Hack for Earth Foundation: Let's hack for global health in South Africa

Participants are drawn from across the world, including those from South Africa, India, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lebanon, Bangladesh and Egypt.

Both organisations use hackathons to find real solutions to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals through citizen-driven innovation, encouraging them to address socio-economic issues with technology.

Hack for Earth Secretary General Ann Molin will be in Johannesburg for the hackathon, accompanied by the foundation’s Senior Advisor in global partnerships, Carolina Emanuelson and expert mentor in medicine, Jacob Rosenholm.

H.E. Ambassador Håkan Juholt from the Swedish Embassy in South Africa will also be speaking at the Opening Ceremony of the Health hackathon on Saturday August 28th.

Dr. Jacob Rosenholm will be holding the keynote inaugural adress at the Opening Ceremony, with the theme "Global challenges and opportunities in a post-Covid world". During the hackathon Dr. Rosenholm will be available to share his knowledge in medicine with the hackers, supporting them in their quest to find new innovative solutions to the four identified challenges.

- The last few years have brutally shown us that our world's health challenges have never been more dire, and we are in acute need for solutions with a global ambition and scale. Time is of the essence too, that is why I'm very excited to be joining this 48 hour hackathon and meet the hacker teams in South Africa next week.

-Creating partnerships on a global scale is imperative for innovation to have an impact in the world we are living in today. The UN sustainable development goals can only be reached through strong and active partnerships, says Carolina Emanuelson, Senior Advisor Global Partnerships.

-Starting this collaboration with EPF is a perfect example of that, says Emanuelson, and I can't wait to meet all the hacker teams and all the people working at EPF in South Africa next week.

-Working with partnership relations for the EU hackathon EUvsVirus with 22.000 hackers and 100+ partner organisations, Hack the Crisis Sweden with 160+ partner organisations and Hack for Earth at Expo2020 in Dubai has taught me that great partnership relations is the key to impact for the winning solutions, says Emanuelson.

For the hack challenge, the participants will hack four key healthcare challenges in SA: menstrual health, major incident healthcare preparedness, health awareness in rural areas and delivery of affordable healthcare.

Participants have to answer important questions on healthcare: “How do we use tech to address the stigma of menstruation and period poverty in both developing and rural communities in South Africa? “How can we improve healthcare system preparedness for future major incidents like the COVID-19 pandemic? How do we raise awareness about health in rural areas? And how can a country's healthcare system deliver medicine and healthcare in a locally affordable context, to provide healthcare for more people?”

Ann Molin comments: “Connecting minds all over the world to create the future we need, is imperative. To create citizen-driven innovation, inviting all who want to contribute to solving the challenges we face today, starts with building relationships with likeminded organisations like Empire Partner Foundation. Moving into COP27 in Egypt this year, and COP28 in UAE next year, we see Empire Partner Foundation as a key partner organisation for connecting with the entire African continent.”

Explaining how the collaboration with Empire Partner Foundation came about, Ann Molin says a visit by a Swedish delegation to South Africa sparked the interest.

“When Hack for Earth Foundation joined the official Swedish tech delegation to South Africa, organized by the Swedish Embassy and Business Sweden in the spring of 2022, little did we know that this most promising collaboration with Empire Partner Foundation would be the result.

“When we discovered our common purpose to create real solutions to society’s major issues, and both of us using hackathons as a tool to accomplish this – the step to co-hosting a hackathon was only natural. Hack for Earth Foundation is very much looking forward to joining the health hackathon at Empire Foundation HQ in Sandton on 27 and 28 August.”

The plans to go global for EPF have been in the making for some time, according to head of marketing and hackathon co-ordinator Jasmine Mokoena.

“We have been talking about hosting our hackathons internationally for the longest time. As people in the global economy, we often face very similar and overlapping societal challenges. As such, it's key to address and solve many of these challenges with a global collaborative approach. Hence the breadth and existence of the United Nations and its 17 SDG global goals.

“Global crises require unified global efforts. The merging of Hack for Earth and Empire Partner Foundation spoke profoundly to this, bringing together youth from across the world. We're talking applications from France, Nigeria, Zambia, India, UAE, Germany and many other countries that all have ambitious youth who have registered to take part in this prestigious global healthcare hackathon.”