Unlocking Africa's Health Innovation Potential: Navigating the Investment Readiness Landscape
USAID and Grand Challenges Canada - September 2024
The overall goal of this report was to fill the gap in available literature around the availability and effectiveness of Investment Readiness Programs (IRPs) in Africa that are focused on health in order to support broader efforts to have strong local private sector players deliver high quality healthcare. This report addresses this gap by consolidating findings from a landscape study of 87 active IRPs in Africa using publicly available data, supplemented by consultations with stakeholders.
The report identifies three IRP archetypes that are common in Africa; Accelerators, “pure play” IRPs and Venture studios, with Accelerators being the most common. It assesses the regional distribution of the IRPs with most of them being located in East Africa and West Africa. The report shows that few IRPs specialize in health, and those that do struggle to raise significant capital.
To enhance IRP effectiveness, this report recommends operational improvements such as long-term, tailored support models and a deeper focus on health. Additionally, the report notes that embedding investment capital within IRP programs could significantly increase success rates for health innovators. Ecosystem factors, including market size and regulatory environments, also play a crucial role in IRP success and require targeted interventions.