Baseline Analysis of 3 Innovation Ecosystems in East Africa

• The potential impact of computing innovations supporting social and economic development (particularly in developing countries) is very dependent on the level of maturity of National Innovation Ecosystems (including policy environment, infrastructure and socio-economic diversification). East Africa has experienced significant growth in ICT-enabled Innovation (particularly mobile) in recent years. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have experienced considerable entrepreneurial growth, facilitated by Innovation friendly regulatory environments, evolution of National Research Education Networks (NReNs) and rollout of fibre optic backbones. While it is clear that ICT, Job Creation and developing a Knowledge Economy are common policy priorities, the Innovation Ecosystems in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Kampala are quite fragmented. While support for entrepreneurship is improving, Innovation Spaces have sustainability challenges with their business models and there is a limited availability of funding, and training and mentoring for entrepreneurs. Greater collaboration between different stakeholders and more efficient support systems are required to promote accelerated development. In this paper, we provide a survey of the key Innovation Stakeholders in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Kampala. This is based on semi-structured face to face interviews (November 2012 – February 2013), supplemented by IST-Africa Surveys, focus group engagement during Research and Innovation Stakeholder workshops, and supported by desk research, follow-up e-mails and telephone interviews to reflect developments up to July 2014.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Information Systems (hsv//eng)

Keyword

informationssamhället

Information Society

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)