Innovation under the Radar: The Nature and Sources of Innovation in Africa

"Innovation is a major driver of long-term economic growth (Romer, 1990, 1992; Aghion and Howitt, 2009; Lundvall, 2016) and sustainable development (UN, 2015). As extensively documented in Fagerberg et al. (2010), two factors have been identified as critical factors in the endogenous economic growth models: adoption of technologies developed elsewhere and indigenous innovative capacity. While science, technology and innovation have received increasing attention in academic research and policy making, most of the research in this area has been carried out in the context of the developed countries. Our understanding about the determinants and the impact of innovations are therefore obtained in the context of the developed countries. The nature, the source, and the role of innovations in developing countries, especially in low (including both low and lower-middle) income countries, which have Africa, are largely overlooked. The levels of economic, technical and institutional development in these countries are significantly lower than those of developed countries. Therefore, our knowledge about innovation in developed countries may not be appropriate for innovation, if any, in low-income countries. Reasons underlining this "overlook" are not only the lack of data and attention, but also doubts which question whether firms and societies in these economies are innovative, and whether innovation is a rich-countries-only business and is therefore not relevant for low income countries."