Social Innovation:
An Untapped Resource for Inclusive Growth in Africa

African Technology Policy Studies Network
Technopolicy Brief No. 43ByKevin Chika Urama1 and Ernest Acheampong2
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Executive Director, African Technology Policy Studies Network
Research Officer, African Technology Policy Studies Network3XEOLVKHGE\WKH$IULFDQ7HFKQRORJ\3ROLF\6WXGLHV1HWZRUN,6%1

Introduction
Our planet earth is facing a convergence of crisis: climate change induced extreme events, global
financial crisis, deepening poverty and unemployment, energy and food insecurity, socialinequities and political instability, and fast depleting natural assets. These exacerbate thechallenge of sustainable development at all scales.
Addressing these complex challenges requires unprecedented systemic transformations inknowledge, technologies and innovation at all levels to deliver required innovations that address
the needs of the masses at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) 1. Innovation has become a ubiquitous
buzzword meaning different things to different people, from the smart phone in the pocket to a
new financial service for the poor. Whichever way it is defined, “innovation succeeds only whenit creates new pathways for solving entrenched social problems, resulting in lastingtransformation of the systems that most affect vulnerable populations and leave stronger socialrelations in their wake” 2During the past decade, social innovation has witnessed a phenomenal surge, in all countries
including Africa. New initiatives such as President Obama’s Social Innovation Fund in 2009 3,
the European Commission’s European Social Agenda4; the United Kingdom’s policy on the Big
Society5, were all designed to find and up-scale the best social innovations for development.
Recent studies and field experiences show that social innovations lead to prosperous societies 6,
and constitute good local development policies 7
Globally, social innovation is addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges
confronting society today – from fair trade, agribusiness, distance learning, mobile moneytransfer, youth employment8, and waste reduction, to restorative justice and zero-carbon housing,and resilience capacity building 9. It is a new wave in innovation studies and practices that is
profoundly changing beliefs, basic practices, resource flows and power relations within societies,
and strengthening resilience, cooperation and collaboration amongst diverse stakeholders. Social
innovation has unleashed a complete re-thinking of the meaning and practice of social
enterprises, business engagement and philanthropy, and recognizes the interconnectedness ofvarious factors and stakeholders within innovation systems.
2. The African Experience
In Africa, considerable advances in social and economic growth were recorded over the past
decade, irrespective of the massive downturn in the global economy during the period. Africa
maintained an average annual growth rate of 5.5% between 2005 and 2008. This declined to 2.4%
in 2009 due mainly to the global economic recession, but unlike most continents, Africa made a
1Hultman, N.E. and Shapiro, A. (2012).Green growth innovation in developing countries. The Brookings Institution,
Washington D.C., USA
2Rodin, J. (2013). Innovations for the Next 100 years. In Unleashing Breakthrough Innovation in Government. Stanford
Social Innovation review, Vol. 11, No. 3, p.2.
3
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/sicp/initiatives/social-innovation-fund4
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=737
5
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2336913/David-Cameron-relaunches-Big-Society-250m-fund-let-locals-rescuebars-shops-swimming-pools.html
6 Urama, K. C., and Acheampong, E (2013): Social innovation Creates Prosperous Societies, In: Unleashing BreakthroughInnovation in Government. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Volume 11, No. 2, Summer 2013, pp. 9 - 11.
7 Moseley M. J., Cherrett, T. and Cawley, M. (2001) Local partnerships for rural development: Ireland’s experience incontext. Irish Geography , Volume 34(2), pp 176-193
8 Gupta. A. K. (2013). Tapping the entrepreneurial potential of grassroots innovation. In: Unleashing BreakthroughInnovation in Government. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Volume 11, No. 2, Summer 2013, pp 6 - 8.
9 Westley, F. (2013). Social innovation and Resilience: How one enhances the other. In: Unleashing BreakthroughInnovation in Government. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Volume 11,Page 2 of 4

rather rapid recovery with average GDP growth rate reaching 5.2% between 2011 and 2012 10.
Africa is now regarded as the second-fastest-growing continent globally after Asia. Thisacceleration in Africa’s growth reflects fundamental improvements in the macroeconomic
policies, the business environment and growing political stability in many African countries 11. On
the other hand, the untold story of the African growth success is the significantly increased
attention to science, technology and innovation (STI) as the driver of economic growth on thecontinent, on the one part; and the large informal sector of the economy with blossoming social
innovations amongst youths and women, undocumented in formal innovation statistics. The
rising African economies and improving democracies on the continent has led to increased
demand for multiple transitions: from research and development (R&D) to research fordevelopment (R4D); from technology transfers to increasing endogenous scientific and technicalskills and knowledge that drives social change, especially in the area of information andcommunication technologies, and from democracies defined by elite capture to participatory
democracies where differences are settled in social media sites and in mass action on the streets.
Increasingly, organisational, technological and social innovations are becoming the norm
amongst African youths and women, driving social change and economic development from thegrassroots.
3. Mainstreaming social innovation in Africa’s Development Agenda
During the past decade, African countries have witnessed new patterns of social behaviour
emerging from technological and social innovations. For example Skype, Facebook, twitter andother social electronic platforms have changed the rate and style of social interactions as well asways of working. Social innovation is also driving technological innovation – societal demands
and needs influence the direction of research and development, and the design and production of
an innovative product or service, e.g. improved drugs, food quality, e-health, e-medicine, ebanking, etc. Through interventions such as the African Youth Forum for Science andTechnology (AYFST)12 and the African Women Forum for Science and Technology (AWFST) 13,
youths and women are harnessing their social entrepreneurship skills, creating employment andsolving social problems in rural communities and in urban slum dwellings. There is now agrowing recognition that social innovation presents a rich yet unexploited potential to fostering
STI-led development in Africa. Most of the current social innovation initiatives in Africa havebeen established at the grass root level, with minimal capacity to influence decisions at the higherlevel.
However, public policy is yet to explicitly support social innovation, despite the plethora of its
positive development and social outcomes.
4. Policy Recommendations
There are many ways that governments can improve the policy climate for social innovation:
 Creating more awareness on Social Innovation: Social innovations remain largely unknown
amongst investors and policymakers on the continent as attention remain focused on high end
technological innovations for development. Awareness creation programs are very muchneeded to mainstream social innovations in public policy dialogues on matters of science,technology and innovations for development.

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African Development Bank (2013). African Development Report, 2012
http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/African%20Development%20Report%202012%20%20Overview.pdf
11
Economic Report on Africa 2012 Unleashing Africa’s Potential as a Pole of Global Growth12
http://www.atpsnet.org/programmes/YGP/AYFST/about/index.php
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http://awfst.atpsnet.org/Page 3 of 4 Strengthening systems of innovation in the relevant sectors: Having the necessary
framework conditions 14 is a pre-requisite for innovation diffusion and up scaling in societies.
Key priority sectors include but are not exclusive to information and communication
technologies (ICTS), agriculture, and health delivery, and the environment. Policies forinclusive innovation are best understood as a process rather than a set of policies printed onpaper.
 Endogenous capacity enhancement programs - Transitions in systems of innovation involves
multiple transition processes that are interrelated with each other. In each of the transitions
new capacity issues will arise and capacity development policies and practices will have tochange. Significant investments are therefore required strengthen institutions, networks andprograms that build capabilities for social innovations at all scales.
 Social Innovation Incubation programs: One characteristic of social innovation is that it
often evolves in collaboration amongst actors in the innovation system 15. Investing in social
innovation incubation programs (especially targeting youths and women) are critical tounleashing and up scaling social innovations in Africa. Incubator activities are known to bevery useful especially for start-up companies.
 Social Impact Investment for Start-Up finance in the Social Innovation Sector: The key
recurrent challenge to social innovators is lack of finance required for effective start-up Small
Scale and Medium scale Enterprises, due to poor credit worthiness amongst the innovators.
Formal finance institutions such as Banks are often out of reach to these innovators. The
stories of social innovations in Africa often show new innovations solving critical social
problems dying off due to lack of funds to support start-up activities. Social impact
investments in this direction will go a long way to mainstream social innovations indevelopment programs and projects.
 Policy reforms: Current policies on science, technology and innovations in Africa largely
focus on high end technologies and technology transfer. A review and reform of these policies
are needed to refocus them on building endogenous capacities for all forms of innovation,
including social innovations. Such a review should also aim to strengthen intellectual property
laws to ensure that benefits of social innovations accrue to the Innovators without limiting
public access and use.
 Research for Development: The underlying theories and principles of social innovations areevolving. Further research into the types of policies and policy portfolios required forunleashing the social innovations potentials of African youths and women will be critical.
Conclusion
Social innovation is remarkably a creative and evolving field that is having significant impacts insecuring livelihoods, and building resilience in n societies, globally. In Africa, youths and women
are increasingly engaged in social innovation activities, often delivering remarkable impacts inthe fields of agriculture, heath delivery, banking and finance, and institutional/nationalgovernance. The results, like in all fields of technology and innovation has been mixed: ranging
from creating employment, securing livelihoods, and building resilience, and stemming excessive
rent seeking and corruption in product value chains, to mobilising mass action and resistancemovements. This field of innovation is however largely untapped. Greater investments incapacity strengthening, policy research and policy making as well as awareness creations
programs are required to effectively tap social innovations for inclusive growth and sustainable
development in Africa, and perhaps, globally.

1415The general conditions and institutions that set the range of opportunities for innovation
Urama, K., O. Ogbu, W. Bijker, A. Alfonsi, N. Gomez ,N. Ozor, , (2010) The African Manifesto for Science, Technologyand Innovation. Prepared by The African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) under the auspices of the Science,
Ethics and Technological Responsibilities in Developing and Emerging Countries (SETDEV) Project

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