Report: What’s ethics got to do with it?
This discussion paper offers guidance on how to navigate safety, security and ethical questions related to the sustainable growth and scaling of drone operations in healthcare logistics in Africa. For the purposes of this paper, safety relates to the possibility of harm being done to people or property while security relates to the possibility of somebody taking control of or disrupting drones and drone services. Ethical considerations include the principles determining the ‘right’ use of drones, what is appropriate for the sector, and who decides this.
This paper is of use to decision-makers such as civil aviation authorities, ecosystem support actors such as donors, drone manufacturers, drone operators and relevant ministries such as Ministries of Health, Innovation or ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). It offers an overview of critical areas of concern, potential solutions and trade-offs or costs associated with these solutions. Because different scenarios will call for different solutions, this paper also offers a number of guiding principles and myth busters that will help decisonmakers and other ecosystem actors embed safety and security in their efforts to optimise and scale drones for health impact.
This paper focusses specifically on transportation use cases in the African health sector, which includes the delivery of critical healthcare products and the collection of samples. While some safety and security concerns addressed will have relevance for broader use cases, focussing on transportation use cases allows us to direct attention toward issues that relate to health-sector deliveries using small payload drones (1.5-8 kg), whether they be fixed wing or vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drones that fly beyond the visual line of site (BVLOS) for distances of 20 to 200 kilometres. Nevertheless, many, perhaps most, safety and security concerns addressed will have relevance to a broad range of other use cases.