Deadline: August 12, 2022
The first Open Call for Digital Entrepreneurs in Africa interested in working in the health industry has just been released. This call aims to link regional initiatives with financial support, technical resources, and chances for scaling for creative business people.
With initial funding from the Bayer Foundation and USAID, the Digital Health Ecosystem project (DHE) will support the sustainability and expansion of digital tools for health by changing how they are built, deployed, and scaled. This opportunity will provide a platform to foster a global network of independent teams collectively building on a common open-source platform. By doing so, developers will have a proven, economically viable digital foundation for their applications.
In this Open Call for Digital Entrepreneurs in Africa, DHE wants to strengthen its engagement with countries by working closely with local actors to advocate the adoption and use of global goods. We are looking forward to discovering local innovations that meet an unmet global health need and, through our global goods community, work with local organizations to support them on their journey to scale,” said Carl Fourie, Deputy Director of Global Goods at Digital Square.
Benefits
- Become part of a continent-wide list shared with donors, investors, and implementing partners globally.
- Be alerted to 3rd party funding opportunities.
- Pending the availability of resources, Digital Square will offer an organizational capacity self-assessment tool that supports organizations in becoming direct recipients of international funding sources.
- Additionally, a subset of respondents invited to participate in a DHE-funded request for application. Successful applicants in the request for application round will:
- Have access to financial capital required to develop, deploy and implement scalable digital health products. This financial support will initially be through a grants program and later through a partnership with existing donor programs and government co-investment.
- Gain visibility into existing developer communities that exist for co-learning and collaboration.
- Know what open source health tools exist and what is available for adaptation and could save time and resources in local development
- Have support in adapting open source solutions—even and especially from digital public goods
- Gain increased visibility in the global health development sector
- Grow stronger in their business and operational capabilities and sustainability, as well as their technical ones.
- Those not selected for the initial round of grants but who apply to the EOI will automatically be considered for future funding rounds. Specifically, Digital Square and Country Health Information Systems and Data Use program may use this list to identify partners for country digital transformation work and, in parallel to making programmatic grants, will support entrepreneurs to become direct recipients of USAID funds.
- Digital Square partners with innovators to increase the availability, adaptability, and maturity of high-quality software, service, and content options to address country-driven health needs.
- Digital Square partners with innovators to increase the availability, adaptability, and maturity of high-quality software, service, and content options to address country-driven health needs.
Eligibility Criteria
We invite EOIs from African organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs with the following profiles:
- Demonstrated ability to support the implementation of software tools and products.
- An interest in engaging in the digital health space of a country and willingness to work with local governments, private sector health providers and health insurance schemes.
- Willingness to engage populations at scale; including populations that cannot directly purchase from vendors, but may be government beneficiaries.
- Team includes members with software expertise.
- Registered as a formal organization or business in the WHO SSA Region, with sufficient accounting mechanisms to track revenue and expenditures.
Submission.
Applicants should fill a form that includes the following.
- Business name
- Date of inception
- Country of registration
- Location of work/description of any other country/regional presence outside of where registered
- Organization size, # of staff (0-10, 10-20, 20-50, 50-100, 100+)
- What products and services you currently offer, including, but not limited to:
- Commercial Software
- Open source Software
- Software as a Service (SaaS) products/systems/tools
- Standards used in current software, if any (e.g., FHIR)
Applicants will receive a response by September 30, 2022. Apply now .For more details on how to apply click here
You can also visit the official webpage for further information about the open call. JOIN US ON WHATSUP AND TELEGRAM for more latest opportunities.
