Innovation is a critical parameter for technological progress of a nation or a region. Countries, which have created an ecosystem conducive for innovation have moved up in technology ladder paving way for economic progress. Innovation need not require hallowed labs and string of institutions of excellence. It can germinate in the minds of ordinary folks. Yet, it requires a system that motivates people to innovate, help its application in diverse fields including manufacturing, agriculture and services sectors and importantly monetization of that new knowledge with due recognition of the innovator.
The recently concluded Africa Innovation Summit (AIS) in Kigali should be viewed from this perspective. These days innovation is synonymous with disruptive technologies. Such technologies, which do not require a linear or laid down approach can be broadly classified as disruption. A classic example is mobile telephony.
Africa needs many such tools, technologies which are adaptive to its local conditions. For instance, an educational tool or a stent to be used for a cardiac patient, or a computer or a tablet to be used by a student, developed elsewhere in the globe, particularly in the developed world, may not suit the pockets of most of the Africans. These technologies should be tailored for an average African. In the process, there should be a clear demarcation between piracy or reverse engineering, which are aberrations and crush the drive to innovate.
AIS is positioned as Africa’s only summit on innovation that seeks to foster dialogue between African innovators and stakeholders in government, private sector, civil society and academia to ensure African solutions. But the culture of innovation needs a strong apparatus and institution. A few countries like Rwanda has expressed its intention to launch a research and innovation fund to address the key needs of that country. More countries will have to emulate the same.
Such funds and institutional frameworks should not remain in papers. There should be follow up actions. Foremost is the creation of an institution or a registry for granting patents to innovators to protect their intellectual property rights (IPR). It is easier said than done. In some of the developing countries, such registrations take unduly long time. Then there is the need for building an innovative culture in the society. Tardy enforcement of IPR laws, naked violations of copyrights acts, presence of a grey market for spurious goods and products etc are bane of most of the developing world.
Kigali has set the stage for an African narrative for innovation. It amplified that innovation in itself is not an end in itself. That culture should embrace the whole gamut of the society and should empower all segments of industry. Every innovation should have a practical application for betterment of the people. That is the spirit of the Kigali declaration of the Innovation Summit.
