Abstract

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, African manufacturing enterprises struggled to adjust to an environment characterized by heightened import competition and a withdrawal of many earlier forms of state support. One of the keys to dealing with this new competitive environment is the creation and/or strengthening of in-house innovative capacities, and the nurturing of linkages between firms and the local knowledge-producing infrastructure (universities, R&D institutes, engineering consultancy firms). While a number of exciting attempts to promote these sorts of linkages have emerged in other regions of the world, the situation is less encouraging in Africa.

This project will support research in four countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe) to investigate the feasibility of establishing one or more national "funds for innovation and development". Such funds would promote innovation in African enterprises by stimulating the development of networks for innovation among firms and between firms, and the local science and technology infrastructure. Research teams will survey the national "system of innovation" in each of the countries and outline strategies for management and financing of a potential fund. The project will culminate in a meeting with local and foreign donors to discuss the possibility of launching the idea on a pilot basis in one or more countries.

Post-Project Summary

All four country teams completed their feasibility studies and draft business plans, and presented them for discussion at a workshop in Zimbabwe in October 1996. All four reports proposed a roughly similar structure and set of operations, albeit with varying target groups in terms of sub-sectors and firm size. In particular, they suggested the need for a new, independent nongovernmental organization - to be known as the Centre for Innovation and Enterprise Development - which would focus in particular on diagnostic work to help firms better understand their competitive situation and problems. Based on this, the centres would help the firms develop a proposal for improvement, identify partners to support the proposed improvements and in some cases provide funding on a matching-grant basis. Some progress was made during the project in identifying sources of future funding, notably, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through its Enterprise Africa program. Also, two of the project leaders traveled to North America in June 1997 for meetings with Canadian and American donors, and made a presentation on the project to the Global Knowledge conference in Toronto. Based on the reports, a decision was made to proceed with further IDRC support for a meeting and training course on company diagnostics, and pilot testing of the Centre for Innovation and Enterprise Development concept in Ghana and Zimbabwe, funded under project 003788.

Recipient Institution(s)