WeRobotics

Through its Flying Labs Network, WeRobotics supports groups of local experts in communities both rural and urban across the Global South to integrate emerging technologies such as drones, their data, AI, and robotics into a wide range of policy processes at the local level — from the humanitarian sector to the developmental sector, and in areas including environment and health. With its sharp focus on building the capacity of local networks, WeRobotics’ work extends the conversation beyond how to use emerging technologies to who should lead in their application — thereby forging new ways of working in a sector that is often very top-down, and excludes local expertise. With the recent departure of WeRobotics' co-CEO, and the recent move to transition leadership to a model more rooted in the Global South, this organizational effectiveness grant will support WeRobotics during its period of executive transition -- including for search firm support, change management support, and communications support.

WeRobotics and its global network of Flying Labs enable local experts in low- and middle-income countries to use drone imagery and artificial intelligence to provide high-quality data and analysis to solve humanitarian, development, environmental, and health problems locally. WeRobotics’ model is predicated on putting local organizations in the lead, and shifting the traditional top-down international development model on its head. This grant is for a special project of WeRobotics to work with a small consortium of donors, international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), and organizations based in the Global South to figure out a way to actually measure an INGO’s “Power Footprint.” An INGO’s “Power Footprint” is the amount of authority, control, and influence that an organization is able to exert over local organizations as a result of that organization’s history and current activities. With such metrics, INGOs, donors, and local organizations would then be able to much more concretely align and understand what “power” means — with a way to see nuance on the issue across the wide array of different types of organizations, and (most importantly) identify ways to reduce an INGO’s “power footprint.” (Strategy: Evidence-Informed Policymaking)

Through its Flying Labs Network, WeRobotics supports groups of local experts in communities both rural and urban to integrate emerging technologies such as drones, their data, AI, and robotics into a wide range of policy problems and processes at the local level — from the humanitarian sector to the developmental sector, and in areas including the environment and health. With its sharp focus on building the capacity of local networks, WeRobotics’ work extends the conversation beyond how to use emerging technologies to who should lead in their application — thereby forging new ways of working in a sector that is often very top-down, and excludes local expertise. Building on the previous grant and focused specifically on its African activities, this grant will continue fostering WeRobotics’ investments in its Flying Labs Network. The Network unlocks new ways of working and thinking across the continent, all the while providing new data, information, evidence, opportunities, and frameworks that support the objective evaluation of the fit and value of emerging technologies for evidence-informed policymaking.