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Announcing the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa

We are pleased to announce that from September 2021, the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa will be open for submissions to apply for 250,000 EUR in grants and intensive training in an Innovation Bootcamp. Successful applicants will also receive hands-on support from a strong network of mentors, investors and business partners.

The Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa seeks to raise awareness for an entrepreneurial continent full of opportunities and honour the late Kofi Annan’s legacy and commitment to a more just and equitable world.

More about the Award

The Austrian Federal Chancellery, together with the Kofi Annan Foundation, will invite entrepreneurial start-ups with a proven business model and a demonstrated social impact to submit their business plans in order to bring their impact to scale and benefit as many Africans as possible. It will be operationally supported by the WFP Innovation Accelerator and the Austrian Development Agency.

The award winners will benefit from grants of € 250,000 each, as well as the WFP Innovation Accelerator’s 12-month acceleration programme with access to mentorship and support by a global network of partners. A jury will select the three award winners from a short-list of 9 teams after an intensive 5-day Innovation Bootcamp. Their solutions will be challenged and further developed with the support of technical, financial & industry experts. Finalists will not only profit from prominent international exposure but also from access to our strong network of supporting mentors, investors and business partners.

Find out more about the award on the official award site

The Jury

The Kofi Annan Award High-level Jury will be chaired by Mr Elhadj As Sy, Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation and former IFRC Secretary-General, and Dr Antonella Mei-Pochtler, Special Advisor to the Austrian Federal Chancellor and Head of the Strategy Unit “Think Austria”, and a selected number of personalities with a proven track-record in furthering social entrepreneurship in the spirit of the SDGs.

The Kofi Annan Award Support Network

Beyond the core programme, the partners will establish a Kofi Annan Award Support Network, a community of passionate, engaged supporters of the African European cooperation who share the responsibility to help innovators change the African reality for the better. By bringing participants together with a community of business mentors, corporate executives, investors, financial institutions and industry experts, we help social entrepreneurs get access to the right resources at the right time.

More about the Partners

The Federal Chancellery of Austria

The Federal Chancellery is the ministry led by the chancellor. The chancellery’s primary function is to align the policies and public relations of the Federal Government. It represents the executive on the federal level in matters of the Constitution of Austria and international courts.

Kofi Annan Foundation

The Kofi Annan Foundation an independent, not-for-profit organization that works to promote better global governance and strengthen the capacities of people and countries to achieve a fairer, more peaceful world.

WFP Innovation Accelerator

The WFP Innovation Accelerator sources, supports and scales high-potential solutions to end hunger worldwide and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. WFP provides WFP staff, entrepreneurs, start-ups, companies and non-governmental organizations access to funding, mentorship, hands-on support and WFP operations.

Austrian Development Agency

Combating poverty, ensuring peace and preserving the environment: These are the three major concerns of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the operational unit of Austrian Development Cooperation. ADA currently funds projects and programmes with a total volume of more than 550 million euros to improve living conditions in developing countries.