Innovations
From groundbreaking technologies to community-led initiatives, our innovations tackle real-world problems with impact and sustainability in mind. Explore how we are turning ideas into action to create a brighter, more resilient future for Africa.
Most of the development challenges affecting communities today, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa require a radically different approach if we are to create effective and sustainable solutions. Particularly, when seeking to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities, we must work closely with the affected communities and adopt an evidence-based approach to identify priority challenges, identify viable innovations, develop these and evaluate their effectiveness in strengthening resilience.
At RAN, our focus is on innovations that build and strengthen the resilience of communities that are affected by natural and man-made stresses and shocks in line with the identified themes of focus.
The RAN, with the support of USAID has established a Resilience Innovation Fund for this purpose. This fund will be used to support the development and piloting of scalable resilience innovations.
In keeping with the HESN philosophy, RAN will work closely with multidisciplinary teams of students and faculty drawn from African universities, as well as local in-country innovators to build disruptive innovations that will strengthen the resilience of our target communities.
Innovators are encouraged to identify solutions that are scalable and that have an in-built sustainability component. RAN will offer incubation, training, technical support, mentorship and seed capital to selected teams to enable them develop, test and pilot their innovations.
To support the scaling of successfully piloted innovations, RAN will work closely with investors, both from Africa as well as the diaspora, to raise additional capital, and will also forge partnerships with relevant stakeholders necessary for successful scaling.
