The Royal Academy of Engineering has nominated nine African countries for the prize, which will be awarded in 2022.
For the first time in the history of the list, there are women on it, and for the first time, it includes inventors from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A winner will receive £25,000 and three runners-up will receive £10,000 each, in a competition that will take eight months of business training and mentoring. The projects are sustainable solutions to issues such as access to healthcare, farming resilience, reducing waste, and energy efficiency. Three of the candidates were interviewed by The Guardian.
Oboro, Nigeria, is named after a virtue.
The co-founded Tiny Hearts Technology and developed a solar-powered crib that treats newborns with phototherapy. The photograph is by Benson Ibeabuchi.
The baby's eyes and skin looked yellow and his mother rushed him to the hospital in the southern state of Bayelsa. Three of the hospital's five phototherapy units were faulty and the other two were in use.
When there was a power cut, Tonbra developed severe jaundice and was eventually placed in a phototherapy unit. He was traumatising when he had an emergency blood transfusion. We had to purchase blood from an outside source. It was difficult, says Oboro, a graphic artist and product designer.
The experience inspired Oboro and her husband to form Tiny Hearts Technology, the creators of Crib A'Glow, a solar-powered portable phototherapy crib that treats and monitors newborns. Over 300,000 babies have been treated with the cribs in hospitals and homes in Nigeria.
The Tiny Hearts team includes engineers, designers and paediatricians, and they also educate health workers and pregnant women about jaundice, which Oboro believes has saved many more babies. She says she didn't spot the symptoms herself. Like many new mothers, I didn't know about jaundice.
It is important to have solutions that are affordable and accessible.
Oboro is a virtue.
When red blood cells break down, the natural substance formed when they do so is called bilirubin. It can lead to death, brain damage, cerebral palsy, and hearing loss. Blue-light therapy is used to treat about 60 percent of worldwide newborns, but it is expensive and unsuitable for poorly resourced hospitals with unreliable electricity.
100,000 deaths from jaundice are recorded each year and many more babies suffer permanent injury.
It took Oboro five tries to perfect the design for Crib A'Glow, which is foldable and costs about a tenth of phototherapy devices used in developed countries. The light rays focus on the baby's body to ensure maximum efficiency, and the use of lights that are light-colored avoids skin burns, dehydration and rashes that can be common side-effects of such devices.
Virtue Oboro has units at a hospital in Nigeria. The device can be folded up and costs less than a tenth of the phototherapy devices used in developed countries. The photograph is by Benson Ibeabuchi.
The crib provides access to phototherapy that is sustainable and lasts long enough for the baby to recover. The cribs can be moved next to the mothers beds during treatment in order to reduce congestion in hospitals.
Because of Covid, other causes of infant mortality, such as jaundice, have not been given much attention. The other problems weren't solved by Covid.
The crib will reduce infant mortality and disabilities in Nigeria, and make the job of healthcare workers easier, says Oboro, who is developing a solar-powered incubator and hopes to form partnerships with development agencies and donors to take her innovations across the continent. 70 hospitals in Nigeria use the crib.
The crib, which is used in 70 hospitals in Nigeria, reduce infant mortality and disabilities in Nigeria, and make the job of healthcare workers easier.
We import a lot of medical devices, but it's important to have solutions that are accessible and affordable for every community here. She says that healthcare providers can give feedback quickly.
acceptability was the hardest part for us. It was difficult to convince people that the crib would work. My son and I feel like winners every day, because it is as if a battle was fought and won.
The Republic of the Congo has a person named Divin.
A solution was found to solve two environmental problems. The photograph is by Victoire Douniama.
The curse of the water hyacinth plant is that it is so destructive to lakes and rivers in Africa that fishermen call it.
He says that when he returned to his mother's village on the banks of Lake Djoue, he saw an invader plant that had killed the fish. The main economic resource of the village is fishing.
After being struck by the impact of the climate crisis on the Congo at a young age, a Colorado State University graduate, he began to think about the benefits of the water hyacinth plant.
He says that the properties of hyacinth are rich in nitrate, which is good for compost, and it has a high absorbency. The main cause of marine pollution in the Congo is the leaking of oil. We decided to create a bridge between two environmental problems and come up with a solution to the other.
We have turned a botanical problem into a solution for an environmental problem.
The person is Divin Kouebatouka.
His team at Green Tech Africa developed a way to turn the plant's stems into absorbent fibre that can be used to clean up spills or plug leaks. More than 10 companies buy the product, which can hold up to 17 times its weight in hydrocarbons, the compounds that form the basis of crude oil. The idea was nominated for an award.
There are large reserves of crude oil and natural gas in the Republic of the Congo. Industrial processes and the automotive and shipping industries have oil spills. Fuel stations and wholesalers sell Kukia to the public.
A water hyacinth with a man. The young engineer and his team found a way to use the plant's absorbent properties to absorb oil spills. The photograph is by Victoire Douniama.
Local people who collect the plant and produce the fibre earn more than the average agricultural wage thanks to the project. 80% of the collectors are women.
The collection of more than 5,000 metres of water hyacinth on the banks of the Congo River made it possible to restore the waterways, promote the restart of fishing and restore economic activities for a population of more than 100,000 people.
The leaves and roots of plants that aren't useful for the fibre are composted and turned into animal feed. He says that once the stem fibre has been used on an oil spill or leak, it can be used as a fuel source.
The roots and leaves of the water hyacinth are turned into animal feed. The photograph is by Victoire Douniama.
The next step for Green Tech Africa is to establish a biorefinery to produce energy and a range of products. We have turned a botanical problem into a solution for an environmental problem, creating employment and skills development along the way. It is simple, effective and can make a huge difference.
Norah Magero is from Africa.
There is a lack of suitable storage for vaccines. A photograph by Alissa Everett.
When I think about how many children missed out on vaccinations because of Covid, I get emotional. Hospitals and healthcare workers were put under a lot of pressure. 23 million children under the age of one did not get vaccine because of Covid.
The lack of cold-chain infrastructure for storing vaccines was highlighted by the H1N1 epidemic. I moved to a rural area after having a child. It was hard to get her vaccine. Vaccines were no longer viable because of the number of ice-packs that melted.
The problem was not just the lack of reliable power, but also that women who had gone once or twice to get the vaccines might not go back again. They gave up because it might be difficult to travel. This is too difficult for me to believe.
This is for the mothers of all of the country.
Norah Magero.
I am an engineer and an energy manager and I wondered why there wasn't an engineering solution to this problem. Technology plays a huge role in closing the gaps and I am passionate about bringing it up. It has to be affordable.
Drop Access hopes to close the gap with VacciBox, a mobile solar-powered fridge that can be used to store and deliver vaccines to communities and hospitals that lack cold-chain infrastructure.
Hospitals are in a race against time with vaccines and that is the case in most rural communities. Thousands of people are missing out on life-saving vaccines.
The VacciBox is a mobile solar-powered fridge that stores temperature-sensitive vaccines. A photograph by Alissa Everett.
The solar fridge has a backup battery and a data-monitoring facility. The 40-litre box costs 800 and can be carried on bikes and boats.
We have piloted the fridge at two rural healthcare facilities. The first health centre is located in a Maasai conservancy. The facility used to have a soda fridge to store vaccines. It is the nearest health centre for a large population.
The women would walk for miles to bring their children to get the vaccine. The health centre can conduct field-based and door-to-door vaccinations with VacciBox, which has increased their monthly vaccination numbers by 150%.
A medical centre in Makueni is miles away from the nearest mains electricity and has a solar panel that keeps VacciBox cool. A photograph by Alissa Everett.
The Usungu dispensary is 14 miles from the nearest electricity grid. When ice-packs began to melt, the health worker used to return what was left at the end of the day, or at least two weeks later. The dispensary can stock up to 1,000 vaccines a week with VacciBox.
Magero says the team has carried out over 2000 vaccinations, mostly of children, and plans to expand into Covid vaccinations. She says that the vaccine operates within the temperature range of 2C to 8C.
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She wants to have 3 million children protected by the vaccine. The box can be used to transport blood and tissue and can be monitored remotely before a technician is sent if it stops working. The stock and distribution can be tracked with an app.
Magero says he has been through a range of emotions throughout the process.
I had the feeling that my daughter needs friends and classmates. This is for the mothers and all of Africa.
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