Capabilities in Rural South Africa: Capabilities in Rural South - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Strengthening Innovation Capabilities in Rural South Africa: catalysts for rural transformation? Strengthening Innovation Capabilities in Rural South Africa: catalysts for rural transformation? Economic Performance and Development Economic Performance and Development

Rural Population and Poverty in 4 RDM (2012) Rural Population and Poverty in 4 RDM (2012)

Social science that makes a difference

Rural District Municipality

• Prov. Provincial

Population Rural Population Poverty Rates (Money-metric)

Number Share (%) Number Share (%) Prov (%) RDM (%)

Umzinyathi KZN 510 335 5% 425 619 83.4 % 45.3% 60% Dr Ruth S Mompati NW 460 482 13% 301 615 65.5% 43% 53.7% Chris Hani EC 800 883 12% 528 580 66% 44% 46.5% Mopani LP 1,120 287 20% 969 048 86.5 % 43% 44.3%

Three primary RIAT objectives Three primary RIAT objectives

• Develop a tool that can map out innovation actors,

activities and systems in spatially marginalised contexts.

• Develop an instrument or instruments that could assist

actors to improve their reflective self-learning about their innovation potential and activities.

• Design the instruments in such a way that they could

assist with the future monitoring and evaluation of innovation activities in the RDMs.

Social science that makes a difference

Phased & connected RIAT actions … Phased & connected RIAT actions …

Basic Concepts & RurInnov Conceptual Frame Mixed Methods Tools PHASE 3: OPERATIONALISE PHASE 1: TOOLBOX BASICS PHASE 2: SELF-LEARNING Critical Knowledge Exchanges Evidence Uptake/Use (IDP Source Data)

RIS workshops; Seminars; Conferences Reports; Research & Policy Briefs Scientific Outputs

Institutionalize Process & Mechanism (Living Lab?)

Networking Coordination

Identify & Profile Actors; Sectors; Proximity

Participatory Evaluation, Reflect & Learn Change Agents

Preparatory Steps: May to Dec 2012 Preparatory Steps: May to Dec 2012

• Early evolution of RIAT (See Phase 1 Narrative Report &

Practical Methods)

• Action-oriented approach to mapping rural innovation

activities with an eye on enhancing localised innovative performance

• Define & ground toolbox concepts in frontier literature:
• innovation value chains
• sub-national space-bounded innovation systems
• social dynamics of innovation

Network for Rural Development through Innovation Network for Rural Development through Innovation

• Share ideas with other SA & international innovation

specialists- RIAT Steering Committee, Network RIS, etc.

• CSIR: linking RIAT to the STEP SA project & Meraka

Institute

• Technology Top 100:
• building awareness of surveyed business organisation about its
• wn technological and innovation capabilities
• how the organisation would be able to catch up to this frontier

Toolbox Development and Use Toolbox Development and Use

• Exploratory methods: scoping visits to the four RDMs

earmarked for RIAT pilot-study

• Rural innovation activities & actors hard to identify-

poorly documented

• Lack of complete rural enterprise roster to serve as a

sampling frame

• Purposive survey design and snowball sampling
• Identify enterprises by a referral process (often peer referral or service

provider referral)

INNOVATION MAPPING INSTRUMENT INNOVATION MAPPING INSTRUMENT

• Overcome glaring absence
• f good quality and coherent

data on rural innovation activities

• balanced mix of closed

(quantitative) and

• pen‐ended (qualitative)

questions on innovation activities

• Administer first version –

improvements – administer revised version

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT INNOVATION ACTIVITIES= VALUE CHAIN A= ADOPT A=ADAPT D= DIFFUSE I= INVENT TYPES OF INNOVATION P=PRODUCT P=PROCESS O= ORGANISATION M= MARKETING SECTORS ACTORS SPATIAL CONTEXT INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

Mopani District Municipality Mopani District Municipality

• Tertiary services, followed by primary extractive activities

(particularly mineral mining), dominate gross value added and economic growth

• sampled enterprises is that they are predominantly

involved in tertiary services and primary sector economic activities (particularly agriculture instead of mining).

• The evidence points towards more vigorous uptake of

new ideas, practices and artefacts originally developed by other enterprises outside Mopani.

• More than 60% of sampled enterprises are actively

involved in knowledge sharing networks

Chris Hani District Municipality Chris Hani District Municipality

• quality of life and living standards of the people living in

the Chris Hani District are relatively lower than the average person living in the Eastern Cape Province

• Adoption ranked as the most prevalent innovation

activity across the district- most intensive/active adopters and users of inventions from outside organisations are non-profits

• Non-profit adopters heavily rely on government

departments as a source of innovative knowledge

• Active participation in innovation networks which often

classified as formal and rarely informal

Dr Ruth S Mompati District Municipality Dr Ruth S Mompati District Municipality

• Sampled enterprises mainly involved in tertiary services

(community and financial services)

• Institutional support (policies, laws and agencies

regulating and supporting innovations) viewed as an important contributor to innovation activities

• Inadequate government support seen as a barrier to

better innovative performance in the district

• Strength learning capabilities of actors in the local

innovation space, especially know-how of ST&I policies and the national system of innovation

uMzinyathi District Municipality uMzinyathi District Municipality

• Substantial infrastructure backlogs impact negatively on

economic development, poverty & employment

• Innovating enterprises were mainly in the tertiary sector

(especially community services) and the primary sector (especially agriculture and forestry) with fewer being in the secondary sector (mainly in manufacturing).

• Awareness of state support for innovation, but generally

also a perceived need to improve efficacy of government support and/or regulation

• Adoption was found to be most prevalent (especially

amongst the NPOs)

• Respondents who saw themselves as part of a network

saw these as formal innovation systems.

Participatory Evaluation, Reflection and Learning (PERL) Workshops Participatory Evaluation, Reflection and Learning (PERL) Workshops

• PERL sessions implemented in 4 pilot-RDMs
• Enable the local actors (district & local municipalities) to

reflect on innovative activities- foster enhanced innovative capabilities in local governments

• Identify potential high impact local innovation catalysts

(two to three specific ‘case studies’ for deeper exploration of the innovations)

• Outcome: effective rural innovation systems as a

mechanism for achieving local economic development and improved livelihoods

PERL/SHE Process… PERL/SHE Process…

• Share ‘mapped’ evidence- Evidence of innovative activities within

DM

• Where is the RDM now in terms of economic sectors, rural livelihoods,

employment, etc?

• How do you realistically see socioeconomic development of the RDM in 5 years’

time?

• Where should the focus be to achieve LED, food security, job creation, etc?
• Self-reflection & Horizon Exploration- SHE (group work from actors

in different sectors, the outcomes of which are shared in plenary)

• Consider sectors where innovative change is required or where cases of

innovation were identified that appear to offer high impact opportunities if adequately and efficiently supported - HILICs

• Checklist for respondents to reflect on what they have learnt from

the session (this has been developed but needs further refinement)

Lessons from 4 workshops Lessons from 4 workshops

• Participant profiles: Institutional background and

innovation-related capabilities of workshop participants;

• Opportunity to Learn from and Self-reflect on RIAT

information: share findings produced by the ‘innovation mapping tool’ (mixed-methods purposeful survey) and invite feedback

• Horizon Exploration- high impact local innovation

catalysts [HILICs]: identify ongoing, pipeline and new initiatives with high developmental spinoffs for the district.

Conclusion- towards Phase 3? Conclusion- towards Phase 3?

• Negotiating with local ‘gate-keepers’: friendly to ‘hostile’

local receptions

• Fieldwork times & PERL sessions had to be changed at

short notice, increasing uncertainty which impacted on logistical arrangements.

• RIAT Steering Committee: from conceptual steering

(academic) to governance structure concerned with toolbox application in practice (user-driven)

• Future institutionalisation of RIAT: effective use of all

tools in the toolbox require appropriate skills

• Uptake of RIAT depends on local multi-stakeholder

forums (how to nurture change agents with local buy-in?)