The Africa Young Innovators for Health Award is launching its first competition designed to highlight and support the work of pioneering young entrepreneurs developing health innovations.

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We want to encourage business entrepreneurship and help advance promising health care solutions that support and empower healthcare workers – those on the frontline of delivering healthcare to communities. Therefore, we are looking for innovative healthcare solutions aimed at supporting, protecting, and empowering healthcare workers through solutions like training programmes, providing protective equipment or improving the quality of healthcare.

Award winners will receive:

Financial Support worth a total of $75,000.

First prize of $40,000

Second prize of $20,000

Third prize of $15,000

A 3-month Business Mentorship programme from leading entrepreneurs.

Technical support with Intellectual Property protection, if relevant.

Gain exposure and recognition from global healthcare leaders and the public

Application Deadline is 31 March 2021

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Eligibility criteria

To be eligible to apply you must be aged between 18 and 35 at the time of applying for the Award and be a citizen or resident of an African country. Successful applicants will need to show how their inventive healthcare solution is scalable, measurable and makes a lasting impact for healthcare workers.

Evaluation criteria

You must be able to show your innovation is scalable, measurable, has a sustainable and positive impact on healthcare workers and that their innovation is commercially viable and at least at the proof of concept stage. Submissions will be evaluated based on the following:

• Innovation. The submission must show, first and foremost, an innovative character this means it must break new ground and meet a challenge in its city, region or country.

• Scalability. The applicant must show the innovation be scaled up and used in a wider region of the country, neighbouring countries or across the continent.

• Impact.  It must show a measurable and sustainable impact on health. It will be important to show not only that it supports, equips, protects and trains healthcare workers but that this is measurable and can be maintained and is therefore sustainable.

• Commercial viability. The innovation must be commercially viable, so we have to see that it is a business proposition, that it can compete effectively with its competitors and make profit.

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