Communities of Africa

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HIP DEV CHALLENGE 2026

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REAL PRODUCTS • REAL TESTING • REAL MARKET PATHWAYS

WHAT IS THE HIP DEV CHALLENGE?

The HIP Dev Challenge is a practical, mentor-guided innovation programme that helps participants turn health-related ideas, solutions, and existing ventures into outcomes that can be tested, implemented, and sustained in the real world.

Rather than stopping at workshops or theory, participants work through a structured development journey—from understanding the problem and identifying opportunities to building, testing, refining, and preparing their solution for implementation or market entry.

Each participant joins one of three pathways based on what they are developing and the support they need: Product Development, Digital Health Innovation, or Accelerated Mentorship. All three pathways follow the shared HIP journey of UBU, uSEED, and UDo, while working toward different practical outcomes.

A guided pathway from idea to real product, real feedback, and real market opportunity.

  • 01 Discover — July: Discover Yourself (UBU). Explore communities, identify practical opportunity gaps, and build the foundation for real product thinking.
  • 02 Create — August: Discover Opportunities (uSEED). Turn insight into practical product concepts through guided development and formulation thinking.
  • 03 Test — Sept–Oct: Make (UDo). Refine product ideas through feedback, positioning, and validation before moving toward launch readiness.
  • 04 Position / Build — Prepare for market: positioning, branding, manufacturing exposure, and distribution thinking.
  • 05 Launch & Sell — November: Launch & Sell. Market participation, community sales pathways, and practical launch readiness.

Three pathways. One journey from learning to impact.

HIP Dev participants follow a shared development framework, but not every innovation begins at the same stage or requires the same kind of support.

The Product Development Cohort builds market-ready health products. The Digital Health Innovation Cohort prepares digitally enabled solutions for real-world implementation. The Accelerated Mentorship Cohort helps existing ventures and organizations overcome barriers and move more quickly toward growth and impact.

Follow each cohort below to meet the participants, explore what they are developing, and see how their work progresses throughout the challenge.

Powered by proSEED — Communities of Africa’s shared framework for turning learning into contribution.

Product Development Cohort

The Product Development Cohort is for participants who want to create and launch a health-related product with genuine market potential.

Participants move from identifying a meaningful health or wellness need to developing a practical, market-ready minimum viable product. Through customer discovery, product design, prototyping, testing, positioning, and commercialization planning, they learn how to turn an early idea into an offering that people can understand, use, and buy.

The goal is not simply to present a product concept. By the end of the challenge, participants should have a validated MVP, clearer customer and market positioning, evidence from real-world feedback, and a practical pathway toward production, launch, and sales.

What participants will work toward:

  • A practical roadmap for entering and growing in the market
  • A clearly defined customer and health-related problem
  • A tested product concept and minimum viable product
  • Customer, user, and stakeholder feedback
  • Brand, value proposition, and market positioning
  • Production, pricing, distribution, and launch planning

DIGITAL HEALTH INNOVATION COHORT

The Digital Health Innovation Cohort is for participants implementing a digital innovation that improves how healthcare is delivered, managed, governed, or experienced.

A digital innovation does not have to be a new mobile app or software platform. It may include a digitally enabled service, governance system, clinical or administrative workflow, diagnostic process, decision-support tool, data system, communication model, or another solution that uses technology to improve health outcomes or operational performance.

Participants focus on moving from an innovation idea to practical implementation. They examine the users, workflows, systems, risks, infrastructure, and organizational conditions required for the solution to work in a real environment.

The goal is to develop and test an implementation-ready digital innovation with a clear use case, responsible data and governance considerations, measurable outcomes, and a realistic plan for adoption.

What participants will work toward:

  • Success measures and an implementation roadmap
  • A clearly defined health-system or service-delivery challenge
  • A practical digital innovation and implementation use case
  • User journeys, workflows, and stakeholder requirements
  • Testing with intended users or implementation partners
  • Data, privacy, governance, accessibility, and adoption planning

Accelerated Mentorship Cohort

The Accelerated Mentorship Cohort is designed for founders, professionals, organizations, and innovators who already have an existing product, company, programme, team, facility, or implementation infrastructure.

Instead of beginning with early-stage idea development, participants receive focused mentorship around the most important barriers, decisions, and opportunities facing their existing work. The pathway is tailored to the participant’s current stage and may address commercialization, operations, product refinement, implementation, partnerships, market access, funding readiness, governance, or growth.

Participants combine the shared HIP learning journey with targeted mentorship, expert guidance, and practical accountability. This allows them to make faster, better-informed decisions while strengthening what they have already built.

The goal is to help each participant overcome priority challenges, accelerate implementation or growth, and leave with a focused action plan supported by relevant expertise and connections.

What participants will work toward:

  • A focused and accountable action plan for the next stage
  • A clear assessment of their current venture or initiative
  • Identification of priority barriers and growth opportunities
  • Targeted guidance from relevant mentors and specialists
  • Stronger operational, commercial, or implementation systems
  • Partnership, funding, market-access, or scaling preparation

Journey Updates

Follow the cohort’s progress

Oyintando Bobi

★ People, Roles and Capability Plan

Your Person and Their Unmet Need You identified that Phelo, a 19-year-old matric candidate from a disadvantaged family, needs secure menstrual products she can afford because cheaper pads are insecure while expensive ones cause…

Read the full reflection by Oyintando Bobi
Anelisa Liwani

★ People, Roles and Capability Plan

Your Person and Their Unmet Need You've identified that Thandi, a 34-year-old mother in Delft, needs a better way to find trusted, affordable wellness solutions to manage her stress naturally because exhaustion from work…

Read the full reflection by Anelisa Liwani
JOHN MUNENE

★ Purpose, Mindset and Personal Charter

I joined HIP Dev because I want to explore marketing opportunities in African healthcare systems by creating customized, culturally relevant materials that help people understand healthcare products and make informed health choices. Through this…

Read the full reflection by JOHN MUNENE
Desire Diafouana

★ Project Foundation and Boundaries

Your Why You began your journey into skincare in 2017 when you saw firsthand how a skin-related problem affected someone close to you, and that experience opened your eyes to how many people struggle…

Read the full reflection by Desire Diafouana
Philisiwe Mcanda

★ Project Foundation and Boundaries

Your Why You are drawn to this work because you'll be bringing about change in your community and making hope visible. This matters to you personally. Behind it lies your conviction that skills development…

Read the full reflection by Philisiwe Mcanda
Veronica Baleni

★ Project Foundation and Boundaries

Your Why You are driven by the belief that your project will change people's lives through something easily accessed. What pulls you forward is the chance to help people suffering with skin conditions to…

Read the full reflection by Veronica Baleni
Nozama Gege

★ Project Foundation and Boundaries

Your Why You are driven by seeing too many people—especially teenagers and those with sensitive skin—struggle with harsh, reactive products and conditions like dry scalp or hairline loss. You want to build a culture…

Read the full reflection by Nozama Gege
Nobukho Mbalane

★ Project Foundation and Boundaries

Your Why You are driven by the desire to help people grow their hair and fight dandruff while restoring their natural hair. This matters to you personally because you see an opportunity to serve…

Read the full reflection by Nobukho Mbalane
Tshidi Mmotong

★ Purpose, Mindset and Personal Charter

I joined HIP Dev because I want to solve real-world problems by creating practical and sustainable solutions that improve people's lives, and I recognized I need to strengthen my innovative thinking to identify opportunities…

Read the full reflection by Tshidi Mmotong
ALEX LANGAT

★ Project Foundation and Boundaries

Your Why You have seen firsthand, through your work as a public health professional, how preventable diseases continue to affect children because of missed immunizations, delayed follow-up, and gaps in health information. During your…

Read the full reflection by ALEX LANGAT
Linus Moreka

★ Project Foundation and Boundaries

Your Why You have seen firsthand as a pharmacist how slow antibiotic decision-making in Kenyan hospitals directly worsens both antimicrobial resistance and patient outcomes. This observation drives what you are doing: you want to…

Read the full reflection by Linus Moreka
Lillian Mwinja

★ Purpose, Mindset and Personal Charter

I joined HIP Dev because I want to participate in innovation and creating products and services that help people, rather than staying only in the classroom. Through this Charter exercise, I recognized that I…

Read the full reflection by Lillian Mwinja

Program

A practical, mentor-guided path from idea to impact

Every participant follows the same core journey — UBU (developing the person), uSEED (developing skills), and UDo (developing the implementation) — while taking an individual pathway to their own destination.

Get Involved: There’s More Than One Way To Be Part Of This

Our first cohort is underway — follow their progress above. HIP runs on mentors, healthcare professionals, and partners as much as it does participants.

Mentor & Advise

Guide participants through product development, commercialization, and real-world problem solving. Learn more →

Partner

Support implementation, facilities, manufacturing, funding, distribution, and market access. Learn more →

Partnering with HIP is one way to partner with Communities of Africa — see everything CoA partners can do →

Schedule

July 29th Launch Topic: PoV

Orientation: Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Weekly sessions begin July 29, 2026 — exact time to be confirmed.