This document has not been edited.
Second Session of the Committee on
Development Information, Science and Technology (CODIST-II) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2-5 May 2011
INNOVATION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS:
THE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE
Jacinta Were
Deputy University Librarian University of Nairobi, Kenya UNITED NATIONS
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
Distr.: GENERAL
E/ECA/CODIST/2/26 27 April 2011
Original: ENGLISH ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA
This document has not been edited.
ABSTRACT
Many organizations are moving away from hierarchical structures to more fluid management set ups to achieve quick solutions to problems. Networks are proving to be very quick and effective method of sharing knowledge to facilitate innovative thinking among African labour force. They are smarter and faster than hierarchies. Development of knowledge networks can accelerate development process in Africa through enabling the sharing of indigenous knowledge and rich culture that exists in Africa. This paper explores the potential of knowledge networks and how they can contribute to innovative development.
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I. Introduction
1. To speed up development, Africa needs to open up to itself and to the world. The continent has to accelerate the process of sharing its rich knowledge and culture within the region and the world. Innovation is key to development process but it needs knowledge to prosper. Africa has to put strategies in place to encourage innovations at all levels based on the existing knowledge. The time has come when the continent should move away from drawing and using knowledge from developed nations and search itself for what it is worth.
2. The world is opening up and moving towards open access (free sharing of knowledge).
Unfortunately, Africa is still closed up. Universities that generate most of the research information are still operating on outdated policies of closed access. A lot of useful publications like Thesis, dissertations, and other research reports are under closed access and in manual form making access impossible. Local researchers find it difficult to access local content most needed to enrich research activities.
3. Many policies in Africa continue to suppress potential innovators at all levels. It is a pity that traditional skills in Africa that were passed on from generation to generation are dying away under the umbrella of “un-researched work”. Whereas young artists in developed world have the opportunity to develop their skills, their counterparts in Africa have no platform to do so. Instead their knowledge is suppressed and subjected to scrutiny based on outdated policies. These policies and practices have greatly contributed to the slow development process in Africa.
II. The Role of Innovation in development: an Overview
4. In his remarks to the World Summit on Information Society, UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan1 called for “an information society in which human capacity is expanded, built up, nourished and liberated, by giving all people access to the tools and technologies they need and with the training they need to use them effectively”. He lauded the role of innovations in economic development.
5. According to Alexander Gerschenkron (Gerschenkron 1962) latecomers in economic development should be able to grow more rapidly on borrowed technology from early starters.
Japan’s rapid growth seems to have gone down this path. But a nation still needs innovative thinking to prosper on borrowed technology.
6. Innovations play a critical role in development process of any nation. Africa’s indigenous knowledge is a goldmine that remains untapped. If fully exploited, this knowledge can greatly
1 Annan, K. (2005). Statement by H.E. Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN at the World Summit on the Information Society, Tunisia, November 16th, 2005.
enhance innovation and uplift the welfare of the continent. Unfortunately, the continent lacks effective systems to facilitate the sharing of knowledge for creative thinking.
7. Africa needs appropriate technology to speed up development. It needs technology that facilitates operations within the existing knowledge and culture. People are more innovative if given the opportunity to operate within the environment they are used to.
8. Dave Tait, in his tips on innovation in Africa2, encourages the continent to use appropriate technology that can accommodate the African culture and knowledge.
(a) Innovation often comes from constraint -(If you’ve got very few resources, you’re forced to be very creative in using and re-using them);
(b) Don’t fight culture - (If people cook by stirring their stews, they’re not going to use a solar oven, no matter what you do to market it. Make them a better stove instead);
(c ) Embrace market mechanisms - (Giving stuff away rarely works as well as selling it);
(d) Innovate on existing platform - (we’ve got bicycles and mobile phones in Africa, plus lots of metal to weld. Innovate using that stuff, rather than bringing in completely new tech);
(e) Problems are not always obvious from afar - (you really have to live for a while in a society where no one has currency larger than a $ 1 Bill to understand the importance of money via mobile phones);
(f) What you have matters more than what you lack - (If you have a bicycle, consider what you can build based on that, rather than worrying about not having a car, a truck, a metal shop);
(g) Infrastructure can beget infrastructure - (By building mobile phone infrastructure, we may be building power infrastructure for Africa).
9. In his inaugural lecture, Professor Khadiagala3 laments the “dearth of autonomous ideas that can furnish direction to Africa’s international relations”. He attributes this shortage of ideas, partly, to “the absence of solid intellectual leadership around Africa”. Strategies should be put in place to encourage creative thinking that will enhance innovative development in Africa.
III. Knowledge Management (KM) in Africa
2 Tait, D (2008), Innovation in Africa tips, Design Africa Blog – http://designAfrica.wordpress.com/2008.
3 Khadiagala, G. Ideas in African International Relations (Inaugural Lecture), University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, June 8th 2010.
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10. Knowledge is the essence of innovation. Attention must be paid to managing knowledge effectively to facilitate innovative thinking. Most important is the art of sharing this knowledge and making it accessible to potential innovators.
11. There is however, no clear agreement on what constitutes knowledge. Different scholars have come up with different theories to explain knowledge. The famous Greek Philosopher, Plato, defined knowledge as “justified true belief” while Wikipedia defines Knowledge as “a detailed familiarity with, or understanding of, a person, thing or situation.”
12. Knowledge is viewed in different contexts and classified in different categories by different scholars. “Tacit” Knowledge, Knowledge contained in individual heads, is viewed by many as the most valuable knowledge in an organization. Africa’s Tacit Knowledge remains untapped. There is need to establish mechanisms that can tap on tacit knowledge to enhance innovation at all levels. Similarly there is no universal definition of Knowledge Management.
According to Wikipedia “Knowledge Management comprises of a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences.”
13. Marcus4 makes it more practical by defining KM as “knowing how to deliver knowledge to those who can use it most effectively to meet specific objectives”. This is what is lacking in Africa since the continent is yet to establish strategies of managing its rich indigenous knowledge effectively to impact on development. In 2006, Justin Chisenga5 noted that “Access to appropriate Scientific and technological information and knowledge at the right time could play a critical role in the development of the continent”. African Research output is not visible to both national and international researchers. University Libraries in Africa continue to house thousands of Ph.D and Masters research output in the form of Theses, Dissertations and Research Projects that remain unexploited because of poor retrieval methods. In addition, these Libraries house lots of unpublished intellectual output in the form of reports, conference/seminar papers and the like. It is difficult to access this information.
14. Africa should pay serious attention to digitization of local content to make it more manageable and visible to researchers. Open access prospers on digitized information. Academic and research institutions should be facilitated to develop digital open access repositories to enhance sharing of information on a large scale.
IV. Knowledge Network Initiatives in Africa
4 Marcus, B.W. Marcus Letter on professional service.
http://www.marcusletter.com/knowledge/definition.htm
5 Chisenga, J. The development and use of digital libraries, Institutional Repositories, 2006.
15. Knowledge Networks facilitate free sharing of knowledge among members. They are, in a way, similar to open access models. If well designed, knowledge networks can enable members to share information freely to support research and develop innovative skills.
16. Development of Knowledge Networks in Africa can create the appropriate platforms needed to channel information freely to the grassroots to increase productivity and improve the livelihood of the rural-based communities. A greater part of the African population is rural based. It is therefore critical that the continent establishes affordable mechanisms of channeling information to the rural areas to facilitate innovative ideas that will accelerate development.
17. Participants of the workshop on Civil Society organized by Trust Africa and ISTR in Istanbul (July 6-8th 2010) underscored the importance of Knowledge Networks in influencing the course and contours of Africa scholarships on Civil Society. Many agreed that networking is necessary to create powerful networked knowledge in Africa. However, developments in networking in Africa are evident from the efforts on the ground.
V. Mobile Phones Technology
18. Mobile phones are taking Africa by storm. The continent currently is the fastest growing mobile market (GSM) in the world. The technology is perhaps the most successful networking in Africa at the moment. The demand for mobile phones is rapidly increasing and is evidently playing a major role in the rural based development process. Research has shown that in
‘typical’ rural Districts of Africa, up to 80% of households make regular use of mobile phones6. Figure-1 below (millions) shows the rate of growth in mobile phones in Africa in comparison to other regions. As indicated in the table below, growth of mobile phones in Africa is much faster than in other regions.
Figure-1: Regional breakdown of GSM Subscriber forecast
Country Dec-03 Dec-09 Growth (%)
Africa 49.1 163.0 231.97
South America 122.5 250.8 104.73
Asia Pacific 543.2 1083.1 99.39
Eastern Europe 108.9 206.0 89.16
Western Europe 353.8 432.4 22.2
Middle East 27.4 71.1 159.48
USA/Canada 172.6 245.6 47.50
TOTAL 1377.5 2452.0 78%
6 McKemey et al. Innovative demand models for telecommunications services, 2003. DFID www.teleafrica.org .
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Source: EMS World Cellular Database (6APRl04).
GSM Association (http://www.gsmworld.com/news/statistics/pdf/mar04.pdf).
19. A recent research by Telecom and Media has put the figure of mobile subscribers in Africa at about half-a-billion by third quarter of 2010. The annual increase is put at 65%.
20. Mobile phones are providing an excellent platform for accessing information and sharing the same to accelerate economic growth in both urban and rural areas. In the near future it will be possible to access any information database through the mobile form, hence, bringing the world to Africa. Such Services are already available through Library and are facilitated by the new generation of Integrated Library management Systems.
VI. Consortium Building
21. The concept of consortium building among libraries is taking African Research to a different level. “Libraries budget cuts” are becoming a thing of the past. African libraries now have access to vast amount of e-resources through collaborative efforts. They are able to share that exorbitant cost of accessing electronic resources for research. While researchers get access to valuable information, the collaborative effort has resulted in unbelievable savings for the parent institutions.
22. In East Africa, the networking of the libraries is facilitating access to over 40,000 peer reviewed electronic journals and about 50,000 electronic books. This success is achieved through 3 consortia in the East African region.
23. COTUL: The Consortium of Tanzania Universities and Research Libraries (COTUL) serves Tanzanian researchers. The objective of COTUL is “to foster improvement of academic, research and public libraries in member institutions by promoting co-operative collection development and access to local and World-wide information resources” (COTUL website-April 2011).
24. CUUL: Ugandan researchers are served by the Consortium of Uganda University Libraries (CUUL). The objective of CUUL is “to cooperate in continually improving the availability and delivery of library and information services to the higher education community in Uganda and peripheral research communities” (CUUL website-April 2011).
25. KLISC: The most successful library consortium in East Africa is the Kenya Libraries and Information Services Consortium (KLISC) established in 2004 and currently has 74 institutional members. KLISC is an excellent example of the power of networking. The main objective of KLISC is to share information among members and share the cost of accessing quality information to support academic and research programmes in universities and research
institutions. Dave Tait’s theory of “Innovation often comes from constraint”7 is evident in the achievements of KLISC. Constraint facilitated innovative thinking among members of KLISC resulting in a success story in the region. There also other strong and successful library consortia in many African countries with the same objectives.
26. Educational network initiatives are mushrooming in many countries in Africa to promote and support education. These networks have enhanced education by providing ICT infrastructure and a platform for students to develop innovative minds. Such a network is the Kenya Educational Network (KENET) whose main objective is “to drive the integration of ICT in research and learning through quality, cost effective and efficient provision of ICT services and to be a key partner in the development of the ICT society” (KENET website – April 11th 2011).
VII. Recommendations
27. Africa has potential for innovative development. African Nations should pay attention to strategies that will facilitate innovative thinking among young artists. Development of knowledge networks should be encouraged to provide fast and effective platforms for sharing of knowledge for innovative development. The following issues should be given serious consideration:
(a) Knowledge is the essence of innovation; Strategies should be put in place to facilitate effective management of indigenous knowledge in Africa to increase its visibility;
(b) Academic and Research institutions in Africa should be facilitated to develop digital repositories to enhance sharing of information;
(c ) Academic and Research institutions should review their policies to facilitate free and open sharing of their intellectual output;
(d) African Nations should provide enabling environment for innovative development by reviewing policies to accommodate creative thinking;
(e) African Governments should put strategies in place to encourage and develop knowledge networks to facilitate sharing of information at all levels.
7 Tait, D (2008), Innovation in Africa tips, Design Africa Blog – http://designAfrica.wordpress.com/2008.
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REFERENCES
1. Ahmed, Allan, et. Al. Knowledge Management as an enabler of change and innovation in Africa. International Journal of Technology Management, vol. 45 issue 1-2, 2009.
2. Annan, K. (2005). Statement by H.E. Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN at the World Summit on the Information Society, Tunisia, November 16th, 2005.
3. Chisenga, J. The development and use of digital libraries, Institutional Repositories, 2006.
4. Khadiagala, G. Ideas in African International Relations (Inaugural Lecture), University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, June 8, 2010.
5. Marcus, B.W. Marcus Letter on professional Service.
http://www.marcusletter.com/knowledge/definition.htm accessed April 7, 2011.
6. McKemey et al. Innovative demand models for telecommunications services, 2003.
DFID. www.teleafrica.org accessed April 8, 2011.
7. Tait, D (2008), Innovation in Africa tips, Design Africa Blog http://designAfrica.wordpress.com/2008 accessed April 8, 2011.
8. Zhen, Lu; et al. Distributed Knowledge Sharing for Collaborative Product Development.
International Journal of Production Research, vol. 49 issue 10, May 2011.
