Our impact

WeRobotics became operational in 2016. The first 18 months of operations were dedicated to field testing the Flying Labs framework across 3 continents. This was followed by rapid growth which continues to this day. In 2018, we collaborated with Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) to structure our impact indicators. The results are provided below. We are continuing to extend these indicators as our work expands further.

Drones, data and AI have transformed how social challenges can be tackled. While these emerging technologies are readily available, access to them is unequally distributed and not sustainably localised.

Through the Flying Labs network, we shift power from the global back to the local by ensuring that local experts with local knowledge and lived experience have the access they want and the leadership opportunities they seek to implement technology for good projects themselves. In the process, they grow local ecosystems while being connected to a global community.

Local experts are best placed to tackle local challenges. They have the local knowledge, the local language, and the lived experience. Enabling local experts to access new technologies, new skills and new opportunities enables them to tackle problems more effectively, more sustainably and more inclusively than foreigners who often take a top-down, exclusive and techno-centric approach to problem solving.

By transferring opportunities, supporting locally-led projects with best practices, workflows and guidelines and allowing access to south-to-south collaboration, communities have all they need to manage their own solutions.

Building local expertise in the responsible and ethical use of drones, data and AI allows local civil society and government to integrate emerging technologies into their workflows, and enables local entrepreneurs to create new businesses that create jobs and scale positive social impact.

Through youth-specific programs, community engagement and hands-on demo’s, the wider public is able to better understand how these technologies can make a real difference, and get inspired to become personally engaged.