IFPMA And Communicate Up Africa Launch 2nd Version Of Flagship Award Program Supporting Younger Well being Innovators Throughout Africa 

The Worldwide Federation of Pharmaceutical Producers & Affiliation (IFPMA) and Communicate Up Africa have partnered to launch the second version of their flagship program, the African Younger Innovators for Well being Award, on the sidelines of the 76th session of the World Well being Meeting. 

Launched in 2021, the Africa Younger Innovators for Well being Award focuses on supporting younger well being entrepreneurs throughout Africa with monetary and in-kind alternatives to develop their enterprise concepts. This 12 months, the Award Program seeks to search out and nurture youth-driven well being improvements that attempt to speed up efforts to advance Common Well being Protection (UHC) in Africa. UHC signifies that all people and communities have entry to the complete spectrum of high quality healthcare providers with out the chance of economic hardship, guaranteeing “Well being for All. All over the place.” 

Talking concerning the theme of the second version of the Award Program, Dr. Karim Bendhaou, Africa Engagement Committee Chair, IFPMA, says, “Regardless of African international locations throughout the continent strongly demonstrating their dedication to attaining UHC by 2030, progress towards reaching this aim has stalled, with the Covid-19 pandemic reversing many hard-earned positive factors. The Africa Younger Innovators for Well being Award offers a useful alternative to leverage the ingenuity of Africa’s rising youth inhabitants to search out domestically tailored options that assist our communities have larger entry to reasonably priced and high quality healthcare services and products.” 

Most African international locations have UHC as a aim of their nationwide well being methods. But, progress has been gradual. Nations that obtain their UHC targets by 2030 will get rid of preventable maternal and baby deaths, strengthen resilience to public well being emergencies, cut back monetary hardship linked to sickness, and fortify the foundations for long-term financial development.

The Award gives 4 winners monetary assist totaling 90, 000 USD to take their innovation to the subsequent degree, alongside a three-month enterprise mentorship program with main enterprise figures and strategic steerage on mental property rights from one among Africa’s prime legislation companies. 

“This program offers younger African well being innovators the prospect to study from enterprise, media, and authorized consultants to additional develop their healthcare improvements, be a part of a rising group of healthcare entrepreneurs, and strengthen the well being ecosystem on the continent in order that Africa’s largest well being challenges may be tackled,” says Yacine Djibo, Director and Founding father of Communicate Up Africa, reflecting on the worth this system.

Conrad Tankou, CEO of GICMed and winner of the primary version of the Award, says, “This system gave me the area to establish the strengths and weaknesses in my enterprise and helped me enhance my enterprise mannequin to draw traders, develop my community, and efficiently scale up into new areas.” 

This 12 months candidates have to be between 21 and 35 and be capable of present that they’ve developed a minimal viable well being services or products or are within the technique of creating such a services or products, with the potential to scale up their innovation to drive efforts in direction of attaining UHC. As a studying from the first version of the Awards, women and men can be eligible for first and second place prizes every, guaranteeing larger gender equality within the Awards and as foundational to a UHC the place nobody is left behind. 

Detailed details about the Award, together with the eligibility standards for this 12 months’s theme, is obtainable at www.africayounginnovatorsforhealth.org. Purposes open from 22 Could 2023 till 25 July 2023.

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