Found at: http://www.competitiveness.org/article/articleprint/177/-1/76/

Regional conference: Innovation systems and innovative clusters in Africa

As a follow up of the TCI Conference on Innovative Clusters held in Gothenburg in September 2003, the three collaborating engineering faculties/college at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania (UDSM), Makerere University in Uganda and Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique organized a Regional Conference on Innovation Systems and Innovation Clusters in Eastern Africa, under the sponsorship of Sida/SAREC of Sweden.

The 3 days conference (18-20 Februray 2004) was held in Bagamoyo, 70 kilometers north of the capital Dar-es-Salaam. It was hosted by Prospective College of Engineering and Technology of UDSM.

Bagamayo

Almost 130 participants from three different countries attended the conference, amongst them the academia and R&D institutions, the industry, policy bodies, NGOs and regulatory bodies. In addition to resource persons, some representatives of regional and international organisations as well as development partners participated.

The primary objectives of the conference were:

• to develop awareness among African participants about concepts of innovation systems and innovative clusters
• to appreciate the state-of-the-art of innovation systems and innovative clusters and their effectiveness in stimulating industrial and socio-economic development in Africa
• to allow the participants to brainstorm on possible measures to speed up industrial and economic growth in Africa.

It was a fact-finding conference with the following specific objectives:

• to introduce concepts of innovation systems to participants
• to review the status of innovative clusters in Africa, with particular reference to Eastern Africa
• to identify key actors and support institutions and the nature of interaction between them
• to identify important policy directions and management interventions required for building capacities for the promotion and management of innovative clusters in Africa
• to discern the role of universities and other knowledge generating institutions in this process
• to come up with an action plan on the way ahead.

The first part of the conference consisted of presentations and related discussions on innovation systems and innovative clusters, while the second part left more space for interaction. A draft of observations and recommendations was distributed among the participants as well as presented orally followed by an intense plenary discussion. A number of participants contributed with statements and comments about their understanding of clusters and innovation systems.

Here some statements of this discussion:

• "The university Government industry linkages have been very much emphasized. We need to clearly define the roles of the various institutions."
• "There are big barriers between university research and industry research."
• "Exactly what has to be done to bring in clusters?"
• "Incubators might be the solution in certain situations and not a cluster."
• "We have to reorient our innovation systems to solve Africa's problem from a social and economic point of view."
• "We need to clarify the concept of cluster, innovative clusters in our context here."
• "We need a goal why we should develop these clusters.... A lot of innovations are not taken place in agriculture sector."

One of the important outcomes of the Conference is an the Action Plan towards promoting the development of innovation systems and innovative clusters to speed up industrial and economic growth in Africa. The Action Plan will include, among other things:

• Programme(s) for action/implementation and a time frame for the same
• Areas for further research
• Roles of key actors
• a Schedule for a follow-up forum.

The basic data for the Action Plan was created during the conference in different workgroups on Cluster & Innovation Systems, on the University - Industry Linkage, on Innovation Policies, on Support Organizations and on SME Upgrading Innovations. A detailed Action Plan as well as Conference Proceedings are in progress and will be made available to all participants and other interested parties soon.

My conclusion is that the conference facilitated the sharing of experiences, understandings and visions within African contexts and fulfilled the most fundamental objective of the conference. The conference also facilitated creation of more awareness among the various actors, about issues related to innovation systems and innovative clusters, and management thereof.

Erik von Bahr
evonbahr @ competitiveness.org


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Mr. Von Bahr is a consultant at Swedens Innovation centre Vinnova and is special advisor to TCI's Executive Committee.