Technological innovation and entrepreneurship are crucial to development. A new entrepreneurial approach to development is emerging. This involves designing new technologies and adapting existing ones to suit the specific requirements of poor people. These are then bought by poor people to form the basis of small businesses or used to help people meet their basic human needs.
One example of this approach is KickStart — a non-profit organization based in Kenya that develops, adapts and markets technologies in Africa. Low-cost technologies are bought by local entrepreneurs (often farming families) and used to establish small businesses. They create new jobs and income for poor people. Examples of products include a brick press, oil press, treadle pump and hip pump (a manual water pump).
KickStart uses the following steps, which parallel many existing innovation approaches:
Identify high potential small-scale business opportunities that could be established by local people with limited capital investment.
Develop technologies and business packages - the tools, equipment, manuals, and business plans required to establish small enterprises.
Train manufacturers to produce the new technologies, for example new machines and tools.
Develop the market among small-scale businesses, ensuring that the new technologies are available for purchase by businesses.
KickStart monitors the number of new businesses and jobs created and the amount of profits and wages earned by the new entrepreneurs and their employees. It has found that its innovations have had a significant impact towards improving livelihoods in their countries of work in Africa, which include Kenya, Tanzania and many others. KickStart estimates that $52 million per year of profits and wages is generated by the new businesses with which it has been involved across Africa.
The experience of KickStart highlights some key actions that can help foster pro-poor innovation through social entrepreneurship in Africa:
Developing demand driven products is vital for social entrepreneurs. Product performance in the market and the desired impact on intended beneficiaries must inform product development.
Encourage social entrepreneurs to develop simple business plans and marketing strategies to guide their business.
Encourage social enterprises to focus firmly on achieving poverty reduction, particularly through income generation and quick returns on investment.
Direct more investment to local research and development to produce products for local markets and needs.
Private sector organisations should be encouraged to fund pro-poor research by offering them incentives such as tax concessions.
Better links between the public and private sectors should be encouraged, including research partnerships between universities and the private sector.
Andrew Adwera Ochieng African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), ICRAF Campus, United Nations Avenue, Gigiri,
To learn more about this author, visit id 21's Website.
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