Drones For Good.

We are an African non-profit empowering civic drone pioneers across the continent.

We believe that drones -- on land, in the air, and under the sea -- give citizens powerful new ways to better understand their world and to improve public accountability.

africanDRONE seeks to empower local pilots through a self-help network that offers seed funding, skills development, resource sharing, advocacy, and networking opportunities for members.

Need help on a project?

africanDRONE can help you find a boots-on-the-ground professional drone pilot in your country, or connect you to a data expert in the fields of 3D mapping, crop health, site inspections, video editing, and much more.

Find a pilot in your region here

Featured member projects

Featured

African Drone Forum

The 2020 African Drone Forum was Africa’s largest drone convening, comprising the top players in the drone industry over three days in Kigali, Rwanda. Notable attendees were in attendance including the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame.

Unequal Scenes

Unequal Scenes is a critically acclaimed photojournalism project, using drones to map inequality around the world. The project is the brainchild of photographer and africanDRONE co-Founder Johnny Miller, with support from Code For Africa and africanDRONE.

Malawi Reforestation Monitoring

africanDRONE was tasked with helping US-based organization WRI carry out a pilot project for drone-based monitoring of reforested land in northern Malawi. The results will factor into carbon sequestration efforts and set the precedent for an Africa-wide mapping effort.

Ramani Huria

The entire city of Dar es Salaam was mapped using drones by africanDRONE-founding member UhuruLabs with support from the World Bank. This innovative use of drones was one of the largest drone mapping undertakings in the world when it was completed, and africanDRONE continues to set benchmarks for other similar projects around the world.

Map Makoko

Makoko, a water-front settlement of 250,000 in the centre of Lagos, Nigeria, was mapped by a team from africanDRONE and our partners to create a bottom-up, open source map using drones, smartphones, and crowdsourcing.

africanDRONE / World Bank Youth Scholars

africanDRONE brought talented African youth to the African Drone Forum in Kigali Rwanda: 21 young people, 60% of whom were women, from 11 African countries. They had opportunities to network, learn about drone technology, and tour facilities in and around Kigali.

AFRICAN DRONE ACADEMY

africanDRONE and Code For Africa’s Storylab have partnered to create free content for new and experienced drone professionals, including a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course), videos, tips, and other resources.

drone camps

We partner with Africa’s leading newsrooms and journalism organizations to host drone camps and story camps in cities throughout the continent. This allows drone professionals to interact with journalists, share experiences, gain insight, apply for grants, and work on projects that would not otherwise be possible.

Drone Camps

Drone Camp: Cape Town

A group of South African journalists and civil rights organizations tackled questions such as: When and how can drones be used to improve storytelling? What are the rules that apply in different jurisdictions? This was South Africa’s first drone camp, a three-day, hands-on event in Cape Town organized by ICFJ Knight Fellow Chris Roper. The 30 participants included journalists from 12 of South Africa’s leading media outlets, and for most, it was their first time flying the unmanned aircraft.

Drone Camp: Zanzibar

This one-day workshop was held at the same time as the ZanSEA conference for mapping on the island of Zanzibar. We covered how to use drones for breaking news stories, collecting data, and covering difficult-to-reach places. Seven journalists from Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda attended, and will be working on developing their own drone journalism projects over the next two months.

Story Camp: Zanzibar

20 African journalists (winners of the Code For Africa Impact Africa storytelling grant) came to Zanzibar for a boot camp on interactive multimedia storytelling techniques, drone use in stories, photography, social media, and much more. Their stories were on topics ranging from poor health services for pregnant women in rural Kenya to the loss of cocoa farms to illegal mining in Ghana.