Mauritania Flying Labs Joins the Network

Mauritania is taking an exciting step towards strengthening local innovation with the launch of Mauritania Flying Labs. Established to bridge the gap between emerging technologies and the country's development priorities, Mauritania Flying Labs joins the global Flying Labs Network with a clear vision to build technical capacity, support innovation, and create sustainable impact through the responsible use of technology. 

Leading the initiative is Boubacar Ahmed, a Mauritanian entrepreneur and management professional with more than two decades of experience across diverse sectors, including telecommunications, engineering, mining, renewable energy, logistics, and international development. As the Coordinator, he is committed to promoting the responsible use of drones, geospatial technologies, and innovation to strengthen local capacity. Working alongside him as head of Operations is Sidi Ahmed Gaya, a data scientist and applied mathematics specialist whose expertise in statistical analysis, predictive modelling, geospatial analytics, and artificial intelligence will help drive data-informed solutions for community impact.

Building Local Capacity to Meet Local Challenges

Mauritania faces significant challenges in environmental management, climate resilience, infrastructure development, natural resource management, and digital transformation. At the same time, many organisations and communities have limited access to the technical skills and partnerships needed to fully leverage emerging technologies. Mauritania Flying Labs was created to help close that gap. By equipping local stakeholders with practical skills and building strong cross-sector partnerships, they hope to enable solutions designed by Mauritanians, for Mauritania.

At the local level, the team will focus on training young professionals, students, and organisations while encouraging community-driven innovation and technology adoption. Nationally, they seek to strengthen data-driven decision-making across sectors including environmental management, climate resilience, disaster preparedness, humanitarian action, infrastructure, education, natural resource management, and sustainable development.

Collaboration will be central to this work, with Mauritania Flying Labs aiming to bring together government institutions, universities, civil society organisations, and private-sector partners around shared development goals.

The First Two Years

Mauritania Flying Labs will begin by focusing on building a strong ecosystem of partners, practitioners, and local expertise. Over the next 12 to 24 months, the team plans to:

• Deliver drone and geospatial technology training programmes for students, professionals, and institutions.
• Organise awareness workshops and community outreach activities promoting the responsible use of emerging technologies.
• Build partnerships with universities, government agencies, NGOs, and private-sector organisations.
• Launch pilot projects demonstrating the value of drones and geospatial data for environmental monitoring, infrastructure mapping, climate resilience, and development planning.
• Develop a national network of practitioners and organisations working with drone and geospatial technologies.

These efforts are grounded in a belief that lasting impact comes from local ownership, practical capacity building, and strong partnerships — a belief shared by the global Flying Labs Network. With demand for reliable geospatial data and innovative technology solutions growing across the country, Mauritania Flying Labs is well prepared to help shape a more resilient and data-informed future.