Public health leader, Priscilla Banda, brings 30 years of experience, with a deep focus on protecting vulnerable populations. During the Sub-Saharan Africa SnakeHack, Priscilla shared key insights into the power of local leadership, community governance, and cross-sector collaboration in designing innovations that address the needs of affected communities.

Having worked for 30 years in the health sector, particularly the last 15 years focusing on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and AIDS, I am proud to be a judge for the Wellcome Snakebite Innovation Prize. My motivation stems from the urgent need to protect pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa who are at risk of snakebite while performing their day-to-day chores, agricultural activities, and accessing healthcare services. I am eager to explore how we can better support these women and prevent the devastating impact of snakebites on both mother and child, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where snakebite envenoming remains a neglected public health challenge of undeniable importance. In Zambia alone, between 2020 and 2025, 98,000 cases of snakebites were reported.

In Zambia, the health system faces several structural barriers that threaten implementation of innovation. What’s cardinal in the health sector is to ensure there’s a conducive environment for innovation. And that conducive environment is only provided when the public health leaders are willing to listen and prioritise the benefits for the community and not see it only from a policy perspective. In the case of snakebite envenoming, it is necessary for the leaders to realise the size and complexity of this issue and that it deserves far more attention than it has been given up until now from the national and regional health authorities.

The most important thing about any innovation is that it should align with the country's health priorities for the benefits to be appreciated. In turn, public health leaders need to understand why that innovation is important and valuable to help it succeed.

For solutions to succeed at the community level, innovators need to engage with community gatekeepers such as traditional healers, clergy, and family heads. Communities have survived snakebites for all these years. They have better knowledge of the risks of snakebites faced by pregnant women and the general community.

And it’s the gatekeepers who can be the most important supporters of innovation. Community-level engagement through its governance system is fundamental. The structure governs the community through established rules and guidelines, providing a foundation that supports innovation and its adoption. At the end of the day, gatekeepers in each community are just as important as the innovators bringing the innovations.

Community is key.

The majority of people–including myself and even those who have been working in areas supporting snakebite solutions–haven’t fully realised the extent of the gravity and impact of snakebites. Despite working in public health for 30 years, snakebite has always been something that seems implausible, and that has been neglected as part of the health systems strengthening interventions. But hearing the experience shared by one of the innovators in the SnakeHack, of the death of a pregnant woman by a snakebite whilst crossing a road in an urban setting, brings the importance of snakebite awareness and treatment to the top of the list of public health priorities. In this case, two lives were tragically lost.

What I take from this SnakeHack is the innovation itself of how this prize and this challenge were designed, and how they ensure that innovators are at the table talking with funders and other problem solvers.

My biggest reflection is that perhaps writing a proposal is not about sitting in a boardroom, but rather it is about bringing different networks into one room and bridging partnerships. A researcher will need connections with implementers, entrepreneurs, the Ministry of Health, and so on. So putting all these stakeholders who are working on solutions in a room is an innovation in itself that I'm happy and honoured to be part of.

What happens in Kenya happens in Zambia; what happens in Zambia happens in Nigeria. We need people to talk to each other because a solution that has worked in Kenya may be adapted and contextualised to work in Zambia. The peer discussions happening in this challenge are what we need for innovators to gain an understanding and bring about solutions that work at the community level and are community-led innovations.

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As Priscilla emphasised in our discussion, transforming snakebite care is not about developing solutions in isolation. She hopes entering teams will bring together community gatekeepers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and ministries of health. Her core guidance to innovators is that true impact begins at the local level, because when it comes to developing solutions for snakebite, "community is key".

If you have a solution that bridges local networks and strengthens health systems, apply to the Wellcome Snakebite Innovation Prize before 16 September 2026.