The view from below: ‘lock in’ and local procurement in the African gold mining sector

Through linkage creation, commodity extraction has the capacity to support local industrial production and capabilities building. Drawing on the experience of supplying inputs into the East African gold mining industry, this paper examines the constraints experienced by local suppliers arising from the purchasing procedures of large mining corporations and specialist construction companies contracted to construct these mines. Lead firms become locked-in to particular ways of working which minimise the opportunities that local suppliers have in providing products and services. After reviewing the situation for local mining suppliers in East Africa, the paper examines ways lead firms, the suppliers themselves and others (governments and industry associations) can better support local supplier involvement

Increasing knowledge flow by linking innovation and health – the case of SAAVI

Biotechnology and genomic innovation are seen as increasingly important for achieving public health goals in Africa. In particular, vaccines based on advances in genomic technology are deemed vital in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) provide a collaborative mechanism to ensure these vaccines are developed when the private sector lacks incentives to develop these products. These partnerships provide new mechanisms for transferring the knowledge required to ensure vaccine development occurs as quickly and efficiently as possible. One such vaccine partnership is the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI). This has been successful in ensuring 'value added' (benefit gained by taking part) is created for those involved particularly in the area of intangible value added determinants of collaboration and knowledge capacity. This paper outlines the results of a case study of SAAVI and argues that it provides evidence of a need to strengthen our understanding of the linkage between wider conceptual 'systems' of innovation and health. In particular, it espouses the usefulness of 'Systems of Innovation' thinking as a means to ensure that more specific focus is placed on process outputs such as collaboration and knowledge capacity. This will ensure that necessary knowledge flow is transferred between those working in the vaccine project for more efficient and effective operations. The research also raises questions about the possibility of such case studies highlighting areas of attention that need addressing if greater linkage is to occur between innovation and health at a wider health research policy level

Embedded Linkages Between Social Policies and Innovation policies

Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 2009This presentation was part of the session : Achieving National and Global GoalsThe paper builds on the idea that embedding social policies within innovation policies and vice versa is one of the main ways to put the might of academic research at the service of those at the bottom of the pyramid. The aim of the paper is to analyse systematically the problems that prevent research to fulfil the promise of modernity and progress for vast majorities of the world population and to propose ways to overcome such problems

Political economy of the Kenyan science granting council

Annex 2 of 9 for Case studies of the political economy of science granting councils in sub-Saharan AfricaThis study explores political and economic factors and contexts that influence the work of the science granting council organisations in Kenya to support research activities and the promotion of science, technology and innovation (STI) and investment in the country. The STI Act of 2013 set up three new organizational bodies that regulate, promote and support STI activities including research activities in Kenya. Kenya has some of the highest rates of R&D investment in sub-Saharan Africa with a rate of 0.79% of gross domestic product (GDP) for R&D intensity. However, research funding can still be dominated by party politics

Partnerships for vaccine development: building capacity to strengthen developing country health and innovation

Product Development Public-Private Partnerships (PDPs) are mechanisms used to incentivise health innovation for neglected diseases. PDPs undertaking clinical trial research in developing countries work – collaborate – at the interface of innovation and healthcare activities. Within the literature around innovation systems collaborative activity is deemed to build important organisational processes creating stronger institutions and enabling environments by increasing knowledge exchange. This process capacity building activity is recognised as important in some areas of the international development arena within which health related PDPs work. Using qualitative research methods this thesis studies the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) in Kenya to consider how partnership collaborative activity occurs, the interaction created between healthcare and innovation and, what capacity building results. This is an interdisciplinary study that mixes innovation systems thinking with an ethnographic/ anthropological rationale. The Kenyan IAVI partnership takes multiple forms. It is an ‘effective’ partnership acknowledging benefits gained within unequal power relations making it impossible to also be a ‘true’ partnership. The partnership has characteristics of an innovation system because actors are conduits of knowledge. Collaborative activity creates knowledge exchange producing ‘process capacity’. This less tangible, knowledge based, and organisational related capacity takes place within the partnership but is not overtly recognised as important. Focusing on process capacity highlights the linkages between innovation and healthcare activities. It also highlights the importance of considering AIDS vaccine research activities in a holistic, systemic manner. Understanding the partnership requires recognition of activities and multiple relations across time and space. The Kenyan IAVI partnership is not simply the result of international (macro) level discourse and storylines regarding the need to incentivise product development. Recognising this complexity moves beyond value laden notions of partnership towards understanding what is required to strengthen developing country health and innovation

Twenty-first century bioeconomy: global challenges of biological knowledge for health and agriculture

Investment in biotechnology has yielded relatively disappointing results and illustrates the gap between the promise and reality of new science. This begs the question: Does research on ‘life’ bring different complexities and uncertainties that act as a barrier to the application of new biology in global health and agriculture? There has been high-quality research on the social and ethical impacts of new biology and on the economics of biotechnology but few systematic and integrated attempts to undertake interdisciplinary research and address these constraints. This paper provides an original empirical analysis of contemporary and future understandings of the bioeconomy using a co-evolutionary and interactive approach to examine the extent to which it may be different from other technological transformations. We focus on the Innogen Centre’s extensive research results on three important and contemporary themes: food and energy security, life science and healthcare translational medicine, and global health

Case studies of the political economy of science granting councils in sub-Saharan Africa

Annexes catalogued separatelyThe Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI) aims to strengthen Science Granting Councils (SGCs) in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. SGCs sit in an intermediary space between the state and the research community, defining and executing a significant part of the state’s science policy. The report describes the approach and methodology used in the study; provides a regional review of the political economy of SGCs; gives an overview of the key themes emerging from the five country case studies; and discusses the main findings, issues, challenges and implications for the SGCI

Political economy of the Senegalese science granting council

Annex 4 of 9 for Case studies of the political economy of science granting councils in sub-Saharan AfricaResearch and Development (R&D) financing is almost 50% provided by foreign sources/donors and there is tension regarding the focus on research as opposed to teaching or innovation. This report centres largely on the R&D situation post 2013, following a thorough overview of the Senegalese scientific research and funding activities published in that year. Senegal’s government ministries work towards the achievement of developmental priorities set out by the National Strategy for Economic and Social Development (SNDES) 2013-2017. Despite a strong tradition of research in the country, universities in Senegal appear to prioritize teaching over research

Political economy of the Tanzanian science granting council

Annex 5 of 9 for Case studies of the political economy of science granting councils in sub-Saharan AfricaThis case study explores political and economic factors in Tanzania that support research activities and the promotion of science, technology and innovation (STI), with particular emphasis on the work of the National Fund for the Advancement of Science and Technology (NFAST) and the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH). NFAST is the Science Granting Council in Tanzania. While there have been efforts to streamline policy direction, recommendations include enhancing cooperation between sector ministries and the Ministry in charge of science and technology, and increasing efforts to advertise the impact of results from both private and public funding