving the sharing of new frontier data sources (including business-to-government sharing). We hear from Stefaan about his latest work on the Data4Covid19 call for action, which helps organisations use innovative data sources to address Covid-19 and future threats in a responsible, systematic and sustainable way. We also talk to him about what AI governance is, why it matters for international development work, and what practitioners can do to strengthen AI governance for local good. Please take a look at the links below to the initiatives and projects that Stefaan speaks about in the podcast:Data Collaboratives: https://datacollaboratives.org/Data Stewards Network: http://datastewards.net/Data4Covid19 : http://data4covid19.org/Mobility Data for Covid19: https://mobility.data4covid19.org/The new intelligence paradigm: https://www.afd.fr/en/ressources/emerging-uses-technology-development-new-intelligence-paradigmMore on Stefaan: https://www.thegovlab.org/stefaan-verhulst.html 

We talk to Melissa Persaud, Director of New Business, Global Development at Fraym, about their pioneering work using frontier data technology to produce hyper-local (1km^2 level) spatial data where data is traditionally hard to access. Fraym’s data maps are used by companies, development organisations and governments to address a wide range of needs, including responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. In this episode, we also discuss Fraym’s work with CovidAction, a technology and innovation pipeline funded by the FCDO.  Links:Fraym CovidAction project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DA9FXtj5QY]Fraym’s website: https://fraym.io/ Frontier Technology Hub blog post: MediumFull FCDO report: Frontier Data Study - releasing the power of digital data for development

We talk to Edward Anderson, Senior Technology and Resilience Specialist for the World Bank based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Edward works at the nexus of urbanization,climate risks, and the leveraging of frontier data technologies for greater resilience in African economies. A critical challenge for many developing country Governments is the limited availability of spatial data that can inform planning and coordination for climate risk reduction, especially in fast-changing urban areas like Dar es Salaam. Giving examples from his work on the World Bank- and FCDO-funded Tanzania Urban Resilience Programme, Edward explains how to work alongside local government institutions to support the production and use of frontier data technologies to  enhance the capacity to identify and respond to climate shocks and disasters. LinksFrontier Technology Hub blog post: MediumFull FCDO report: Frontier Data Study - releasing the power of digital data for development

We talk to Tom Wilkinson, Data Science Hub Lead of the Data Science Campus, Office for National Statistics. The purpose of the Hub is to support UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) staff and partners, including the wider UK Government, in the use of cutting-edge data science tools and frontier data sources for international development. Tom speaks about the Data Science Campus and how we can ensure new data techniques can be taken up. In particular, how frontier data technologies can be put to use by FCDO and country government staff. Other topics covered included the synergies between frontier data and traditional data, plus big data ethics. LinksFrontier Technology Hub blog post: MediumFull FCDO report: Frontier Data Study - releasing the power of digital data for development

We speak to Tim Harris, user engagement lead for the Data Science Hub of the Data Science Campus, Office for National Statistics. The purpose of the Hub is to support UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) staff and partners, including the wider UK Government, in the use of cutting-edge data science tools and frontier data sources for international development. A key part of the Hub’s work is to support near real-time decision making through the automation of data collection and analysis processes using frontier data technologies and machine learning approaches. We hear about interesting examples where these tools have been applied in the country contexts of Ivory Coast and South Sudan, where in the latter, satellite imagery and machine learning is being used to count cows where traditional surveys are not possible.LinksFrontier Technology Hub blog postFrontier Data Study - releasing the power of digital data for development