There is plenty of grassroots innovation happening with rural communities across South Africa, but there is a need to be more “intentional” from a policy and ecosystem support perspective if these innovations are to see the light of day.
That is according to speakers at the SA Innovation Summit, which took place last week in Cape Town, and featured a panel discussion on grassroots innovation and how to better stimulate it.
Joseph Ndaba, founder of the Mafikeng Digital Innovation Hub, and a member of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, said there are plenty of young innovators active in rural areas across South Africa, but they needed more “intentional” support if they were to succeed in scaling and monetising their solutions.
This begins from a policy perspective.
“Young people are innovative, they want to make a change. But they don’t know where to go to get assistance to get their innovations adopted. We need to be intentional about innovation in this country. We need to start advocating for the right policies to help innovators,” Ndaba said.
This support also needs to be more localised and targeted, with Ndaba criticising the “blanket approach” whereby nationally-imposed approaches are taken to all provinces, regarding of their various differences.
“We come with a blanket approach to address problems in all provinces, but it doesn’t work like that. We need to be intentional. The policies that are in place right now do not address the problems. We need to look at how we open the doors for changemakers,” he said.
“We need to get communities involved. We go to rural areas and find that innovators are sitting there but don’t know where to go. The tribal council sitting there doesn’t understand this ecosystem. We need to bring these guys on board and explain how it will help their area.”
Resources and coverage are an issue in many of these areas, said Rodwyn Grewan, senior manager for knowledge economy support at the Northern Cape’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism.
“A lot of our work in terms of getting out to rural areas is challenging because of the distances we have to travel and the size of these communities. We are fortunate if they have EDGE connectivity. MNOs claim they have 90 per cent coverage, but at what capacity? And these people are still struggling, they claim social grants. And we are talking about technology. We are trying to educate them. Many are still in the agricultural era, and we are talking about the 4IR era. But don’t worry, when we talk about it, they do get it,” he said.
Ndaba also highlighted the lack of resources for innovation support in rural areas.
“Rural provinces don’t have resources, and innovation hubs that can address issues. So we need to look at this digital infrastructure and be intentional about where we are opening labs,” he said.
“It is not about funding, it is about skills development, it is about incubation programmes. So that when they do get the funding, they know what to do with it.”
Given issues in getting the right policy landscape in place, could the private sector fill the gap? Both Ndaba and Grewan say this would be a positive development, but thus far stimulating interest from private companies in rural innovation has proven a challenge, for a number of reasons.
“Private companies operate in big cities, and I understand there is not much showcasing of the innovation that is coming out of rural places. But it is there, you just need to look and see who to talk to,” said Ndaba.
“When we want to bring private sector companies to a rural province, there is not much media to showcase what they are doing. There is red tape from government, and political influence, and hinders them from coming in.”
Grewan said geography played a part.
“A lot of their head offices are not in the Northern Cape. So as soon as you go to the local office, they have to call Cape Town, they have to call Johannesburg,” he said.
Given the lack of support from both the public and private sectors for rural innovators, these young people face serious challenges in getting their solutions out there.
“You need the necessary support to test what things are viable solutions. The solutions that have been created are localised, but government is not in a position to trial them. We need to do it on a micro scale to see if it works. It is a major stumbling block. We need to get ideas into prototypes, but we are falling short,” Grewan said.
For Ndada, incubation programmes are part of a solution, but more needs to be done.
“We are afraid to invest in a risk. But how can we assist these young people if we don’t? So we can’t just put money in, we need to have a plan to help them succeed,” he said.
“I understand that you are an innovator, but there are other things that you have to understand. There is business development, there is compliance, there is marketing and sales, and all these other things. They need to understand how to run a business. It is not only about your innovation, it is about how your innovation can give you money at the end of the day.”
