Last week
WIPO, Cornell University, INSEAD and their knowledge partners
published their annual Global Innovation Index GII 2017. This
index is a global benchmarking tool for determining the state of
innovation on the globe. Its premise is that innovation is the key driver for
economic growth and general prosperity.
The GII is
notable because it far more than a measure of R&D or levels of patenting.
It covers and uses data from:
·
127 country/economy profiles,
including data, ranks, and strengths and weaknesses
·
81 data tables for
indicators from over 30 international public and private sources, of which 57
are hard data, 19 composite indicators, and 5 survey questions
·
A transparent and
replicable computation methodology including 90% confidence intervals for each
index ranking (GII, output and input sub-indices) and an analysis of factors
affecting year-on-year changes in rankings.
Intellectual
property and innovation are linked. There is continuous debate on how strong
and/or appropriate that link is but the fact is that they are connected.
Africa
is a large dark blob on the GII short video on global innovation hotspots in their press release. It is not
alone, according to the GII more than half of the world’s innovators exist in only
30 innovation hotspots across the globe. The usual feature - cities on the west
and east coast of the USA, Central and Western Europe and in Asia. GII recognises that innovation is everywhere but thrives in these areas,
None of those
hotspots exist in the southern hemisphere. Perhaps this is easily explained
by the fact that the southern hemisphere has been relatively slow to adopt the patent
system or contains few tax havens (indeed often having protectionist regimes considered a disincentive to FDI based innovation), and hence
would not feature. However, one just has to consider the geographical origin of
the most innovative and largest value companies in the world to realise the direct
correlation between the origin of those companies and the innovation hotspots.
Indeed, the GII report indicates a very strong link between business value and the results of patent
data mapping undertaken by the publishers
There is some
indication that Africa has opportunities. As the world’s population grows,
innovation in the agricultural industry – a large staple of Africa economies –
is tipped to be the most important over the coming decades. The relevance of
such innovation is a major focus of the GII.
“Over the next decades, the agriculture and
food sector will face an enormous rise in global demand and increased
competition for limited natural resources. In addition, it will need to adapt
to and help mitigate climate change. Innovation is key to sustaining the
productivity growth required to meet this rising demand and to helping enhance
the networks that integrate the sustainable food production, processing,
distribution, consumption, and waste management known as food systems.”
The question
is whether Africa has the nous, character and leadership to take advantage of this
reality. Put differently, will corruption, poor leadership, naivety, and short
termism long associated with Africa make it vulnerable such that its societies
do not benefit as much as they could. After all, this has happened over the
centuries and there is evidence
of it happening again. A different question is whether those who employ the innovators of the hotspots will have learnt from mistakes made in the past and collaborate differently with Africa. This too is a leadership question.
The GII recognises
a number of what it calls Innovation Achievers – a term used for low income
countries whose rate of innovation outpaces its relative growth in development.
A number of African countries score high on this ranking. Indeed, 9 of the 17
countries in this category come from Sub Saharan Africa. Take a visit to Rwanda,
for example, and this is clear to anyone. A company can be registered in a day
and trade marks are registered well within a year. The first two destinations
of its A380 aircraft investments are India and China and its skyline boasts
increasing numbers of foreign law firms. The other 8 countries are Kenya,
Mozambique, Uganda, Malawi, Madagascar, Senegal, Burundi and the United
Republic of Tanzania.
The positive results from Sub Saharan Africa are despite rating falls in the top three. South Africa
becomes the highest ranked on the index at 57 (falling from 54), followed by Mauritius (64, falling from 53) and
Kenya (81 falling from 80). According to the report:
“Preserving and building upon this innovation
momentum in Sub-Saharan Africa is now key.”
Touché. How, will be very important too.
