Africa Doesn’t Need More Hackathons. It Needs Follow-Through.

"You can’t fatten a cow by weighing it every day." — African proverb

Hackathons are the new hustle. Every other weekend, there’s a catchy flyer, free pizza, and promises of “disrupting health” in 72 hours.

And don’t get me wrong—hackathons are exciting. But in Africa’s digital health space, we’ve got more prototypes than progress. More awards than actual adoption.

It’s time to talk about it.

💻 The Hackathon High... and Crash

You know the drill:

1. Teams get 48 hours to “solve maternal mortality” 🍼

2. They pitch a slide deck with a QR code app for low-literacy rural mothers 📱

3. Judges nod. Cash prize. Applause.

4. The next weekend… repeat. 🚀

But what happens on Monday morning?

“We built a working prototype, but no one had money to keep hosting it.”
“The hospital said the tool was great—but didn’t have tablets.”
“Our team split. One guy moved to Canada.”

And just like that, another promising idea dies quietly.

🧠 The Real Problem: No Follow-Through

Africa doesn’t need more 48-hour “solutions.” It needs:

• Long-term mentorship 🧓🏽

• Seed capital beyond pitch prizes 💰

• Community-based pilots 🤝

• Policy support 📜

• Grit. Patience. Perseverance.

Innovation isn’t a sprint. It’s a season. Rain must fall, seeds must rot, and only then does harvest come.

📉 Case Study: The $10K That Changed... Nothing

In 2021, a pan-African hackathon awarded $10,000 to a diabetes-tracking app for rural clinics. But they had:

• No integration plan with public health systems

• No real understanding of rural clinician workflows

• No funding for data or devices

By 2022, the app’s domain had expired. The “winner” went back to freelancing in UI/UX.

That’s not innovation. That’s burnout disguised as glory.

✅ Case Study: When Follow-Through Works

Take Living Goods Kenya. They didn’t win hackathons. They built slowly—village by village. CHW by CHW. They piloted, failed, learned, iterated.

Today, their mobile tools support thousands of health workers and have improved child survival rates by over 25% in some areas (Living Goods, 2022).

🔗 https://livinggoods.org/

It took years, not weekends.

“You can’t dig a well with a teaspoon.”

🧭 So What Should We Be Doing Instead?

1. Fewer Hackathons. More Incubators.

Startups need sustained mentorship and funding over 6–12 months, not 6 hours of judging.

2. Fund Execution, Not Just Ideation

Support teams that already have traction. Give them funding to scale what’s already working.

3. Tie Hackathons to Real Systems

Make sure hackathon winners are plugged into:

• Ministries of Health

• Hospital systems

• CHW networks

• Existing electronic health record systems

Otherwise, you’re just building castles in the cloud.

4. Reward Implementation, Not Just Innovation

What if your grant only paid out after real patients used the solution? Or after it was deployed in 5 rural clinics?

Hard? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.

🧵 Quick List: What to Ask Before Hosting Your Next Hackathon

• Who will own this project on Day 8?

• Is there a budget for post-hackathon support?

• How will ideas be piloted and evaluated?

• Are community members involved in defining the problem?

If the answer is “no,” maybe skip the hackathon and fund an existing CHW tool instead.

💬 Final Word

“Even the best drum won’t sound if you don’t beat it.”

Innovation without follow-through is like a dry seed—it has potential, but no power.

Africa doesn’t need more idea factories. It needs execution ecosystems. Let’s build for longevity, not just likes.

Your weekend prototype could be tomorrow’s national solution—but only if you stay the course.

So yes, code. Pitch. Dream big. But on Monday, ask:
How will we make this real?

Would you like a follow-up post on how to turn a hackathon prototype into a funded product or top incubators that offer post-hackathon support in Africa?

Let’s move from PowerPoints to patients. One follow-through at a time. 💡🌍