Angela Spilsbury, human development team leader for DFID (l) and Elise Jensen, health team leader for USAID (r), present a grant certificate to Miriam Khalifa and Faud Ilmam from Kadisco General Hospital.

Karen Ottoni, USAID Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The U.S. Government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United Kingdom, through the Department for International Development (DFID), joined together today to award seven grants to entrepreneurs in the health sector. The seven recipients, Innopia Electromechanical Solutions, Echelon, GE Ethiopia, Kadisco General Hospital, Medical Biotech Laboratories, Tebita Ambulance and Pre-Hospital Emergency Services, and Telemed Medical Services offer innovative private sector solutions that aim to increase the availability and use of health services among low-income populations in Ethiopia.

With funds from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the USAID Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) activity aims to enhance impact investments in key public health challenge areas, including family planning, reproductive health, maternal and child health, and HIV and AIDS. Implemented by the SHOPS activity, the Health Enterprise Fund requires award recipients to demonstrate the potential for sustainability, scale, and replication of health innovations.  The grants were awarded based on criteria aimed at promoting the use of high-impact technologies in the health sector in Ethiopia such as point-of-care technologies, mobile services, and telemedicine.

“USAID recognizes that the private sector plays a critical role in meeting the health needs of individuals in sub-Saharan Africa. Local, market-driven enterprises that leverage technology and innovative strategies to provide health services and products in a sustainable manner to populations have the potential to make a real difference in addressing future health needs in the region, and I look forward to following the progress of the grantees we are supporting here in Ethiopia,” said USAID representative Elise Jensen.

Innopia, one of the Health Enterprise Fund grant recipients, will manufacture and sell a mobile clinic and ambulance that can be used as a diagnostic or treatment room, allowing health officers and facilities to reach patients in remote villages.

Karen Ottoni, USAID Ethiopia

The UK has committed more than £400 million over five years (2011-2015) to support the Health Sector Development Plan of Ethiopia. While much of the UK’s investment is directed towards improving public health service delivery systems, the UK is also supporting strategic private sector approaches, including social marketing of condoms and other contraceptives in collaboration with DKT and over 4,700 pharmaceutical outlets, 5,800 clinics and 20,000 non-pharmaceutical outlets.

This challenge fund is a part of Harnessing Non-state Actors for Better Health for the Poor (HANSHEP), a group of development agencies and countries, to support private enterprises that have the potential to improve health outcomes through increasing provision of quality health services for the poor. 

By supporting socially responsive innovations, the joint USAID and DFID support aims to generate measurable social and environmental impact along with a financial return.  Unlike traditional challenge models, the fund provides not only grants, ranging from $100,000 to $200,000, but also substantial technical assistance to the awardees and will create opportunities for collaboration and learning among awardees, investors, and the wider global health community. 

For more information on the awardees, visit www.healthenterprisefund.org/awardees

Related Resources

USAID Ethiopia: Global Health Initiative

USAID Ethiopia: President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

USAID Ethiopia: Health Systems