Dr. Rajesh Panjabi (Last Mile Health) and Kola Masha (Babban Gona) recipients of the 2017 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world.

Kola Masha founded Babban Gona in 2010 to advance a comprehensive approach to smallholder agriculture, youth employment, and opportunity. He has been recognized for his practical vision and leadership, as well as his ability to build political and private sector support across state lines, parties, and religions in Nigeria.

Babban Gona is an investor-owned social enterprise serving networks of smallholder farmers with a model created specifically to attract youth.

Besides increasing each farmer’s yield and income to 2.3 times the national average, the Babban Gona franchise works to demonstrate that the smallholder segment is a viable model for investment and to attract massive new capital to the sector.

Last Mile Health partners with government to deploy, support, and manage networks of community health professionals and to integrate them into the public health system.

In 2007, Dr. Raj Panjabi founded Last Mile Health which expanded its vision and reach during the 2014 Ebola crisis, pushing the Liberian government to commit to a model of community health workers accessing even the most remote communities.

On the strength of this success, Last Mile Health is now supporting the Liberian Ministry of Health to implement the approach nationwide, preparing policy documents, training curricula, and impact measurement tools, and coordinating with NGO partners.