Understanding and accelerating innovation driven ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa - towards a research and technology organization for North-South Cooperation

According to the African Union's strategy, Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) are to play a central role in accelerating Africa's transition to an innovation-led, knowledge-based economy. Member countries are to build and upgrade research infrastructures, enhance professional and technical competencies, promote entrepreneurship and innovation, and generally provide an enabling environment for STI. Over the last ten years, innovation-driven ecosystems have emerged in numerous African cities, often developing around tech hubs and incubators. Using an analytical framework developed at MIT, this thesis assesses the innovation-driven ecosystems of Accra, Ghana; Nairobi, Kenya; and Freetown, Sierra Leone. It then explores if Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) could be introduced as innovation intermediaries in the context of nascent African innovation ecosystems. RTOs are a category of organizations present in many high- and middle-income countries whose mission is to harness science and technology in the service of innovation. It concludes by suggesting a new model of RTO for North-South Cooperation, linking emerging ecosystems in the Global South, such as those found in Accra, Nairobi, and Freetown, with established ones in the Global North.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Brunschwig, Jonas Benjamin.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Elisabeth B. Reynolds.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123944

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123944