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/10986/35593

FTL UAV Portfolio Review - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/resources/uav-portfolio-review

Frontier Technology Hub Website - https://www.frontiertechhub.org/