Benin Flying Labs Joins our Growing Network

We are very excited to announce the opening of our first Flying Labs in Western Africa, Benin Flying Labs.

Following the Co-Creation workshop of last June in Benin, our goal was to move ahead swiftly with opening a Flying Labs in Benin to start addressing the over 60 opportunities and training needs identified during the workshop to use drones for social good applications in Benin.

While in Benin, we also identified the ideal local partner to co-create the local Flying Labs, a local company called Global Partners led by Dr. Abdelaziz Lawani who has been active over the last 3 years using drones for agriculture and nature conservation applications in Benin and surrounding countries. Abdelaziz is supported in his role as Flying Labs Director by a strong local team made up of Christel Kenou as the Flying Labs Coordinator as well as Chief Drone Operator Jerry N’Djigou, GIS Specialist Evrard Akpla, Arsène J. Agossadou to take care of Monitoring and Evaluation and Mireille-Marie Mahugnon Gbeto to assist the team with all the administrative aspects.

Benin Flying Labs will implement its first activities as of September, with upcoming drone trainings and a first pilot project identified during the Co-Creation workshop. Seen the team’s involvement in capacity building in other countries, our goal over the coming year is also to evaluate if and how Benin Flying Labs could become our Regional Flying Labs for Western Africa, helping to grow and supporting the network regionally in Western Africa.

We warmly welcome the team of Benin Flying Labs to our growing network and look forward to build local capacity and address a variety of social good challenges in Benin with drones and the valuable and timely high-resolution data they allow to provide.

Discover our growing Flying Labs network at http://flyinglabs.org and stay tuned for the opening of more Flying Labs in the coming weeks.