Background
Kenya, in its Big 4 Agenda, adopted Universal Health Coverage as a priority area, with an aspiration that by 2022 all persons will be able to access health services without financial hardship. Unfortunately, this isn’t reflective of the lived reality of many youths in Kenya, despite the government’s mandate that every Kenyan should have National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) cover as a vehicle towards the realization of UHC. Youth in Kenya make up to two thirds of the country’s population of over 47.6 million as of 2019. This translates to substantial proportion of Kenyans consuming and providing healthcare services being young people both through informal & formal structures. Unfortunately, in national discourse towards the realization of Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC), the youth are conspicuously missing.
To mainstream youth involvement in addressing healthcare challenges in Kenya and support the national UHC agenda, Ryculture Health and Social Innovation hosts an Annual YouTH Voices Summit, a platform that brings together youth leaders and youth-led organizations committed to and working towards the realization of Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC) to share best practices, showcase innovative ideas and stimulate discussions to inform policies towards youth-responsive health systems. The overarching theme of the summit is ‘Activating Youthful Leadership Towards Universal Health Coverage’. To this end, we believe in the power and capacity of young people to design innovative solutions and products to close the gap in access to care and improve efficiencies.
Hackathon
During this years’ YouTH Voices Summit, in partnership with Villgro Africa and African Leadership Academy (ALA) we will host a hackathon where we hope to stimulate thinking, learning and co-creation of innovative solutions and ideas among young people to catalyze the realization of UHC.
The solutions should be around the health system pillars i.e., Health Service Delivery, Health Workforce, Healthcare Financing, Access to Medicines, Health Products and Technologies, Health Information Systems and Leadership & Governance.
Specific project areas will be on:
– Management of Non-Communicable Diseases
– Improving access to mental health services
– Training and Education of health workers
– Zeroing down on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights
Judging Criteria
Innovations will be judged on the basis of;
- Innovativeness/Creativity
- Feasibility
- Scalability
- Youth-centeredness
- Sustainability
- Presentation
Timelines:
Call for Submissions: October 13, 2022
Deadline: November 15, 2022
Communication of Outcome: December 3, 2022
Idea submission should be via email through info.ryculture@gmail.com
Submission Layout:
Your submission should have:
- Title
- Name of Innovator & Contact Email
- Problem Statement: Identifies a clear problem in the healthcare system, provides clear evidence of the gap and justification on why the problem needs to be addressed.
- Innovative Solution/Idea: Clearly articulates the proposed solution and how it overcomes the problem specified/indicated. Include how the solution integrates into the health system pillars.
- Ease and Speed of Implementation: Outline the requirements to make this innovation a reality, the ease of getting them and phases through which the project should go to be implemented.
- Model Layout of the solution: You can use graphics, flow charts and images to describe the solution presented.
The submission should be in PowerPoint and not more than 6 slides.
Awards
- Top three innovations /innovators will be awarded.
- Innovative ideas presenting practical solutions will be considered for implementation under the Ryculture Social Innovation Hub
Ps. Innovations need not only be technology based. Process, systems and social innovations are encouraged.
Notes to Editor
- Ryculture Health and Social Innovation is a forward-looking social enterprise that works with young people and youth-led organizations in Kenya to improve access to quality healthcare services and products and promote human capital development through operational research, health communication, health systems strengthening and capacity building programs.
- Villgro Africa is an incubator and impact investor supporting emerging healthcare businesses in Africa that offer emerging companies a personalized incubation experience to help effectively scale ideas and navigate the African startup ecosystem.
- African Leadership Academy seeks to transform Africa by developing a powerful network of young leaders who will work together to address Africa’s greatest challenges, achieve extraordinary social impact, and accelerate the continent’s growth trajectory.