A Self Help Africa social enterprise subsidiary has been shortlisted for a global award for innovation.

Trading platform TruTrade is amongst the projects and ideas that have been selected for the 2019 finals of the prestigious Index Project Awards, staged in  Denmark since 2005 to celebrate designs that improve life.

TruTrade will join over 40 finalists at a presentation ceremony in Copenhagen, in September.  Winners in each of the five main categories will receive a cash prize worth €100,000.

TruTrade has been shortlisted from more than 1,800 nominated contenders across 90 countries. It joins designers of devices that clean oil spills, reduce food waste, and that can harness energy from kites, as well as the developers of a new alphabet to aid the visually impaired, and the creators of a safety suit for fishermen, in the finals.

“We teach, award and invest in people using design to change the world – what we call design to improve life,” explain the award organisers.

TruTrade’s innovation has transformed how the middleman works in African trade. The organisation is enabling farmers to sell secure markets at an agreed price while their crops are still in the ground, and receive payment by mobile money transfer once they have delivered their goods.

The system has provided transparency and security for small-holder producers, and has allowed them to avoid exploitation by dealers and middlemen.

Late last year, TruTrade received an award for ‘Innovation in Development’ from the Irish NGO association, Dóchas.

TruTrade is amongst the short-listed projects in the Index Award ‘Work’ Category.   More information about the awards is available here: www.theindexproject.org