Strengthening capacities within the health-care entrepreneurship ecosystem in Africa

 

Effective delivery of basic health-care services in many sub-Saharan African countries is hampered by many challenges, including limited essential health-care infrastructure, severe shortages in the health workforce, barriers to access essential medicines and commodities, and health financing models that exacerbate impoverishment and catastrophic health expenditures. Addressing these gaps can benefit from innovative solutions championed by local private sector health-care startups. Despite the demand for such startups to improve health outcomes for populations experiencing vulnerabilities, many face barriers that hinder their growth and impact. These barriers are disproportionately felt by startups that are women-led.

Entrepreneurial support organizations can offer comprehensive business development support, such as training, mentorship, coaching and networking opportunities, to help these startups become viable businesses. This project will work with organizations across Kenya, Rwanda and Nigeria to design and deliver tailored training and incubation for health startups that are focused on redressing health inequities. The selection of startups will ensure diversity in ownership (women, youth and other underrepresented groups and locations in urban and non-urban settings).

The project will generate a body of evidence from working with some 120-150 health start-ups and over 200 professional mentors, and a supportive multi-country network of practitioners. Expected outputs include tailored training materials, conceptual and business models developed and tested to support health-care startups in Africa, reports and analytics emerging from the project, which will be featured on a dedicated web site, peer-reviewed publications, social media campaigns and various infographics.