Innovation infrastructure and human capacity development

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Innovation infrastructure and human capacity
development the experience in Kenya and East
AfricaPresentation at CODIST conferenceApril
28-May 1, 2009Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Meoli Kashorda, PhD, MIEEE Professor of
Information Systems and former Dean, USIU
Business School Executive Director, KENET
CODIST - Innovation Infrastructures
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Outline

• Critical components of an innovation
  infrastructure
• Innovation and the New Global Competitive Index
• Innovation and the Knowledge Economy Index
• ICT infrastructure in universities critical for
  innovation
• State of readiness in East African universities
• Growth of National Research and Education
  Networks (NREN)in Eastern Africa
• How are universities are developing innovative
  human resource?
• Universities Teacher Training Institutions in
  Africa
• Growth of business schools in Africa
• PhD throughput of Kenyan universities in critical
  areas of innovation
• What could governments need to do to nurture
  innovations?
• Fund national research and education networks and
  campus ICT infrastructures
• Fund research in ICT and Entrepreneurship at
  Masters and Doctoral levels

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Assessment of an Innovation Infrastructure New
Global Competitive Index

• Quality of scientific research institutions
• University-industry research collaboration
• Quality of the educational system
• Quality of math and science education
• Quality of management schools
• Availability of scientists and engineers
• (Low) Brain drain
• Tertiary enrolment
• Utility patents per million population

WEF Global Competiveness Report 2008
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Global competitiveness and innovation rankings
(out of 134)
Source Global Competitiveness Report 2008
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What is an effective innovation system?

• A loose network of firms, research centres,
  universities, consultants, and other
  organizations that creates local knowledge,
  assimilates and adapts global knowledge to local
  needs source Draft Kenya Strategy for
  University Education, 2008.
• ICT infrastructure at national and institutional
  levels critical!

WEF Global Competiveness Report 2008
Meoli Kashorda
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The 4 Pillars of a Knowledge Economy (KE)

• A supportive economic and institutional regime to
  provide incentives for the efficient use of
  existing and new knowledge, and the flourishing
  of entrepreneurship.
•  
• An educated and skilled population to create,
  share, and use knowledge well.
•  
• A dynamic information infrastructure to
  facilitate the effective communication,
  dissemination, and processing of information.
•  
• An efficient innovation system of research
  centers, SMEs, universities, consultants, bigger
  businesses and organizations

Source World Bank Institute
Meoli Kashorda
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Source World Bank Institute
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Knowledge Economy Index 2008 comparisons
Source World Bank KAM 2008 website
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How are they measuring Innovation?

• Royalty payments and receipts, US per person
• Technical journal articles per million people
• Patents granted to nationals by the U.S. Patent
  and Trademark Office per million people
• This puts African countries at a distance the
  Global Competitive Index could be a better
  measure of innovation!

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How are they measuring information infrastructure?

• Telephones per 1,000 people
• Originally based on ITU fixed teledensity data
• Computers per 1,000 people
• We do not accurate data in most African countries
• Regulators simply estimate
• Internet users per 1.000 people
• No accurate data available for most African
  countries
• 2007 supply-side Internet Market study in Kenya
  2.7 m users!

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Some key measures of innovation infrastructure

• Quality of Universities
• Who is measuring?
• Information infrastructure for universities and
  research institutions
• Quality of research institutions
• National and international (case of Kenya)
• Quality of business schools
• Global business schools network / association of
  African Business School

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Quality of Universities in Africa who is
ranking them?

• The Webometrics Ranking of Universities
  (http//www.webometrics.info)
• Top African University is ranked 359
• Data collected from web sites alone!
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking
  (http//www.arwu.org/rank2008/EN2008.htm )
• What do they measure and criteria for ranking
• Quality of faculty are they being cited?
• Quality of education (Alumni strong? Medals and
  awards)
• Research output
• What are the sources of data?
• African universities have to collect data

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Knowledge Economy Index 2008 comparisons
Source World Bank KAM 2008 website
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Webometric Ranking of Universities
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E-readiness of Kenyan and East African
Universities

• 2006 E-readiness assessment of 17 Kenyan
  universities
• Used 17 new indicators of readiness (see
  http//www.kenet.or.ke
• 2008 E-readiness survey of 50 East African
  universities (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania,
  Uganda)
• Indicators of quality of the learning environment
• Necessary for innovation!

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E-readiness and Networked Readiness Index

• E-readiness is the degree to which a HE
  institution is prepared to participate in the
  networked world
• for learning, teaching, research, and management
• Networked Readiness Index (NRI) is defined as a
  nations or communitys degree of preparation to
  participate in and benefit from ICT developments
  (http//www.weforum.org)
• World Economic Forum / INSEAD

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E-readiness assessment methodology and indicators

• Derived from the CID (Harvard) E-society tool,
  AAU self-assessment tools and experience of
  researchers
• 17 indicators groups as follows
• Network access indicators (4 Information
  infrastructure, Internet availability, Internet
  affordability, Network speed quality)
• Networked learning indicators (4 Enhancing
  education with ICTs, Developing the ICT
  Workforce, ICT in Libraries, ICT research and
  innovations)
• Networked society indicators (4 indicators
  Locally relevant content, People and
  Organizations Online, ICTs in Everyday life, ICTs
  in Workplace)
• Networked campus indicators (2 indicators -
  Electrical power Security, E-campus)
• Institutional policy and strategy (ICT strategy,
  ICT financing, ICT Human Capacity )
• Stage each indicator on a scale of 1-4 for each
  indicator (unprepared to ready)

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ER 2006 - Overall stages of 17 indicators
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ER 2006 Overall Staging for 15 Strategic
Indicators
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E-readiness survey of East African Universities
demographics!
Note Universities with enrollment gt 1000
students Kenya alone has created 11 University
colleges in the past one year! Tanzania has an
open universities with over 40,000 students
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What next..

• How do we To create a culture of knowledge
  generation, adaptation, application and
  innovation in Kenyan or African universities?
• Every country will need a strategy! But there a
  few indicators of success
• The Island Concept works
• In developing an innovative University learning
  environment
• Improving quality of business schools
• National Research and Education Networks
• Government funding is critical!

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Islands and Cluster Innovation infrastructure
development

• Universities as islands of innovation
• Islands approach applied in Argentina and India
  it could work in Africa
• East African Accession Project focuses on
  developing the campus ICT infrastructure
• Improving Quality of Business Schools in Africa
  Project
• Michael Porters cluster development approach
• Case of Cut Flower cluster in Kenya

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Improving the quality of business schools in
Africa

• Almost every university in Eastern Africa has
  business degree programs
• Quality is low in most of them!
• Global Business School Network (GBSN) created in
  2003
• Link between Northern and African Business
  Schools
• Universities in Kenya (USIU), Nigeria (LBS),
  Senegal, Ghana (GIMPA), and South Africa (GIBS)
• Focus on training faculty and case studies
• African Business Schools Association created in
  2005
• Professional quality assurance and faculty
  development

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Universities and the innovation mindset

• Start with Innovative Teacher Training programs
  in African universities
• This will promote adoption in secondary and
  primary schools
• How we transform the way we train teachers?
• Incubator and entrepreneurship centers in
  Universities
• Kenyan universities creating entrepreneurship
  centers (USIU, Strathmore, JKUAT, Moi)

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How a person learns a particular set of knowledge
and skills, and the situation in which a person
learns, become a fundamental part of what is
learned.
Putnam Borko, 2000
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Study Findings

• Overall for the 18 Sub-Sahara African countries
• East African region
• West Africa region
• Southern Africa region

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Innovations in Training Teachers?

• African universities are the lead TTIs for
  secondary school teachers!
• But Ministries of Education do not often support
  ICT in universities
• Institutional ICT leadership critical for
  implementation of institutional ICT strategies
• There has been no significant transformation in
  the way we train teachers because of ICT!
• ICT has not transformed the way we teach this
  will affect innovation

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Innovations in Teaching and Learning

• The Marsabit Open Learning project for Girls in
  semi-arid parts of Kenya
• Collaboration of Kenyatta University, KENET and
  Higher Education Loans Board collaboration
• Funded by Ford Foundation
• Interactive multimedia materials being developed
• Each student will be given a cheap laptop with
  Mobile Internet access
• Challenge it is a change effort and might not
  be sustainable unless institutional policies
  aligned to the new ways of developing materials!

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National Research and Education Networks
Ubuntunet Alliance
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Kenya University Bandwidth expansion project

• Kenya Education Network is the implementing
  agency for a bandwidth expansion project for
  Kenyan universities
• 19 million Government of Kenya grant to
  universities
• KENET will purchase Indefeasible Rights of Usage
  (IRU) undersea cable Internet bandwidth
• Cheap broadband services for the next 20 years!
• This expected to spur innovation among students
  and faculty

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ICT Faculty Development for African Universities

• The PhD throughput in ICT in Kenya is less than 5
  per year
• But all the universities have an ICT degree
  program!
• Problem is even worse in Computer Science and
  Electrical Engineering / Telecommunications/
  Computer engineering
• Anecdotal evidence suggests this is the case in
  most African countries
• Donors and Governments must focus on doctoral
  level faculty development

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Thank You
Meoli Kashorda, Ph.D., MIEEE, MIET Executive
Director, Kenya Education Network
(http//www.kenet.or.ke) and Professor of
Information Systems, USIU School of Business,
Kenya (http//www.usiu.ac.ke) E-mail
mkashorda_at_kenet.or.ke or meoli_at_usiu.ac.ke
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