Demo Day: World Health Organization Africa Innovation Marketplace

Organizing Partner: World Health Organization Africa Regional Office

Introductory Speaker: Moredrick Chibi, WHO Africa Regional OFfice

Dr. Moredreck Chibi will introduce the World Health Organization Africa Regional Office and its groundbreaking Africa Innovation Challenge and Marketplace.

Interview by Sarah Gerwig, CEO of UpGlobal and Senior Advisor for PandemicTech

Many innovations in Africa face a huge bottleneck that hinder them from transition to scale because many countries lack innovation-friendly policies to support establishment of a robust innovation ecosystem.  In order to complement efforts by African innovators, the World Health Organization Africa Regional Office (WHO AFRO) has developed a virtual marketplace that seeks to connect different international and local players in the innovation ecosystem to identify and support innovative ideas emerging from the African continent.  The major aim of the Innovation Marketplace is to identify promising health innovations, delineate critical path and work with different stakeholders including funders and governments to help bring these innovations to scale.

Presenting Innovators:

Whispa Health (Nigeria)

WHISPA provides young people (especially women) with private, affordable and shame-free access to Sexual & Reproductive Health Information, Products, & Services.

Erq Ma'ed (Ethiopia)

Erq Ma'ed Media and Communication is a pioneering centre in Ethiopia that offers social awareness, psychological therapy, psychosocial training for youth, couples and marriage counselling and support for children and families. The programme includes support offered through a bi-weekly radio show on mental health, depression, forgiveness therapy, reconciliation, trauma and child and women psychosocial health.

TrueSpec-Africa (Cameroon)

TrueSpec-Africa is a healthtech company focused on bringing innovative solutions to complex problems affecting populations and industries worldwide. We developed a portable device that uses artificial intelligence to allow hospitals, pharmacies, pharmaceutical laboratories and quality control centers to determine whether or not a drug is genuine in less than 10 seconds anytime and anywhere in the world.

PapsAI (Uganda)

PapsAI is a digital platform which speeds up cervical cancer diagnosis in LMIC. PapsAI, an AI empowered integrated cervical cancer management platform, will revolutionize cervical cancer management in Uganda. It uses cutting-edge technology to better track patients and diagnoses.