Best of Global South World: Changemakers of 2024

As 2024 draws to a close, we hope to bring you more coverage from the Global South in 2025.

Here are the Global South World changemakers of 2024:

Shamsuddeen Jibril, Nigeria

At just 24 with nearly seven years of experience, Shamsuddeen Jibril has already gained some traction in the Nigerian robotics field.

Driven by a desire to make a tangible impact in his community, Shamsuddeen founded Vora Robotics, a tech startup specialising in the development of drones designed specifically for agricultural purposes.

An aerospace engineer graduate from the Airforce Institute of Technology in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, Shamsuddeen is determined to go beyond creating drones for the sake of it. His vision is to develop technology that addresses real-world problems within his community. Read more

Prefer, Singapore

With climate change threatening to wipe out about 50% of the world’s coffee farms in less than 30 years, former neuroscience major Jake Berber, together with his co-founder and food scientist, Ding Jie Tan, founded Prefer, a bean-free coffee company based in Singapore.

They introduced Asia’s first bean-free coffee in 2022, a product that has become the leading alternative to traditional coffee on the market. Read more

Inty Grønneberg, Ecuador

As well as being a scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, Inty Grønneberg is also an activist. His success lies in the combination of these roles.

For the Ecuadorian scientist, who was recognised as Latin America's Inventor of the Year in 2018, the world has become accustomed to some problems that should not be considered "normal." Plastic pollution is one of them.

To combat this issue, Inty Grønneberg has founded a startup called Ichthion and developed Azure, a technology that extracts plastic from rivers and collects data to better understand where it comes from. Read more

Katleho Mojakisane, Lesotho

In the heart of Lesotho, Katleho Mojakisane’s journey began with a personal tragedy. A traumatic robbery involving her family left a lasting mark, driving her to make a difference in her community.

Out of this painful experience, her organisation, Youth on the Rise, was born, aimed at addressing the root causes of crime and socioeconomic challenges young people face in Lesotho. Read more

Anusha Alamgir, Bangladesh

In a world where a woman’s body and appearance are widely judged by societal and cultural standards, a young Bangladeshi artist has emerged with a creative way of changing the narrative.

Anusha Alamgir fuses creativity and innovation into various forms of art, including architecture, painting, and film, to develop pieces that address public perceptions of women and their bodies. Read more

Alex Mativo, Kenya

Alex Mativo’s name is quickly becoming synonymous with innovation in Africa’s business scene. With his company, Duck, he’s setting new standards for how businesses use data to drive growth and efficiency.

Starting with eLab, Mativo focused on reducing waste and showcasing how creative approaches can generate new income opportunities. Building on this experience, he founded Nanasi shortly after completing university.

Nanasi was designed to address the need for digital tools to manage inventory and payments. Initially serving restaurants, the app quickly expanded to a wider range of small and medium-sized enterprises. Read more

Coffee Resurrect, Ethiopia

Only about 30% of a coffee bean's mass can be extracted into the coffee we drink, leaving a larger fraction as spent coffee grounds.

Coffee Resurrect, an Ethiopian startup founded in 2021, repurposes unwanted coffee grounds into sustainable, high-quality products. As Africa's first coffee biorefinery, Coffee Resurrect creates all-natural ingredients for personal care, nutraceuticals, and food products. Read more

Yapaykuy, Peru

Customer service is something people often complain about, but have you ever considered the challenges faced by people with disabilities or speakers of indigenous languages when seeking help in public facilities?

Yapaykuy—a certification company in Peru founded by Jorge Rojas Barnett, an engineer, entrepreneur, and advocate for accessible innovation—is on a mission to transform businesses into inclusive spaces. Read more

Beba-Beggie, Kenya

From a horrific robbery experience, a genius idea—the first of its kind on the African continent—was born: smart lockers that provide secure storage solutions for commuters.

The product was designed by Kenyan entrepreneur Charles Oduk after he lost his laptop during a rush-hour commute in 2013.

Determined to enhance safety for people facing similar threats, the CEO of Beba-Beggie developed an IoT automated technology solution to safeguard valuables in urban areas within Kenya’s capital. Read more

Plenti, Colombia

A Colombian engineer, Martín Peláez, quit his job at Tesla to develop an app that helps people safeguard their savings using blockchain technology.

In 2023, Peláez was one of the Latin American innovators under 35 included in the MIT list. Three years ago, his native Colombia was grappling with the devaluation of the peso and political uncertainty.

Peláez, along with two associates, started building a prototype. A few months later, the team launched Plenti, a digital wallet that uses blockchain technology. The app allows Colombian users to open a bank account in US dollars and facilitates transactions with the United States. Read more

Prof. Abdoulaye Diabaté, Burkina Faso

Through Gene Drive Technology, a lead investigator of Target Malaria in Burkina Faso, Prof. Abdoulaye Diabaté, and his team of researchers have identified potential methods to genetically modify mosquitoes. 

This will alter their fertility and render them resistant to the Plasmodium parasites responsible for malaria. Read more

Yessi Nur Mulianawati, Indonesia

You could call her a born artist! As a child, Yessi Nur Mulianawati would scribble and colour anything and everything using crayons, as long as there was a blank spot.

Soon, what began as a childhood hobby became a passion, and at age 10, she was selected by her art teacher to represent the school at an art competition.

Through the years, street art became a means for Yessi to inspire change. She would not just splash and spray on walls but tell stories with her art. Read more

Football Without Borders, Kenya

Nestled in the heart of Kisii, a municipality in southwestern Kenya, Football Without Borders Kenya (FWBK), a non-profit organisation, is significantly impacting underprivileged children through sports-based programmes.

The organisation aims to foster a sense of community among children while imparting valuable skills that empower them to support themselves and contribute to their communities. Read more

Minagie Energy, Ghana

Minagie Energy is addressing a critical issue: At present, 600 million people, or 43% of the total population, lack access to electricity, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Co-founded by Johannes Amo Aye, who felt the impact of energy poverty firsthand growing up in Ghana. The company wants to use wind turbines to lower costs and support local economies. Read more

José Molina, Colombia

Colombian influencer José Molina has been sweeping the streets of Bogotá for seven years. From Monday to Saturday, he sets his alarm for 4 am to clean up the rubbish that citizens throw on the streets of Colombia’s capital. On his social media platforms, Molina showcases the waste he finds to raise awareness about litter pollution and its environmental impact. Read more

LenoKids, South Africa

LenoKids, a WhatsApp Chatbot learning platform, is an early childhood education start-up powered by South African students in partnership with the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa.

The project was born out of the 2022 MTN Digital Innovation Programme, which looked to provide solutions to some of the social problems in health, education, and agriculture.

It was on their journey to solve some educational sector problems that co-founder Sange Mafinyongwana and his team discovered an alarming statistic: "81% of fourth graders in South Africa could not read for meaning." Read more

Owanga Solar, DR Congo

Recent law school graduates Benedict Owanga and Chinelo Adi are leading a project that could transform lives across the continent.

Owanga Solar, founded by the two friends, is redefining access to electricity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, plagued by inconsistent power.

During his second year at law school, a power outage during a crucial training session led Owanga to consider the broader implications of unreliable electricity. Read more

Henry Senyegbe Agbemabiese, Ghana

At 6 years old, Henry Senyegbe Agbemabiese's life changed dramatically when he suffered burns in a fire accident.

Now aged 19, Henry used this traumatic event as inspiration to create technologies aimed at helping others with disabilities—developing assistive devices for the visually impaired. Read more