News, December 2016
This book was launched on the 8th December 2016 during Science Forum South Africa, at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) International Convention Centre, Pretoria.
The book launch was structured as a panel discussion during which the main findings were presented. The panel was chaired by Prof R. Maharajh, and the panellists included Dr E. Kraemer-Mbula, Dr P. Mjwara (DG:DST), Dr G.O. Essegbey (Director, Science and Technology Policy Research Institute, CSIR, Ghana) and Ms A. Morgan (SADC Secretariat, Botswana).
More about the book
The informal economy in Africa is of undeniable importance. It provides a source of income, employment and livelihood to a large portion of the population in many developing countries. Yet little is known about this hidden engine of innovation, as informality is a phenomenon with many facets that scholars and practitioners are still trying to unpack. Informality is tightly linked to exclusion, poverty and marginalisation. At the same time, many innovators in developing countries work informally, finding creative solutions to everyday problems.
A central concern of this pioneering book is to better understand whether innovative solutions can be found in the informal economy, and whether such innovations can be promoted and supported in such a way that they lead to a more equitable scenario. In particular, it addresses the following crucial questions:
- What is the role of the informal sector in economic development?
- How does innovation occur in the informal economy? How does it spread, who are the key actors and what impacts does it have?
- How do inventors and entrepreneurs in the informal economy reap benefits from their innovations? And what stops informal sector innovation from scaling up?
- How can informal sector innovation in developing countries be measured?
- What policies might support informal sector innovation and improve its impacts?
- The book starts with forewords by Dr P. Mjwara (Director-General: Department of Science and Technology [DG:DST], and Prof B-A. Lundvall, followed by contributions from 22 experts.
This book will stimulate further work on this crucial but under-researched subject. As well as rich empirical evidence from several ground-breaking studies in three African countries (South Africa, Kenya and Ghana), it includes conceptual and methodological tools and policy recommendations to help researchers and policy-makers understand innovation in the informal economy.
