Challenge Accepted: Increasing incomes by 30% for more than 100,000 African women!
A big congratulations to our winners of the Million Lives Collective challenge: 4Life Solutions x Maendeleo ya Wanawake, and Medic x D-tree International! They will receive USD $100k grant funding for each joint project, technical assistance support and networking opportunities in their mission to increase incomes by 30% for more than 100,000 women in Africa. This opportunity is funded by Bayer Foundation through the Women’s Economic Empowerment collaboration grant.
The Million Lives Collective (MLC) is an initiative that recognizes and raises awareness of innovations that are making significant impacts in addressing global development challenges. Launched in 2019, the MLC is made up of over 100 innovations across a wide range of sectors and geographies. It is inspired by members of the International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA) and is managed by Results for Development (R4D).
The Million Lives Collective challenge encourages the Collective’s members to team up with other members or external partners to establish a collaborative model through tangible in-field testing. By establishing this connection, social innovators are able to combine their unique resources and skills across sectors to address complex, dynamic and unpredictable development challenges.
Since the application opening of the Million Lives Collective challenge in September 2023, we have received 14 inspiring applications from social innovators who share the same vision of improving the economic conditions of women in Africa. After a rigorous selection process, we decided to support 2 projects with the highest potentials to scale up and impact 100,000 or more women by the end of 2026.
1. Safe drinking water to Kenya by activating a +100,000 peer-to-peer sales agent network
4Life Solutions and Maendeleo ya Wanawake collaborated to test a sales agent model, where members of Maendeleo ya Wanawake will be recruited, trained and supported in selling the SaWa solution (Safe drinking water through purification only using sunlight).
"In partnership with Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation, we are improving health outcomes through the reduction of waterborne diseases while creating jobs for thousands of women who now sell our affordable SaWa products, ensuring safe drinking water for their communities. All thanks to Bayer Foundation, we are making a health impact, one SaWa Bag at a time."
Edwin Robinson Muroki, Project Manager at 4life Solutions
2. Accelerating Women’s Economic Empowerment: Enabling Digital Payments to Community Health Workers
Medic and D-tree International collaborated to test a Community Health Toolkit-based digital payment workflow and payment platform integration to remunerate community health workers (CHWs) efficiently and accurately.
"At D-tree we believe that digital payments for CHWs strengthen transparency and accountability, as well as reduce payment delays and ensure payments are complete. This ultimately increases the motivation and morale of the health workers and consequently can strengthen the health system. We also believe that increased motivation will lead to increased retention and contribute to a steady and increased income of CHWs, many of which are women. We are excited to launch a digital system for paying CHWs in Zanzibar in collaboration with Medic and thanks to the generous support from Bayer Cares Foundation."
Heiko Hornung, Director of Technology, Data and Innovation at D-tree
