Duniya Healthcare, a Zambian startup revolutionizing pharmaceutical logistics, has been named the global winner in the Health and Wellbeing category at the prestigious World Summit Awards (WSA) held in Hyderabad, India.
The World Summit Awards is a global initiative under the United Nations framework that recognizes digital innovations making a meaningful impact toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Established in 2003 as part of the UN World Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva, the WSA champions the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to bridge the digital divide and improve lives worldwide.
Duniya Healthcare emerged as the 2025 WSA Global Champion in Health and Wellbeing, triumphing over strong contenders from Australia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. The WSA selection process is rigorous and multi-staged: national experts from 182 UN Member States nominate their country’s most impactful digital innovations. These are reviewed by a global online jury of 160 professionals, who then forward the top projects to a grand jury of 22 international experts. From there, 40 winners are selected across various categories to pitch for the Global Champion titles at the WSA Global Congress.
This marks the first time in WSA’s 20-year history that a Zambian innovation has broken into the WSA Global Top 40—and the first to take home the top prize as Global Champion in its category. Even more significantly, Duniya is the only African company to receive a Global Champion Award at this year’s event.
“We are incredibly honored by this recognition and proud to showcase Zambian innovation on the global stage,” said Mwansa Chalo, Founder and CEO of Duniya Healthcare. “Our mission has always been clear—no African should die due to lack of access to essential medicines. This award affirms the work our team has put into transforming pharmaceutical supply chains across the continent.”
Duniya Healthcare operates as a tech-enabled marketplace, linking health facilities and retail pharmacies to pharmaceutical wholesalers and suppliers. In 2024, the company signed a landmark agreement with the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) and the Africa Health and Economic Transformation Institute (AHETI) to digitize procurement and streamline medicine distribution to mission hospitals in rural Zambia. This partnership has already resulted in cost savings of over 37% in medicines and logistics for participating health facilities.
With this global victory, Duniya Healthcare has placed Zambia firmly on the innovation map and has proven that African-led solutions can compete — and win — on the world stage.
