On 8 June 2018, a report on drones entitled « Drones on the Horizon » was made public by Prof Yaye Kène-Gassama Dia & University Cheikh Anta Diop Dakar at the African Innovation Summit (AIS2018) in Kigali, Rwanda.
The AIS is an Africa-wide initiative aimed at harnessing the innovation potential of the continent. It aims to mobilize the people and, especially those with the ‘power to act’, including investors, the people with the ideas, the policy makers, the researchers and academics, the business community, the youth, as well as innovators and thinkers into a coalition for collective action to promote and build an enabling environment for innovation in Africa.
The 44 page report, available in English and in French, provides a contextualized review of drones as a vital precision agriculture-enabling technology and its range of relevant uses for providing detailed and on-demand data in order to enhance decision-making by farmers and hence facilitate much needed support.
The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of all 55 countries on the African continent. It was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa with the aim of replacing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states.
The AU’s secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa. The AU was established following the 9th September 1999 Sirte Declaration of the Heads of State and Governments of the OAU. The AU is based on a common vision of a united and strong Africa and on the need to build a partnership between governments and all segments of civil society, in particular, women, the youth and the private sector, in order to strengthen solidarity and cohesion amongst the peoples of Africa. As a continental organization, it focuses on the promotion of peace, security and stability.
The development work of the AU is guided by the AU Agenda 2063, which is a 50-year plan to harness Africa’s comparative advantage to deliver on the vision of “The Africa We Want”.