IN INCLUSIVE INNOVATION Cluster Development in East Africa

THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES IN INCLUSIVE INNOVATION Cluster development in East Africa Edited by Birgitta Rydhagen and Lena Trojer 1 © The Authors 2014 Cover and graphic design and typesettning: Mixiprint, Olofstrom, Sweden Cover photo: Flower E. Msuya (front), Birgitta Rydhagen (back) Publisher: Nelson Mandela African Institute for Science and Technology, Arusha, Tanzania Printed by Fountain Publishers Ltd, Kampala, Uganda 2014 ISBN 978-91-637-5000-7 2 Contents List of abbreviations 4 Introduction Birgitta Rydhagen and Lena Trojer 5 Chapter 1: PACF and scientific leadership Professor Burton Mwamila 9 Chapter 2: Innovation in East Africa. Necessary, desirable, self-evident Birgitta Rydhagen 21 Chapter 3: Experience of the Tusife Moyo women cooperative as a member of the Zanzibar Seaweed Cluster Initiative Hawa S. Khamis and Tatu J. Fumu 29 Chapter 4: Researcher as cluster facilitator: experience from Mode 2 research Flower E. Msuya 35 Chapter 5: When society speaks back. Relevance issues for research in cluster contexts in low income countries Professor Lena Trojer 47 Chapter 6: Universities can play enhanced roles in cluster initiatives Julius Ecuru 59 Chapter 7: Voices from Katwe Salt Lake Cluster Initiative Jennifer Kabarangira 65 Chapter 8: Lake Katwe Salt Cluster Balu-Tabaaro 77 Chapter 9: Could aid donor agencies support innovation? Lessons from Swedish aid politics and practices Tomas Kjellqvist 81 Further reading and information 97 3 List of abbreviations BTH Blekinge Institute of Technology CoET College of Engineering and Technology, UDSM COSTECH Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology IMS Institute of Marine Sciences, UDSM IPR Intellectual Property Rights ISCP-EA Innovation Systems and Clusters Programme in Eastern Africa JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency MDG Millennium Development Goals under the UN NGO Non-Governmental Organization NM-AIST Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology PACF Pan-African Competitiveness Forum R&D Research and Development SADC Southern African Development Community SAGCOT Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania SCF SMEs Competitiveness Facility SICD Scandinavian Institute for Collaboration and Development Sida Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency SME Small and Medium Enterprises TCI The Competitiveness Institute UDSM University of Dar es Salaam UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization USAID U.S. Agency for International Development VINNOVA Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems 4 Introduction Birgitta Rydhagen and Lena Trojer This book is dedicated to the cluster members in East Africa who use mundane technologies in new and innovative ways to improve livelihoods and working conditions in financially limited contexts. In the anthology, we are proud to present contributions from distinguished persons engaged in cluster initiatives in different roles. We acknowledge financial support from Sida u-forsk research project SWE-SP2010-005. Innovative cluster initiatives are promoted under the umbrella of PACF, Pan-Afri- can Competitiveness Forum, in collaboration with SICD, Scandinavian Institute for Collaboration & Development. The ambitions are to boost innovation in small-scale business through Triple Helix processes between groups of businesses, government and research institutions. The processes have been described and discussed in several publications during the latest years. This anthology contributes to the discussion with a specific focus on the role of universities and researchers in the Triple Helix processes in East African cluster initiatives. The authors are active in PACF and/or SICD in different roles – as researchers, government partners or entrepreneurs in cluster initiatives. The collection of texts is a result of a Sida funded research project with a particular focus on the research component of cluster initiatives. The research project forms a smaller and more academic part of the larger collaboration between PACF and SICD – between East African and Swedish innovation partners. Two points of departure are distinct in the collection. First of all, innovation is under- stood in its widest sense, including stepwise changes and improvements in daily activities. We argue that support to innovative individuals and businesses must be socially inclusive, in the sense that the most vulnerable actors and local needs are not ignored in favour of market oriented activities and global competitiveness. Nevertheless, dif- 5 ferent activities will always need to balance between the commercial and international business requirements and the local community context. Secondly, the academic ambitions are deeply embedded in the understanding of knowledge production taking place in the context of application and implication. We regard science as an important part of society, in which robust and context relevant knowledge is collaboratively produced. Those of us who are researchers have consciously become involved in reality producing processes in our respective contexts. With this ambition, we have invited actors in the cluster initiative sphere to provide their personal and professional experiences of the research component in clusters development. The collection of contributions is presented below. Professor Burton Mwamila was one of the pioneers in PACF establishment on national, regional and pan-African level. He is presently Vice Chancellor at Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology in Arusha, Tanzania. He is the chairman of the PACF executive board. In his chapter, he presents the process of establishing cluster initiatives in East Africa under ISCP-EA (Innovation Systems and Clusters Program – East Africa) and PACF. The economic benefits are exemplified. Other positive outcomes both in general and within universities are described. In particular, it is interesting to follow the development of the NM-AIST and the graduate programmes related to innovation and entrepreneurship that has started. Birgitta Rydhagen is associate professor in Technoscience studies at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. She is the main researcher in the project on role of universities in cluster initiatives. In her chapter, she goes through a number of theoretical underpinnings of socially inclusive innovation. Although innovation and entrepreneurship are always present, they were formalized and intensified through a conscious shift to Mode 2 knowledge processes within university departments. Environmental sustainability is raised as a particular concern that university actors can bring into the innovation processes. Hawa S. Khamis and Tatu J. Fumu, are active members in the Tusife Moyo Women Cooperative Group in Zanzibar, Tanzania. They are experienced seaweed farmers and active in the Zanzibar Seaweed Cluster Initiative. In Chapter 3, we are given several ex- amples of what the cluster initiative has contributed in terms of business development and increased social and economic security. New farming techniques as well as product development have been pursued in close collaboration with academia. Flower E. Msuya is a researcher at Institute of Marine Sciences, UDSM, in Zanzibar. She has a long-term commitment to research and development in seaweed farming. She is the facilitator of the Seaweed Cluster Initiative, teacher in the PACF/SICD cluster training team and a member of the PACF national steering committee. She provides insights into the opportunities of combining scientific research with partici- pation in societal development. Her research is clearly Mode 2 and has focused on both participatory farming experiments and incorporation of experts and farmers in production and marketing of various seaweed products. The work has inspired research colleagues to enter into similar research activities. 6 Professor Lena Trojer is director of SICD and head of research at Department of Technology and Aesthetics, BTH, and holds a chair at the Research Division of Tech- noscience Studies, BTH, since 1999. From 2004 and onward she has worked in the Swedish collaboration team (became SICD in 2008) for development of innovation systems and cluster initiatives in Africa and later Latin America. Trojer raises the im- portance of Mode 2 research in co-evolving processes where society and a variety of stakeholders demand active partnership in research processes at all stages. This is relevant in both developed and developing contexts. In the end, a balance between profit and stability for local communities is raised as an important concern in further cluster development. Julius Ecuru has a doctoral degree in the field of innovation system and development at Makerere University and at BTH. He has long-term experiences in cluster development. Doctor Ecuru is both a researcher as well as assistant executive secretary of Uganda National Council for Science and Technology. His chapter reveals positive trends in economic development in African countries, and in development of higher education sector in these countries. These changes constitute a basis for the success of cluster initiatives that are formed at an increasing rate. The role of universities has not been primarily to conduct research so far, but rather to form the structures for cluster establishment and entrepreneurial thinking. The roles in the triple helix processes are thus still changing in dynamic ways. Jennifer Kabarangira is treasurer of the board of directors in the Lake

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