Career opportunity: Apply for 2nd Cohort of AUDA-NEPAD’s Home Grown Solutions Accelerator for Pandemic Resilience Initiative
3 min read
Deadline: 31st of January 2022.
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The Home Grown Solutions (HGS) Accelerator for Pandemic Resilience is an initiative that aims to accelerate the growth of African healthcare companies to strengthen the continent’s pandemic resilience, in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 aspirations. This is achieved through offering hands-on and tailored support to growth and mature stage healthcare businesses. The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) founded the accelerator initiative in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the official development assistance agency of the Government of Japan, and with support from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm.
Earlier this year, the initiative was successfully piloted in East Africa, where it supported its first cohort of Home Grown Solutions which consisted of Access Afya, Africa Healthcare Network, Damu Sasa, MSCAN and Revital Healthcare and built a supporting network that includes the likes of World Food Programme, Africa CDC, GIZ, Rwandan Development Board, CSIR, AAIC, Ecobank Foundation, Aga Khan Foundation, World Health Organization, UNIDO, Afreximbank and others.
This press release marks the opening of the Pan-African call for applications for our second cohort which AUDA-NEPAD, JICA and BCG will operationalize with the help of Villgro Africa. If you represent an African health business with strong ambitions, we urge you to apply to receive our support over the course of 2022 and, together, help strengthen Africa’s health systems.
NB: the application link is at the end of the post
Our Offering
We will work shoulder-to-shoulder with your team to design and deliver a customized, six-month acceleration roadmap in 2022, to support your company’s specific growth needs across three key areas:
As part of the second cohort, you will receive this unique offering for your business while shaping this acceleration programme for fellow African businesses in the future. After this period and as a future alumnus of the accelerator, you will continue to have access to our unique and growing network of peers, advisors, mentors and potential partners.
Our eligibility criteria
We have 3 application criteria you will have to meet to be considered for our second cohort:
- You are a growth or mature stage company, meaning you must …
- Be registered as a for-profit entity
- Demonstrate clear market traction and sizable customer base
- Express ambition and potential to scale beyond your current size
- You strengthen Africa’s health system, for example …
- You manufacture medical consumables or devices on the continent
- You provide healthcare services to patients, be it diagnostic, treatment or otherwise
- You provide technology solutions to strengthen health access or delivery
- You can be described as a Home Grown Solution, meaning you must …
- Operate mainly or solely in Africa (preference for companies operating across countries)
- Employ mostly local staff in the markets in which you are active
- Have strong African representation in your leadership
Our application process
You can apply for the Accelerator using the form below, with deadline set on the 31st of January 2022. After the submission deadline, shortlisted companies will be asked to provide references of investors and customers and additional high-level information on their finances during February 2022. Final decision making will happen in March 2022, with Acceleration support definition and delivery to occur between April and October 2022.
Click HERE to Apply
Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.
