ADDA success story
How Malawian youth with 21st-century skills are creating a more climate-resilient future
About
Throughout the world, climate change is having an adverse impact on food and water security, water quality, energy resources, and sustainable livelihoods, among many other issues. Malawi’s agriculturally based economy is particularly prone to many of these problems, exacerbated by high population growth and environmental catalysts such as accelerated deforestation and prevalent soil erosion. Tropical cyclones are a regular occurrence, and drought and flooding, the most severe of the hazards, have increased in frequency, intensity, and magnitude over the past 20 years. Solutions are needed to adapt to and overcome these challenges, and some solutions have emerged from the science and technology sector using frontier technology.
‘Frontier technology’ is a name used to describe the latest and most advanced technology being developed around the world—technology that has the potential to revolutionize how we live, work, and tackle the most complex challenges of the 21st century. Countries that are forward-thinking and put focus, training, and resources into frontier technology are seeing returns in products and services that improve lives and address both entrenched and emerging problems.
In 2017, the Government of Malawi moved strongly in this direction when it joined with UNICEF to open the world’s first humanitarian drone testing corridor, allowing global companies to work with engineers, students, aviation experts, and regulators to test, build, and document the use of drones for the good of humanity. That initiative was followed by the launch of the African Drone and Data Academy (ADDA) in 2020, developed collaboratively with the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) and the US-based Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).
Three years and nearly 1,000 graduates later, the ADDA injects energy and innovation into multiple social sectors through its cadre of young entrepreneurial professionals who have become agents of positive change throughout the region. As each cohort of bright young graduates has entered the workforce, it has become clear that the ADDA does much more than strengthen local capacities around using drones and data for good. Its programmes effectively empower young people to be engaged in the issues affecting them and their communities, to co-create solutions to the country’s biggest challenges, to address issues they care about, and to be positive agents of change in their communities.
The training they receive promotes community-driven problem-solving, and ADDA alumni are effectively utilizing 21st-century skills with a foundational focus on drone technology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-referenced data, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) competencies to address critical risks posed by climate change, weak healthcare systems, and the chronic disease burden in Malawi and across Africa.
Some graduates do this by founding social enterprises focused on improving the country’s disaster preparedness and response. Some are using technology to develop more effective ways to support the delivery of health services. Most significantly, many are exploring the vast array of ways in which this drone-acquired data can innovatively contribute to mitigating the global agenda of climate change and its various impacts on already vulnerable people and communities.
All ADDA students—hailing from over 25 countries and over 50 per cent of whom are women—are actively transforming their communities and helping create a more climate-resilient country and region.
