Panel III: The Application and Use of the Innovation System Concept to African Sustainable and Integrated Development

'Putting Africa First' – Revisited (PANEL-II)

ON  30 August 2021 2:00 pm London Time (GMT+1)

3 pm - Denmark, France, South Africa |  4 PM - EAT | 9 AM - New York | 6.30 PM - India | 10 PM - Tokyo   

SPEAKERS:   Alan Freeman (Inaugural address) | Abdelkader Djeflat (CHAIR) | Angathevar Baskaran | Judith Ann Francis | Geci Karuri-Sebina | Diran Soumonni | Shawn Cunningham | Andrew Cummings

ZOOM Meeting ID: 897 0573 3717    Pass code: 2021

ZOOM LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89705733717?pwd=NTdZMDhBKyswSGtRdmQyNUxxcmx2QT09

For more details visit: ASSIST Website: Association for South SouthCooperation in Innovation Studies and Transformation

https://assistsarchi.wixsite.com/assist

Alan Freeman is a cultural economist, formerly a principal economist with the Greater London Authority. He is a visiting Professor at London Metropolitan University, and a Research Fellow of Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

He regularly publishes online at Ideas.

With Radhika Desai, he is co-editor of the ‘Future of World Capitalism’ book series, details of which can be found at www.radicaldemon.org. With Andrew Kliman, he is coeditor of ‘Critique of Political Economy’ (COPE), an online journal of critical economics. This can be found at www.copejournal.org.

He is a committee member of the Association for Heterodox Economics (www.hetecon.net) and a vice-chair of the World Association for Political Economy.

The works published on Alan Freeman’s sites, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are his own personal views. No imputation explicit or implicit may be drawn that these represent the views of any of the organisations in which he holds office. More about A. Freeman

Abdelkader DJEFLAT: Professor of economics. Formerly Dean of the Faculty of Economics of Oran University an member of the Scientific Council of CREAD (Center for Applied Economics Research) in Algeria, he worked for over twenty years at the University of Lille in France where he headed the team on Innovation and knowledge for development (CLERSE, UMR 8019 CNRS). He is the founder of the Maghreb Technology network  (www.Maghtech.org). He also served as a member of the Globelics Scientific Board and is currently member of the Africalics Scientific Board. His is one of the Coauthors of the Unesco Science Report 2021. He was appointed recently as a member of the Scientific Advisory Council (COMSTECH-SAC) of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which counts twenty eight African member States.

Angathevar Baskaran is an Associate Professor at Department of Development Studies, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya. He is also a Senior Research Associate, SHARChI (Innovation & Development), Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa. He holds a PhD (Science & Technology Policy Studies) from Sussex University, UK. He worked at the Middlesex University Business School, London (1999 to 2014) before joining the Department of Development Studies at University Malaya. His research interests include Economics of innovation; National innovation systems; Innovation and Entrepreneurship with the main focus on multidisciplinary themes related to emerging and developing economies. He has produced over 100 publications, including 13 books, 26 book chapters and 38 journal articles. He has undertaken research projects for UNESCO, OECD and European Commission. He is Editor-in-Chief, African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (AJSTID), Scopus/ESCI-indexed journal published by Taylor & Francis. Email: baskaran@um.edu.my & anga_bas@yahoo.co.uk

Judith Ann Francis is the Senior Programme Coordinator, Science and Technology Policy at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) in the Netherlands.

Judith is one of those people with the unique ability to bring people together, who when connected, achieve much more than they would on their own. She is great at brokering partnerships, identifying opportunities, and fanning a spark into a blazing fire.

Judith has been instrumental in the building capacity of women and young professionals in agriculture through the Africa-wide women and young professionals in science Competition which rewards the contributions of women and young professionals involved in innovative research; communicating their research results and technological developments; and advocating for policy change as well as influencing policy processes through their research. Judith has been my mentor and I truly appreciate her contribution to preparing me to manage the Africa Biosciences Challenge Fund program which provides fellowships to scientists and graduate students from African national agricultural research organizations and universities mentors them to be leaders in biosciences research-for-development.

Dr Geci Karuri-Sebina is an African urban dweller and lifelong learner. Professionally, she was most recently the Executive Manager: Programmes at South African Cities Network, a peer-based thinktank established by South Africa’s largest cities to focus on improving urban development and governance. She previously worked with National Treasury, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – CSIR, the Human Sciences Research Council – HSRC, and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Advanced Policy Institute. Her interests span a range of development foresight, policy, planning and practice topics, particularly relating to urban governance, the built environment and innovation systems. She has over two decades’ experience working and publishing in these fields, including co-editing the Innovation Africa book series (Emerald Books 2016, 2019).

Geci is a Council Member on the South African Council of Planners, a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Witwatersrand School of Governance, and an Research Associate of the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) and the National Research Foundation’s South African Research Chair on Innovation and Development. She is also a founding director of the Southern African Node of the Millennium Project, co-founder of ForesightForDevelopment.org Africa, an Associate Editor for the African Journal for Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (Taylor & Francis), and Africa Regional Editor for Foresight: The journal of future studies, strategic thinking and policy (Emerald). Geci is also on the Advisory Board of the global Lifeboat Foundation, and a curator with the Emergence Network. Geci holds Master’s degrees in Urban Planning, and in Architecture & Urban Design, both from UCLA, and a PhD from the University of Witwatersrand (planning and innovation systems). She is also an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow and an alumnus of the Urban Innovation Leadership Lab (of the Global Leadership Academy). She lives in Johannesburg with her partner, children, books, and a constant flow of friends and relatives.

Dr Diran Soumonni is a Senior Lecturer in Innovation Policy and Management, and Director of the Master of Management in Innovation Studies programme at the Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He obtained his PhD in Public Policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, where he focused on both innovation studies and energy policy. Diran’s teaching and research interests include comparative innovation systems, energy innovation, nanotechnology innovation, and philosophical paradigms in scientific research. Diran also holds a master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering (Georgia Institute of Technology) and undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics (Tuskegee University, USA). He is an active member of the Global Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems (GLOBELICS), the African Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems (AFRICALICS), and of the International Network on Appropriate Technology (INAT).

Dr. Shawn Cunningham is a process consultant working in the field of innovation and competitiveness improvement of the private sector. He supports a range of institutions, leaders and advisors around on topics such as making decisions under conditions of uncertainty or complexity, strengthening organisations or conducting learning processes through ongoing search, discovery and adjustment. He has conducted diagnoses and supported improvement processes in various industries and locations around the world.

Appointed as a Professor of Practice with the DST/NRF/Newton Fund Trilateral Chair in Transformative Innovation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Sustainable Development that is hosted by the College of Business and Economics at the University of Johannesburg. He is a faculty member of the University of Stellenbosch Business Schools Executive Education unit. He serves as an advisor to several think tanks, universities, development organisations and government departments both locally and abroad.

Shawn's Main fields of expertise

• Advisory support to leaders in government, business and academia to make decisions despite complexity and uncertainty
• Meso resilience and how societies form and adapt meso organisations
• Industry modernisation, technological capability development, knowledge intensification
• Science, technology and innovation systems promotion
• Process consulting, discovery and process facilitation

Andrew Robert Cummings

MSc. and PhD from Department of Development and Planning from the University of Aalborg, with research specialization in the emergence and evolution of innovation capabilities and territorial systems of innovaiton in the Central American and Latin American context.  Special focus on innovation in social enterprises, small scale rural agroindustry for more inclusive and sustainable development.

Development anthropologist carrying out research on diverse problems related to territorial development in the Salvadoran and Central American context on the periphery of the Global South. Methodological development and implementation of diverse research initiatives on a national, regional and especially territorial level, using quantitative, qualitative and participatory action research methodologies.

Extensive experience as a development practioner, researcher – facilitator of dialogued processes of territorial development accumulated during more than 25 of experience working in non-govermental think-tank for development and universities in El Salvador. Also as international consultant for the design and evaluation of territorial development initiatives in Central America and Mexico.