US to fund delivery drones for Africa under new aid strategy

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The US Department of State has awarded a contract to drone delivery start-up Zipline to make medical deliveries in Africa, as part of a shift towards a commercial model for foreign assistance under the Trump administration.

The US government will pay Zipline up to $150mn to help cover the cost of manufacturing drones and building infrastructure across five African countries where Zipline delivers blood, medicine and other essential goods.

“This partnership is an example of the innovative, results-driven partnership at the core of the ‘America First’ foreign assistance agenda,” said Jeremy Lewin, the 28-year-old acting under-secretary of state for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom.

Lewin, a former member of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), added that the deal reflected Donald Trump’s ambitions to “champion American businesses”.

The state department’s deal with Zipline comes as the US administration has dramatically cut foreign aid and shifted the focus of its spending.

Early in Trump’s second term, Musk deputised Levin to help oversee the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the main distributor of US overseas assistance.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said in March that 83 per cent of USAID programmes would be cancelled, with the remainder to be administered by his department. USAID spent about $42.4bn in 2023, according to the last full year of official figures.

The cuts faced severe pushback, including from Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates. Estimates published in the Lancet medical journal earlier this year suggested that the cuts could lead to some 14mn extra deaths by 2030 and reverse significant gains made against diseases such as HIV/Aids and malaria.

Musk at the time said Gates’ criticism was “false” and lacked evidence. The state department did not respond to a request to comment on the Lancet study.

Zipline is the first technology company to sign an agreement with the state department as part of its revised approach to overseas assistance, which focuses on commercial deals with US companies.

Drugmaker Gilead agreed in September with the department to deliver some two million doses of its HIV/Aids prevention drug lenacapavir “at cost” to up to 12 low-income countries.

The state department said the Zipline contract was based on a “pay-for-performance” model. It said funds would be paid out over time as Zipline completed deliveries. The US will require that national governments commit as much as $400mn alongside its funding.

Zipline is backed by investors including Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Bailie Gifford and Sequoia. A16z’s founders were donors to Trump’s campaign.

The start-up said it has completed some 1.7mn deliveries since it launched services in Rwanda in 2016. Zipline, which now operates in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda, is among a number of providers who have sought to undertake drone deliveries of medical supplies.

Rivals Matternet and Wingcopter have tested their services in Malawi and Tanzania, respectively.

Caitlin Burton, chief executive of Zipline’s Africa business, said the US deal would enable it to move from a regional to a national model in the countries where it operates, expanding from 13 to around 40 hubs, each serving roughly 38,000 sq km

Zipline pointed to studies that found its fleet of drones had helped reduce maternal deaths in health facilities that they serve.

“We’re there for the long term to solve hard problems for governments that they’ve not been able to solve with billions of dollars in aid,” Burton said. He said established aid providers had favoured more conventional logistics networks.

Zipline is seeking to expand its short-range delivery services in the US, where it has already struck deals with Chipotle and Walmart.