Empire Partner Foundation is teaming up with Sweden-based Hack for Earth Foundation to host its first global hackathon, inviting developers to find scalable healthcare solutions for South Africa.
The Sandton-based tech non-profit organisation announced the collaboration with the Swedish organisation yesterday, saying 238 participants and 13 mentors from more than 20 countries will be part of the two-day hack, to be held on 27 and 28 August.
Participants are drawn from across the world, including those from SA, India, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lebanon, Bangladesh and Egypt.
The Empire and Hack for Earth foundations say the hybrid (virtual and physical) event is open to developers who wish to design solutions for a better future.
Both organisations use hackathons to find real solutions to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals through citizen-driven innovations, 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 partnerships Carolina Emanuelson and expert mentor in medicine Jacob Rosenholm.
For the hack challenge, the foundations say 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.
The Empire Partner Foundation says 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?”
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 as a key partner organisation for connecting with the entire African continent.”
Explaining how the collaboration with Empire came about, Molin says a visit by a Swedish tech group to SA sparked the interest.
“When Hack for Earth Foundation joined the official Swedish tech delegation to South Africa 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 looking forward to joining the health hackathon at Empire Foundation HQ in Sandton on 27 and 28 August.”
In the case of Empire, the plans to go global 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 UN and its 17 SDG global goals.
“Global crises require unified global efforts. The merging of Hack4Earth 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.”
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