Co-Creating a Brighter Future for Drone Technology in Namibia

By Namibia Flying Labs

Towards the end of 2022, Namibia Flying Labs and WeRobotics, embarked on an exciting learning project with the Namibia Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), aiming to align the needs of Namibian drone operators and the NCAA by evaluating existing regulations, particularly those focused on licensing. This project seeks to understand Namibia's current RPAS regulations, most significant challenges, stakeholder needs, and drone use cases/applications. To do this, we decided to bring together local Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) stakeholders from civil society, government, commercial sector, academia, and individual/private sectors and collectively learn the needs and challenges.  

"Drones can be a huge advantage to agencies fighting natural disasters. They can launch immediately, gather vital data about an emergency situation, and help efficiently relay that information to all agencies involved, all without putting further lives at risk." - Grant Imahara

So what were the goals of the co-creation workshops? To catalog current and future Namibian drone/RPAS applications, identify regulatory needs, qualify current challenges faced in drone operation, and establish an overview of RPAS training levels and needs in Namibia.

On the 7th, 8th, and 13th of February 2023, the co-creation workshops brought together 35 participants from over 12 stakeholder groups, and together we identified 42 RPAS use cases for current and future operations, as well as 33 challenges faced by drone operators in Namibia and 32 recommendations for an NCAA ideal future state. The results from these fantastic workshops were presented to the NCAA on February 14th, 2023, with the support of industry stakeholders.  

So with all this amazing data and findings, what's next from Namibia Flying Labs and WeRobotics? The conclusions of the co-creation workshops will be put together with those from targeted local stakeholder engagements, the training syllabi analyses that feature data from over ten other countries through some Flying Labs, and a regulation landscape analysis, to support the NCAA with data and evidence to inform future decisions and improvements of Namibian drone regulations and policies and share collective recommendations on the ideal future state. We still have some work to do, and your support is the fuel that makes us continue this amazing work.

We thank all the workshop participants for their time and invaluable input! We also express our deepest gratitude to the University of Namibia (UNAM) for hosting these events.

Stay tuned for more blog posts and updates on this unique learning project!