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TMCD Co-hosts Innovation and African Development Conference and Training Course in Accra

The Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD) and the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) co-organised a conference on Innovation and African Development in Accra, Ghana on 3 November. The conference was followed by a two-day training course.

The Innovation and African Development Conference presented research findings from a three-year research project on “Diffusion of Innovation in Low Income Countries (DILIC)”, which explored the determinants and impact of technology transfer in and to the low income countries. The DILIC project was funded by ESRC-DFID and supported by UNCTAD and the Ghanaian government. A report with the main findings from an innovation survey of more than 500 formal and informal firms in Ghana was launched at the conference .

The Innovation and African Development Training Course aimed to provide state-of-the-art knowledge on the determinants and impact of technology transfer in and to the low income countries, including insights on designing and administrating innovation surveys. A mix of policy-makers, academics, and doctoral students participated in the course.

In the space of two days, the course covered talks in three main areas:

  • The barriers to innovation creation and diffusion in LICs under institutional, resource and affordability constraints and the space for innovation policy
  • The determinants of knowledge diffusion in LICs from leading innovators to latecomers, in particular the role of university-industry linkage and inter-firm networks
  • The effect of external knowledge diffusion to LICs, in particular the productivity impact of South-South trade and FDI with a special focus on Chinese trade and FDI in Africa

Both events included world experts in the field of innovation in low-income countries, including Professor Pierre Mohnen (UNU-MERIT and Maastricht University) and Anne Miroux (UNCTAD). Professor Xiaolan Fu, Dr Jun Hou, and Dr Giacomo Zanello from ODID at the University of Oxford and George Essegbey, Mavis Akuffobea, and Portia Adade from CSIR-STEPRI also convened some of the sessions.

The events took place at the CSIR-STEPRI Auditorium, Accra.

Read coverage of the event by the Ghana News Agency.