Drones are not a panacea for Africa’s healthcare problems, but offer great opportunities

Abstract

Medical drones have the potential to greatly expand the reach of healthcare sectors across Africa. Despite the cost of these new technologies and the funding challenges many national health services face, Edwin Ambani Ameso and Gift Mwonzora write that the benefits outweigh the costs.

Biographical Note

Edwin Ambani Ameso (SFB 1199)

A medical anthropologist with an interest in public and global health, he studied at the University of Nairobi, the University of Aarhus and the University of Oslo. He now works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leipzig.
He researches on “off-the-grid”: Infrastructures, processes of spatialization, and drones in Africa. His areas of research include health insurance, social protection and welfare, digital health technologies, infrastructures of care.

Gift Mwonzora (University of Erfurt)

Gift Mwonzora is a Research Fellow in the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt, Germany. He holds a PhD in Sociology from Rhodes University in South Africa, and a B. Hons. in History and Development from the Midlands State University, Zimbabwe.
He researches on digitalisation, politics and the future of work in Middle-Income Countries. His areas of Research include development policy, digitalisation, governance, democracy, human rights, social justice.