Interview: Kenyan scholar roots for innovation to reactivate progress
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E-mail Xinhua, March 25, 2014
The Kenyan government must invest in home grown innovations to rejuvenate socioeconomic progress, said Professor Calestous Juma, a Kenyan born Harvard University Scholar, on Monday.
He told Xinhua during a telephone interview that Kenya has the potential to become a regional technology and innovation hub if the government invests in supportive infrastructure and human capital.
"The top leadership in government needs to pay specific attention to the role of innovation in development. Kenya must invest in both soft and hardware to modernize the economy and become globally competitive," said Juma.
The distinguished scholar at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, was optimistic that current reforms in government will spur innovations across strategic sectors of the economy.
Kenya lost a chance to become a technology and innovations hub in the early days of independence due to faulty policies, lack of political guidance and inadequate budgetary support.
Juma noted that architects of economic policies in post colonial Kenya gave innovation a lip service.
At independence, Kenya enjoyed a double digit economic growth that later stagnated due to governance hiccups, regional instability and volatility in the global commodities market.
He said that post independence economic models were hostile to innovations and entrepreneurship, hence a spike in poverty and other social ills.
His newly published paper highlights policy, governance and legislative deficiencies that undermined technological innovations in Kenya.
According to the professor, the post independence development models emphasized on the role of bureaucracies and food aid at the expense of innovation, entrepreneurship and industrial development.
"Kenya requires a fresh thinking in its approach to socioeconomic progress. Policy reforms and greater financing towards science and technology is critical to achieve this goal," Juma said.
He urged state agencies to coordinate development of policies that encourage home grown innovations.
"Proper coordination across line ministries is key to ensure innovations are harnessed and channeled to sectors that a higher impact on livelihoods," Juma said.
He stressed that Kenya should borrow best practices from the Asian Tigers and Rwanda to achieve a vibrant knowledge based economy.
"Four decades ago, the Asian tigers focused on technology and innovations. The top leadership in those countries made it a priority to modernize their economies using human ingenuity," said Juma.
He noted that visionary leadership has turned Rwanda into Africa's Singapore. Juma emphasized that reforms in government structures and the education systems are key to fuel innovations in Kenya.
"The national commission for science and technology should advise the president on how best to promote a knowledge driven economic growth. In the 70s, the council was based at the Office of the President," Juma said.
He added that academia-industry linkages are crucial to promote industrialization and entrepreneurship in Kenya. Endi
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