Science and technology partnerships and poverty alleviation in Africa

The question of how to build science and technology (S&T) capacity in Africa has been on and off the agenda for decades, as has the issue of how to use partnerships to accelerate capacity building. Recent policy proposals have focused on expanding S&T capacity but have emphasized less the need for a rigorous rethink about how science, technology and innovation can be better organized for development. This paper aims to assess, using evidence from recent cases, the importance of new theories and practices based on the role of innovation and knowledge systems. The paper argues that lessons can be learned from transformations in research policy and from practices that better integrate new ideas from innovation, knowledge and development. It focuses on the changes required for science, technology and innovation to be accepted as key for the alleviation of poverty.

[1]  Joanna Chataway,et al.  The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI): Is it Getting New Science and Technology to the World's Neglected Majority? , 2006 .

[2]  James A. Smith.  Context‐bound knowledge production, capacity building and new product networks , 2005 .

[3]  Michael Hobday,et al.  Firm-level Innovation Models: Perspectives on Research in Developed and Developing Countries , 2005, Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag..

[4]  Calestous Juma,et al.  Innovation : applying knowledge in development , 2005 .

[5]  Learning, knowledge and skills: implications for firm-level performance in African industry , 2004 .

[6]  Mammo Muchie,et al.  Putting Africa First: The Making of African Innovation Systems , 2003 .

[7]  D. Ernst,et al.  Technological capabilities in the context of export-led growth: a conceptual framework , 2003 .

[8]  Michael F. Crawford,et al.  Strategic Approaches to Science and Technology in Development , 2003 .

[9]  Ken Starkey,et al.  Bridging the Relevance Gap: Aligning Stakeholders in the Future of Management Research , 2001 .

[10]  Value Chains and the Business System Upgrading in Global Value Chains , 2001 .

[11]  Andrew Hall,et al.  Why Research Partnerships Really Matter: Innovation Theory, Institutional Arrangements and Implications for Developing New Technology for the Poor , 2001 .

[12]  M. Gibbons,et al.  Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty , 2003 .

[13]  Dorothy McCormick,et al.  Value chains and the Business system: Applying a simplified Model to Kenya's Garment Industry , 2001 .

[14]  Anne Sigismund Huff,et al.  1999 Presidential Address: Changes in Organizational Knowledge Production , 2000 .

[15]  D. Tranfield,et al.  The Nature, Social Organization and Promotion of Management Research: Towards Policy , 1998 .

[16]  D. Wield.  Coordination of donors in African universities , 1997 .

[17]  C. Edquist.  Systems of Innovation: Technologies, Institutions and Organizations , 1997 .

[18]  Michael Hobday,et al.  Innovation in East Asia: The Challenge to Japan , 1996, The Journal of Asian Studies.

[19]  L. Vaccarezza.  The new production of knowledge. The dinamics of science and research in contemporary societies, Michael Gibbons, Camille Limoges, Hega Nowotny, Simon Schwartzman, Peter Scott y Martin Trow, Londres, SAGE Publications, 1994, 179 páginas. , 1995 .

[20]  D. Leonard-Barton,et al.  Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation , 1995 .

[21]  Haridimos Tsoukas,et al.  REFINING COMMON SENSE: TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE IN MANAGEMENT STUDIES* , 1994 .

[22]  Raphael Kaplinsky,et al.  Easternization: The Spread of Japanese Management Techniques to Developing Countries , 1994 .

[23]  K. Eisenhardt.  Better Stories and Better Constructs: The Case for Rigor and Comparative Logic , 1991 .

[24]  G. Fitzgerald.  Universities and Research , 1892, Nature.