Deadline: January 16, 2019 00:00 CET| Apply here
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Eligibility: Challenge submissions may originate from anywhere in Africa, and from one or more individuals, teams or companies; idea submission addresses at least one of the six challenge categories (listed below); the minimum age for applicants is 18 years
Africa Innovation Challenge 2019
Throughout Africa, the challenge aims to drive entrepreneurship and help advance promising health care solutions.
Chosen applicants will receive funding up to the US $50,000 and technical mentoring from some of the brightest minds at Johnson & Johnson to help bring their idea to life and create meaningful change in their community or country.
Categories
The challenge’s six new solution categories aim to address significant threats to Africa’s health care systems and the environment:
- Botanical Solutions
Sixty to eighty percent of households in Africa still rely on traditional medicine to care for themselves and loved ones.
The challenge is seeking naturally-derived, plant-based solutions that tap into traditional knowledge and deliver consumer health and wellness benefits through topical application.
- Packaging Innovations
Managing packaging waste from the increasing consumption in Africa is a challenge for many communities. The challenge is seeking sustainable innovations for the packaging of single-dose units and other affordable product sizes that will reduce or eliminate waste while protecting the product.
- Mental Health
Caring for someone with mental illness, especially the youth, can be very challenging for rural communities. As a result, 75-85% of persons living with mental illness in Africa may not have access to mental health care. The challenge is seeking innovations that create awareness for mental illness as a public health problem and offer solutions for patients, caregivers, and their communities to address these issues.
- Health Worker Support
African frontline health workers experience high rates of stress and burnout due to the heavy burden of disease and marked health system challenges. The challenge is seeking innovations that support the wellbeing and resilience of nurses, midwives and community health workers at the heart of delivering care.
- Digital Health Tools
The African continent has the world’s poorest health outcomes, with HIV, TB, Mental Health, Maternal Health, and Ebola having an especially large impact particularly on women.
The challenge is seeking digital tools (including apps and other mobile/web/data enabled tech) for these important health care areas that can inform, educate, communicate and connect people to treatment, support and care through their reach and information and improve health outcomes, especially for women.
- Essential Surgical Care
A significant portion of the burden of disease in Africa can be treated with surgery. However, many health facilities in certain areas do not have the capacity to deliver even basic surgical services. The challenge is seeking innovations that promote access to timely, safe, and skilled surgical care.
Interested in applying for the Africa Innovation Challenge 2019? Register your participation by following the registration link and taking the suggested steps.
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