Multi-purpose drone operation in Malawi
Swoop Aero is partnering with the UK Department for International Development and UNICEF Malawi to explore the feasibility, cost-effectiveness and potential benefits of deploying a multi-purpose drone operation in Malawi.
The project will apply this frontier technology to solving one of the biggest challenges faced by remote communities cut off by infrastructure gaps: how to deliver critical medical supplies, on-demand, whilst maintaining them under the specific cold chain conditions they require.
“In remote locations in Malawi, it’s often not possible to have vaccines or medical supplies available in storage all the time. But with our end-to-end logistics infrastructure, healthcare practitioners can place an on-demand order with the local hospital and have it ready to be administered in less than an hour,” says Eric Peck, CEO and co-founder of Swoop Aero. “In some cases, this is a lifesaving service and will drastically improve health outcomes in these communities.”
The project will also support the collection of detailed, hard-to-access aerial data that can be integrated into natural disaster modelling predictions and help to provide better quality emergency humanitarian relief in disaster scenarios.
In January, Swoop Aero commenced operations in the Southern districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje in Malawi. The flight operations have aimed to improve access to healthcare for remote communities and improve disaster preparedness through aerial mapping.
The main objectives of the operations are:
- To validate the use-case model of sustained long term medical drone delivery services in the Southern districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje, as a routine occurrence and also after natural disasters have occurred;
- To employ, train and engage members of the local community to operate, manage, and understand the air transportation service and fully managed aviation system.
- To gather aerial imagery for the development of vulnerability maps, flood models and emergency preparedness and resilience plans as a subset of airborne logistics;
Over the course of January and February, Swoop Aero has been successfully working towards achieving the specified objectives of the project. We thought it was a great time to update everyone on our current operations in Malawi and highlight some of our core achievements in the country.
Critical Insight: Open Communication is Key!
As alluded to, the smooth running and current success of our operations in Malawi is down to the involvement of an internationally diverse and passionate team of people. One important lesson we are continuing to build on in this period is the importance of open and clear communication. Our on-going, on-ground operations in Malawi offer the Swoop Aero teams an informed perspective as to how our air transportation service may effectively alleviate human suffering. This insight is enhanced through our sustained and active engagement with local communities, who are currently working alongside Swoop Aero team members to operate and manage the network, coordinate critical deliveries and help scale up the geographical reach of the network. Following the commencement of flight operations in Malawi, Swoop Aero has utilized both online and offline communications channels to connect local health district facilities and health professionals. This method of coordination is proving extremely successful. The inclusion of all participating members in the one communication group has fostered a unique sense of community, which had not been evidenced before. All members can exchange ideas and information related to essential health supplies, which is streamlining the operation of the transportation service to effectively reach the exact geographical location, on time, with the essential healthcare supplies requested. Furthermore, the involvement of all health professionals via the one communication source encourages transparency and accountability amongst participating health professionals, which subsequently imbues trust within the Swoop Aero aeromedical logistics solution.
Core Achievements
The Network Established
In Malawi, Swoop Aero has successfully established a multi-purpose, multi-fleet network. In the initial months of operations, we have established multiple hub-and-spoke drone networks to service eight remote destinations, multiple times per day, across a geographical area of 21,344 square kilometres. The operationalisation of the network has reduced critical journey times of essential healthcare supplies from 3 hours down to 12 minutes, which represents a 93% reduction in critical journey time. We have also provided an efficient ‘on-demand’ healthcare supply service model, which has centralised the key resources to lower the stockage costs associated with time sensitive medication, blood and pathology samples. The health supply chain the network operates within is enabling improved access to essential medical commodities for 750 000 people in the region. The establishment of the network has also facilitated the collection of high quality aerial data, which has been necessary to develop flood models, emergency preparedness and resilience plans. This data will protect 1.1 million people who currently reside in the flood prone districts of Southern Malawi, and who were the main victims affected by the devastating floods of March 2019.
Community Engagement
The long term impact focus of this project has been sustainability. The design of the project was premised on local community engagement, which would ensure that the network could be operated and managed by a local workforce population safely and independently. To achieve this goal, Swoop Aero became an active recruiter within the local workforce population. With assistance from local members, Swoop Aero has sourced local talent and provided these individuals with the educational tools and training to manage and operate the network. The training has been internationally recognised and certified to represent a large upskilling of the local workforce population. To date, there are 11 trained Malawian staff members who can operate the air transportation network, coordinate flight operations and manage the hub.
Furthermore, Swoop Aero has actively engaged local community members to facilitate the smooth operation of medical transportation and delivery. This is an extremely important aspect of community engagement activities, as the ability to receive, swap and deliver essential supplies strengthens the two way logistics network, which is supported by the single cloud based software package. Swoop Aero has trained 13 local community members to receive and deliver essential medical cargo. This important achievement has meant that regional communities may operationalise the local health supply chain independently to yield long term, positive benefits to the health outcomes within this demographic. Moreover, our active engagement within the local community environment transcends the local health supply chain. We have continued to foster inclusive and positive relationships with all members of the community to imbue trust with the Swoop Aero teams. In addition, this all inclusive approach allows Swoop Aero teams to gain an in-depth understanding of what these communities specifically need and want, and thus, accommodate for this.
The success and streamlining of essential healthcare deliveries remains dependent on a team of dedicated and passionate medical staff that may facilitate the provision of the correct medical commodities required by a patient.
The success and streamlining of essential healthcare deliveries remains dependent on a team of dedicated and passionate medical staff that may facilitate the provision of the correct medical commodities required by a patient. To this end, Swoop Aero has successfully integrated local medical facility staff into the aeromedical logistics service to coordinate daily dispatches and receipts of essential medical supplies. This group currently consists of 27 staff members from the Nsanje district, who receive the order and provide the correct medical commodity, which is to subsequently be sent via drone to the specified destination. To date, Swoop Aero, in coordination with this team, have transported over 18,000 medical commodities to alleviate the suffering caused by insufficient access to healthcare.
