The 2024 Entrepreneurs for Resilience Award

The 2024 Entrepreneurs for Resilience Award will support social entrepreneurs working on a hybrid delivery model to improve low-income people’s access to quality primary healthcare in low- and middle-income countries.

Given mounting threats to societal resilience and obstacles to significant progress toward universal health coverage by 2030 – a key health-related SDG – we’ve decided a stronger form of partnership is needed to spur, guide and support initiatives that improve access to and quality of primary care for low-income households in LMICs.

Therefore, we are joining forces with the Digital Connected Care Coalition and the UBS Optimus Foundation to support social entrepreneurs in the healthcare space through the Entrepreneurs for Resilience Award, pooling our experience, network, solutions and funding with these new partners.

Award benefits

• Total grant of USD 700000 for the three finalists.
• This amount is divided among the winning initiative (which may receive up to USD 350000) and the two runners-up and is paid in instalments over two years.
• The finalist that wins the People’s Choice Award, determined by public online vote, will be invited to connect with potential investors at an event hosted by Sankalp Forum, one of the world’s largest platforms for impact enterprises.
• Tailored non-financial support for all three finalists, for instance:
  • Technical advice from Swiss Re employees and from staff of DCCC participating organisations (such as AXA, PharmAccess and Philips.)
  • Training, advisory, data-gathering and/or analysis to improve business operations and strategy from LeFil Consulting representatives and others.
  • Potential eligibility for follow-up funding from the UBS Optimus Foundation
• Access to a network of like-minded peers with whom to share knowledge or experiences and from whom to learn on topics relevant to the initiative

Eligibility

We invite applications from social entrepreneurs who aim to improve low-income people’s access to quality primary healthcare in LMICs by offering a hybrid delivery model that combines a physical point of care and supportive digital tools.

We encourage social enterprises that fall within the scope outlined above and that
meet the following criteria to apply.

• Mission and purpose: Applicants must demonstrate high levels of social impact and ideally be able to measure it in a reliable manner (eg improved health indicators, reduced out-of-pocket expenses).
• Target group: Low-income populations must constitute at least 30% of applicants’ customer base. Applicants should have a deep understanding of the specific circumstances of the people – women as well as men – they serve. Priority will be given to
  enterprises that are gender-inclusive, that is, strive to reduce gender inequalities.
• Geography: Applicants must operate in countries that are defined as low-income or lower middle-income by the World Bank.
• Operating model: Applicants must operate on a market basis. While the venture may depend on grant funding, it must demonstrate an ability to grow and scale through earned revenue.
• Size: Applicants must have been formally established by 2021, serve at least 20000 people and have the potential to reach at least 100000 people in the next two years.
• Organisation: Applicants must have a solid management team in which responsibilities are well defined and distributed. It should also have a diverse, well-structured workforce. Preference will be given to ventures with at least one female founder, or at least
  30% women in the management team.
• Legal compliance: Applicants must comply with the legal framework of the country or countries in which they operate and be allowed to receive grant funding from a Swiss nongovernmental organisation such as the Swiss Re Foundation.