Chronicle Editor
Aleck Ncube
USING Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to stimulate economic change entails the transformation of knowledge into products and services, creating links between knowledge generation and business development. This is the most important challenge facing Zimbabwe and other African countries. The development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been an integral part of the development of all industrialised economies.
This holds true for Zimbabwe and Africa hence building these enterprises requires the development of pools of capital for investment; local operational repair, and maintenance expertise; and a regulatory environment that allows small businesses to flourish.
Having a range of Government policy structures is important and suitable for creating and sustaining SMEs — and these range from taxation regimes and market-based instruments to consumption policies and changes in the national system of innovation. Policymakers also need to ensure that educational systems provide adequate technical training. They need to support agribusiness and technology incubators, export-processing zones, and production networks, as well as sharpen the associated skills through building business skills for SMEs and undertaking entrepreneurial education campaigns. Banks and financial institutions also play key roles in fostering technological innovation by supporting investment in home grown domestic businesses. Unfortunately, their record in promoting technological innovation in Zimbabwe and much of Africa has been poor.
Capital markets have played a critical role in creating SMEs in other developed countries. Venture capitalists not only bring money to the table, they also help groom small and medium sized start-ups into successful enterprises. Venture capital in Africa, however, barely exists outside South Africa and needs to be introduced and nurtured. Much of the effort to promote venture capital in developing countries has been associated with public-sector initiatives whose overall impact is questionable. One of the possible explanations for the high rate of failure by SMEs is that many of these initiatives are not linked to larger strategies to create local innovation systems.
Venture capital is only one enabling tool in a complex innovation ecosystem. It does not exist in an institutional or geographical vacuum and appears to obey the same evolutionary laws as other aspects of innovation systems. It is therefore important to look at examples of geographical, technological, and market aspects of venture capital. The legal elements needed to create institutions are only a minor part of the challenge. One critical starting point is “knowledge prospecting”, which involves identifying existing technologies and using them to create new businesses. Zimbabwe and other African countries have thus far been too isolated to benefit from the global stock of technical knowledge. They need to make a concerted effort to leverage expertise among their nationals residing in other countries. Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole possesses a late comer advantage in adopting existing technology. This is an important step toward encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship.
The Zimbabwean diaspora can serve as link to existing know-how, establish links to global markets, train local workers to perform new tasks, and organise the production process to produce and market more knowledge-intensive, higher value-added industrial products. Advances in communications technologies and the advent of low cost high-speed Internet also reduces this isolation dramatically. The laying of new fiber-optic cables along the coasts of Africa and, potentially, the use of lower-latency satellite technology can significantly reduce the price of international connectivity and will enable Zimbabwean and African universities and research institutions to play new roles in stimulating economic and industrial development.
Much of the technological foundation needed to stimulate Zimbabwe’s economic development is based on ideas in the public domain (where property rights have expired). The challenge lies in finding ways to forge viable technology alliances. In this regard, Innovation Hubs as well as local intellectual property offices are important sources of information needed for laying the basis for technological innovation.
While most view intellectual property protection as a barrier to innovation, the challenges facing Zimbabwe and Africa lie more in the need to build the requisite human and institutional capability to use existing technologies. This is important as the government has realised that there is an urgent need for “universities for innovation” that will seek to foster the translation of research into commercial products, hence the establishment of Innovation Hubs in select universities.
Entrepreneurial Leadership
It is not enough for governments to simply reduce the cost of doing business. Fostering industrial renewal will require governments to function as active facilitators of technological learning. Government actions will need to reflect the entrepreneurial character of the business and industry community. They too will need to be entrepreneurial. Leadership will also need to be entrepreneurial in character. Moreover, addressing the challenge will require governments to adopt a mission-oriented approach, setting key targets and providing support to business and industry to help them meet quantifiable goals. A mission-oriented approach will require greater reliance on executive coordination of diverse departmental activities.
Fostering economic renewal and prosperity in Zimbabwe entails adjustments in the structure and functions of Government. More fundamentally, issues related to business, industry SMEs and innovation must be addressed in an integrated way at the highest possible levels in Government. There is therefore a need to strengthen the capacity of presidential offices to integrate science, technology, and innovation in all sustainable economic and industrial related aspects of governance.
Moreover, such offices will also need to play a greater role in fostering interactions between Government, business, academia, and civil society. This task requires champions. One of the key aspects of executive direction is the extent to which leaders are informed about the role of science and innovation in industrial development. Systematic advice on science and innovation must be included routinely in policymaking. Advisers must have access to credible scientific or technical information drawing from a diversity of sources, including scientific, business, civil society and academia.
The magnitude of the challenge for Zimbabwe is great that Innovation Hubs dedicated to agricultural science, technology, and innovation are being established to try and spearhead industrialisation in the country. Science, technology, and engineering diplomacy has become a critical aspect of international relations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a responsibility to promote international technology cooperation and to forge strategic alliances on issues related to sustainable economic development. To effectively carry out this task, foreign affairs ministries need to strengthen their internal capability in science and innovation diplomacy.
Promoting a growth-oriented agenda will entail adjustments in the structure and functions of government. More fundamentally, issues related to science, technology, and innovation will need to be addressed in an integrated way at the highest level possible in Government. Bringing science, technology, and engineering to the center of Zimbabwe’s economic renewal will require more than just political commitment, it will take executive leadership. Zimbabwe cannot afford to be left behind in race towards building an economy based on Science, Technology and Innovation.
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