Winners of WHO Innovation Challenge: 2019
View the winners here.
Republished from the WHO’s site.
Recognizing Innovation: WHO Africa Innovation Challenge Winners Tackle Health Challenges
The three winners of the first World Health Organization (WHO) Africa Innovation Challenge were honored during an evening awards ceremony as part of the WHO Regional Committee meeting of health ministers taking place this week in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.
The awards recognize home-grown innovations with potential to solve African health challenges. Chosen in the inaugural competition: from Ghana, a solution to tackle counterfeit medications; from Nigeria, basic eye care to prevent avoidable blindness and to rehabilitate low-vision patients; and from Uganda, a pan-filovirus rapid diagnostic test for the early detection of viral haemorrhagic fever for use in villages.
Learn more about the honorees and their innovations here.
“The creation of the innovation award is a deliberate effort to find solutions to Africa’s unmet health needs. I congratulate the winners for their novel solutions that will support countries to leapfrog health systems to accelerate attainment of universal health coverage in our region,” said WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti.
Among all the applications received, 639 made it through to the evaluation phase. This reflects the challenges that innovators face in making progress from ideas to development and eventual broad-based application of their solutions. Investments in the innovation ecosystem that are complemented by innovation-friendly policies remain critical for further encouraging and supporting development of innovative solutions to solve Africa’s health challenges.
