Digital Health Innovation Accelerator Program

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator sources, supports and scales high-impact innovations to achieve Zero Hunger. Based in Munich, Germany, we provide WFP employees, entrepreneurs and startups with funding, hands-on support and access to WFP’s global operations. Through the Innovation Accelerator, WFP is leveraging unprecedented advances in digital innovation—such as mobile technology, artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain—and new business models to transform the way we serve vulnerable communities across the world.

Building on WFP’s legacy of innovation, the Innovation Accelerator was launched in 2015 to pilot new solutions and scale promising innovations to disrupt hunger. In just five years, we’ve supported more than 80 projects around the world, with 14 innovations scaling up to reach 3.7 million people. In 2020, we were one of 10 organizations worldwide to be named in Fast Company’s 2020 awards: “Best Workplace for Innovators” and “Innovation Team of the Year.” In 2021, we were recognized again by Fast Company as one of its Most Innovative Companies for 2021. Globally, the World Food Programme has been awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”

Deadline extended: 26 November 2021 11:59 pm (CET)

WFP has launched the Digital Health Innovation Accelerator Program, powered by WFP Innovation Accelerator, and the digilab, jointly led by BMZ – Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, KfW – Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the GIZ. We are in search of scalable digital solutions using open standards and approaches towards the creation of global goods, with a focus on building and supporting pandemic preparedness capabilities in low- and middle-income countries. As the COVID-19 vaccination campaign continues globally, we aim to leverage these digital solutions to accelerate the vaccination campaign, thereby maximizing its impact and the recovery of communities and health systems in low- and middle-income countries.

The programme will select mature start-ups and solution providers who will receive financial, technical and methodological support from the WFP Innovation Accelerator, and other partners. Together with the brightest and best minds globally, we will be able to support the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

2021 Programme Dates

Application Deadline	26 November 2021
Innovation Bootcamp	17-21 January 2022
Pitch Event	28 January 2022

What We Offer

The WFP Innovation Accelerator has a track record of organizing over 38 flagship innovation bootcamps, supporting over 369 teams to rapidly refine their innovations, field testing over 100 projects, and bringing disruptive innovations to scale, reaching more than 3.7 million people in 2020 alone.

Eligibility Criteria

Your organization must be an established legal entity (for-profit, non for profit, social enterprise).
The proposed solution should follow open standards, open-source or open data approaches towards creating global goods (e.g. OSI approved licenses, Creative Commons licenses).
The developed or implemented solution should use data and information exchange mechanisms based on global standards (e.g. openHIE).
The applicant organization must have a presence in the country of implementation (country office or other permanent presence, subsidiary, long-term operations, or partnerships in the country, specifically with the relevant Public Health government agencies).
Your innovation addresses one or more of the priority topics related to building pandemic preparedness in low- and middle-income countries. Your innovation should have a demonstrated proof-of-concept with initial traction and a clear path to scale.

Impact & Scalability: Applicants should have a defined vision, an identified target group, and be able to demonstrate the potential to solve the posed challenge(s).
Team: Applicants should be able to demonstrate they have a diverse, non-discriminatory, gender-balanced organization with demonstrated leadership and entrepreneurial mindset.

Novelty: Applicants should be able to show how their solution and business model are innovative while being technically suitable, and viable.
Traction: Applicants should be able to present evidence of feasibility and adoption by the target group.
Business Model: Applicants should demonstrate the viability of their business model, how they intend to achieve a sustainable business, pricing, and financial model.

What We Are Looking For

The Digital Health Innovation Accelerator Program’s priorities are listed here. Selected teams will be able to further develop their solutions toward scale during the WFP Sprint Program throughout 2022 (end of Q3).

Applicants should be able to demonstrate the following:

Interoperability with other systems and capacity to integrate with existing national health management information systems.
Buy-in from national, regional, or local governments.
Positive adoption of the relevant target user groups: government officials, health workers or citizens, where applicable.
Inclusion of, or focus on, supporting or increasing access for women in the area of impact.
Inclusion of, or focus on, marginalized or underserved communities and mobile populations.
Inclusion of, or focus on, people with disabilities and/or high-risk groups vulnerable to COVID-19.
Capacity to be adapted, expanded, replicated, or scaled.

Priority Application Topics

We are looking for digitally-powered solutions that can contribute to build pandemic preparedness capabilities in low- and middle-income countries. These solutions would be focused on, but not necessarily limited to, one or more of the following priority topics:

Vaccination scheduling; digital solutions that streamline patient and provider registration processes, appointment schedules, vaccination administration and immunisation sites.
Data management and integration; tools and platforms addressing system interoperability challenges such as: data integration, data gaps, data security, and integration of legacy systems.
Other digital health tools and solutions; including but not limited to: micro-planning, vaccine delivery and monitoring, vaccine waste management, raising awareness and countering misinformation, safety monitoring and Adverse Effects For Immunization (AEFI).