Deadline: December 1, 2021.

The Kofi Annan Award has been initiated by the Austrian Federal Chancellery, in collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator, the Austrian Development Agency and the Kofi Annan Foundation. The Award aims to identify and support promising social entrepreneurs with digital or technology-powered solutions for people in Africa to help them build the foundations to scale. For the 2021 Kofi Annan Award we are seeking innovative solutions from across the African continent to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 3, Good Health and Well-Being, with a strong focus on achieving high quality universal health coverage.

ELIGIBILITY

They welcome applications from social entrepreneurs with digital or technology-powered solutions for people in Africa who are addressing one or more of the following challenges:
• Availability and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines (including production, transport and distribution, as well as financial mechanisms allowing for affordability)
• Access to quality essential healthcare services (including telemedicine: diagnostics, data exchange between health posts and specialists in hospitals and mHealth (Mobile Health):
• Availability and access to mental health services (including training of mental health practitioners, tele-health solutions and projects aiming at de-stigmatisation)
• Better prevention and prophylaxis: early warning, risk reduction, and management of health risks (including disease prevention and prophylaxis and health awareness)
• Improve financial risk protection for the most vulnerable (including micro-insurance solutions, reduction of out-of pocket expenses, prepayment and pooling of resources for health)
• Wildcard: high potential disruptive innovations in the digital health space are welcomed to apply.

BENEFITS

The WFP Innovation Accelerator together with the Federal Chancellery of Austria (BKA), the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the Kofi Annan Foundation (KAF) wish to support innovative solutions that address the urgent healthcare needs of people across Africa. Therefore, our offer is:
• To select 9 teams that will be invited to participate in a fully virtual WFP Innovation Bootcamp, where they will benefit from the chance to work with technical and industry mentors who will provide guidance to further develop and refine their solutions.
• Projects that make it to bootcamp have the opportunity to apply to the Austrian Development Agency for 3 x EUR 250.000.
• The 3 ventures that are each awarded EUR 250.000 will also join the WFP Sprint Programme, a 12-month acceleration programme with access to mentorship, and a global network of partners.
• The final 9 ventures will be able to tap into and leverage a network of relevant businesses, investors and mentors.

OFFICIAL LINK