Chapter 15

Emerging innovation system efforts are interrelated with the ICT development as indicated in the chapters above. What kind of contexts of implication is recognizable, if we put our attention towards the combination of emerging innovation systems and the role of the university in East Africa,? Cluster initiatives can provide such contexts. This chapter is filling cluster initiatives with some content from examples in both Uganda and Tanzania. The content comes from results of a research project focusing on the role of the researchers in innovation processes in cluster contexts. Involvement in clusters differ from traditional research, which has mainly been supposed to be disconnected from practice and also from consultancies, in which collaboration is based on exclusively economic interest. The aim of the project was to find out how research linked to clusters can be understood within the academic system as well as by partner stakeholders who are outside academia.

As both Birgitta Rydhagen and I are driven by situated knowledge production making sense in contexts outside the university and particularly in low income countries, our interests coincided in this research project. I am deeply inspired by our teamwork and grateful to be allowed to use the joint text below in this essay collection.

Innovative Clusters Closing the Gap between University and Society in East Africa: a living proof of Mode 2 excellence?

Why clusters?

It has become a pan-African interest and engagement to foster the development of innovative cluster initiatives¹⁸¹. In 2008, the Pan African Competitiveness Forum (PACF) was formed to accommodate and coordinate national and regional networks for cluster initiatives that started a few years earlier (Mwamila 2014).

The major concern of cluster initiatives is to increase income generation and financial security for the vast majority of rural and urban population working with small scale business to support their families. Innovative cluster initiatives aim to bring up internal entrepreneurship in individual firms in close collaboration with similar firms in the same location and with academic researchers and government officials in a triple helix process. Research may improve technical processes, solve ecological puzzles or facilitate management of marketing and sales. The involvement of government on national and local level increases opportunities to adjust regulation and adjust to regulations, solve disputes and develop supporting mechanisms like health services, public transportation or securing land rights for the cluster entrepreneurs.

Individual business persons join in “co-opetition” in the sense that they cooperate on solving problems they share or divide different aspects between them, while they continue to compete with their products on the market. Interested persons in research institutions and other relevant organizations are invited to become facilitators for clusters and to take part in training workshops arranged for this purpose. They work voluntarily with the facilitation, although some seed money have been available and used to initiate first process steps. Cluster initiatives are formed by the facilitator and a leadership group including local business representatives, government representatives from relevant departments and researchers.

Innovation and mode 2 research for sustainable development

Sustainable Development

In the early 1990’s, the concept of sustainable development was dispersing through international organizations and national governments as an attempt to combine economic growth with social security and environmental protection. In its more radical sense, social, environmental and economic development are regarded to be interdependent and should therefore take place simultaneously rather than being compromised to each other. The most cited definition of sustainable development is a “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”¹⁸².

Almost a decade later, the United Nations formulated eight millennium goals (MDG)¹⁸³ in the same spirit, giving human and environmental development quantitative and time-limited goals to reach for. For example, the number of hungry or starving people should be halved (from 1990) before 2015. Also, the number of child deaths and death by women giving birth should be reduced. Increased gender equality is measured through representation in parliaments and girls’ school attendance. At the same time, ecological sustainability should be improved by providing half of those without safe water and safe sanitation with these facilities, and forest cover in each country should cease to decrease. For countries with low GDP, efforts focused on the reduction of poverty and the provision of e.g. water. Several diverse efforts were required, and innovation to increase income generation in small scale entrepreneurship could be regarded as one of them.

In 2016 the MDGs was followed by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development¹⁸⁴, the SDG with its 17 goals now concerning all countries in the world and not only the low income countries.

Innovation and triple helix model in low income countries

It has been argued that innovation is an important aspect of a nation’s capability to improve economic situation and competitiveness (Lundvall et al. 2002). We can also argue that this is valid on an individual level, although the question then becomes even more pressing, whether competitiveness means some should remain inferior or be left behind in order to be able to achieve success. Within the PACF cluster development, the concept of has been developed to emphasize balance between competition and collaboration to avoid some of these negative consequences.

According to studies presented by Fu et al (2011) real and sustainable development in developing countries can only be achieved when innovation and technological development is domestic and locally driven. Innovation done elsewhere and imported in a ready-made form does not lead to further improvements or innovations in the context of application. Statistical comparisons have shown that FDI (Foreign direct investment) in developing countries does not lead to development of local firms, since patent rights and knowledge systems discourage international firms from interacting with local companies. Rather contrary, it seems that FDI discourages local firms’ investment in R&D since their competitiveness is low in comparison. Knowledge has been shown to spread in locally established clusters, where social bonds and trust through face-to-face interaction facilitate sharing of relevant and specific knowledge.

Fu et al also argue that the socio-economic context has effects on the type of innovations. In places with access to unskilled labour, technological innovations will be adapted to this, while high-tech solutions are developed when there is skilled labour available.

This is not an argument against international collaboration, but Fu et al insist on the necessity of local, indigenous innovation efforts to achieve appropriate technologies that can be adopted and diffused effectively and involve and train local labour. South-South collaboration is mentioned as an important issue in this aspect.

Therefore, support is needed to domestic firms and researchers, who have ideas and who are already in a process of production, construction and innovation. The Triple Helix model for innovation has been shown successful in this kind of contexts, since the interdependence between the key stakeholders government (focus on social and economic development on general level), universities (focus on knowledge development with social relevance) and private sector entrepreneurs (focus on economic stability and progress on individual level) is recognized and lead to more long-term benefits and stability (Rath et al., 2011).

An important aspect of the triple helix model is the nature of the collaboration. Interaction between researchers and local business has taken place over the years, both as a way to receive funding and as a way to distribute patents and other inventions. Kruss (2008) emphasizes that the particular component in triple helix interaction is that the participants share a focus on knowledge instead of on economic matters. That means firms are not in particular in need for a quick solution to improve their profit, and universities are not in particular in search for funds. Instead they develop a common interest in learning how to deal with a particular issue through testing and relating to other cases. This has a certain bearing for universities in East Africa, where local business can often not be expected to contribute substantially with funds, but where knowledge for survival and adjustment to basic circumstances is a necessity. In this context, researchers and local business people will together find essential knowledge faster than counterparts in more effluent locations.

In Kruss’s study of different higher education institutions in South Africa, it also becomes evident that different institutions focus on different areas of knowledge and research. In remote rural, historically disadvantaged and young institutions, poverty reduction was in focus in connection to local population. This is potentially opening up for triple helix collaboration both to develop research capacity and to improve local business. Well established and well-resourced universities were more independent of local context and more focused on other kinds of partnerships.

With similar experiences, Nwagwu (2008) has argued that African universities, exemplified by Nigerian universities, are not well prepared for the third step of triple helix, since the equal level collaboration can become problematic. The governments in Africa have not taken the role suitable for triple helix, and the universities have not had research capacity to develop a culture of innovation and socially relevant knowledge. Instead, he argues, research has taken place in relation to international organizations and NGOs addressing internationally relevant issues with little effect on local development.

In the PACF context, private sector is in most cases very basic and small scale, often rural businesses with little investments and small, day-to-day income generation activities. Innovation in this context is not narrowly defined as technological development, but will also by necessity embrace organizational innovation such as the idea of co-opetition, sharing of methods with other cluster members, storage and transportation, marketing, exploring markets¹⁸⁵.

The universities in Eastern Africa are challenged to navigate between rigorous requirements for academic quality and demands on social relevance. As discussed earlier these requirements have been explored by Nowotny et al (2001), who elaborate Mode 1 and Mode 2 knowledge production in comparison. Holland (2009) argues that Mode 2 knowledge production in a developing country will challenge researchers to bargain between scientific rigor and independence on one hand and economically profitable consultancies on the other. Her concern is that Mode 2 projects are often ordered and paid for by a patron with requests for specific results that are proprietary restricted.

Two cases

What then can real practice of cluster initiatives look like? This chapter will focus on 2 cases. These were selected within the PACF network on the basis of the following criteria:

• Well established among the first pilots, in order to have extensive experiences both locally and on national level to relate to.
• Connection to the dependence and use of natural resources.
• Relevant components of gender and environmental sustainability aspects.

The two cases are located in Uganda and Tanzania, who were among the first to adopt the cluster model. In Uganda, Salt Lake Katwe was one of the first seven pilot clusters initiated in 2005. After taking part in facilitator training, Engineer Balu Tabaro, who is a retired geologist and engineer from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, took the opportunity to introduce the cluster idea to salt workers around the lake, based on his previous geological investigations in the area. The cluster has formed a local leadership group in the village Katwe, representing salt workers (women salt winners and men salt extractors), salt loaders and salt traders. The local leadership group is in regular contact with facilitator Engineer Tabaro, and with local government on certain issues. Two researchers at Mbarara University do research on how to refine the salt to table salt quality. This work has partly been financed by Investment Company JDG Africa Ltd.

In Zanzibar, Dr Flower Msuya approached a women cooperative working with seaweed and with soap production, after she had been trained as cluster facilitator. Zanzibar Seaweed Cluster Initiative was one of the eight first clusters in Tanzania that started in 2005-2006, and has moved from pilot activities to a sustainable stage (Msuya 2010). The two major aims are improved seaweed cultivation and value-added products. The major activity among seaweed farmers is to cultivate seaweed in shallow water, harvest and dry it. It is then sold to export companies for use in chemical, food and medical industry in various countries. It is done on individual basis, but the Cluster Initiative is created with cooperatives and groups of farmers in different villages. Value addition is done for example through production and marketing of soap with seaweed. Improvement of cultivation has included attempts to grow seaweed in deeper waters with new technologies and to enhance the post-harvest drying process. Both aspects have been developed in close collaboration with researchers from IMS and have involved training of the seaweed farmers in each local group. Zanzibar government and seaweed exporters are represented in the leadership team. In 2013 the cluster included 3 000 members in 11 villages.

A detailed description of methods used in this research project is given in (Rydhagen, Trojer 2011).

Salt Lake Katwe

Lake Katwe is located in a crater formation with slopes covered with grass and low bushes surrounding the whole lake. The shoreline is 7-8 km long and the lake is no more than 1.5 meters deep.

In Katwe, it is reported in 2005 that 10,000 persons work with salt extraction from the lake during high season¹⁸⁶. The number of permanent residents working throughout the year is estimate to be between 1,000-2,000 and the activity can be low due to rainfall. The salt is sold for industrial use and animal consumption in Uganda. Around 1,000 women own salt pans, a fenced pond along the shore where salt water is evaporated and remaining salt harvested. Their work consists of checking and mending fences, removing waste and dirt, remove sweet water after rains and scraping of salt and salt mud for harvest and sale. Women can also work as labourers in other persons’ salt pans. A group of 130 men extract salt rock from the bottom of the lake outside the saltpans. The lake is shallow, and the men walk in the water, cut pieces of rock with an iron bar and bring it to the shore on floaters. On the shore, salt is weighed and paid for by women traders, who then sell it to buyers from outside the village, who collect the salt on trucks. The salt is carried from the lake to the trucks by male loaders on their necks. Plastic is used to protect the skin from salt.

Salt loaders, salt extractors and salt traders are organized in formal organizations where some of the profit is kept for collective use and as security for those who are sick and cannot work for a period. The collective fund is used to pay hospital fees when a member is in need. Women salt winners are more in number and less organized.

There is no storage for salt. This means salt cannot be kept safe from rainfall or from theft. The salt workers therefore depend on buyers to appear regularly, and they accept the price suggested in order getting the salt sold.

During our focus group interviews, we asked the salt workers about their view of the cluster, and how the cluster could benefit them. According to several salt workers, the main activity until now had been to find ways to refine the salt. A major concern that the salt workers shared was to loose control over the salt as a resource and a source of income. They feared that external investors might introduce salt refinery but at the same time take control over the lake. Therefore, major suggestions for the cluster were to develop work conditions besides improvement or increased salt extraction.

Salt water is detrimental to the skin and to private parts of the salt workers. Wounds are sealed with glue or patex prior to entering the lake, and private parts are protected with pants made from rubber bags, sanitary pads filled with herbs and other local inventions. These protective efforts have not been successful, and the men extractors in particular ask for boots that protect the skin without causing overheating. Men loaders were searching for a durable material to put on their necks for skin protection.

The extractor group had started to construct a building to be used as a clinic. There was a desire to bring a mobile clinic nurse to the lake for consultation, as well as first aid equipment. This wish was forwarded to the local government.

Women salt winners complained that some men extractors were destroying their pond walls when they cut rock from the lake bottom. According to the men extractors, this was not done by purpose, but some non-organized extractors were working too close to the ponds despite regulations of a distance of ten meters. Apparently, there were regulations in place between the salt workers and within the groups, although not all were followed by all persons.

We were told that there was a major problem with rainwater and soil entering the lake. In part, this depended on increased rainfall during the last years. It was also explained that pan owners placed their pans in the way for streams for rainwater into the main body of the lake. As a result, the streams divert into the pond, causing dilution in the ponds. The women groups informed that destruction of the green cover around the lake had increased the water runoff and the erosion of soil into the lake. Cattle’s grazing was regarded as one explanation, but also cutting of grass and bushes to mend the pond walls, and collection of stones and small rocks for house constructions. Reduction of the green cover around the lake was a concern, and there was a call for local government to reinforce regulations around cattle grazing and also for replantation of suitable species. In some groups, it was suggested that researchers should be invited to give environmental education and information to the community members, in order to emphasize and legitimize regulation for grazing and conservation of the green cover.

In the leadership group together with facilitator Engineer Tabaro concern was raised that one of the facilitators and triple helix stakeholders, JDG Africa Ltd, had acted on salt refinement without informing them. JDG Africa Ltd is an investment company, and there is fear they will try to make a profit from refined salt rather than contributing to the Cluster Initiative for the benefit of the salt workers.

A chemistry researcher at Mbarara University explained that their research was funded in part by JDG Africa Ltd, but their intention as researchers was not to remove control from the salt workers through their innovations. He also told that he had visited Lake Katwe regularly for 2 years, each time taking samples and having meetings with the leadership group on different issues.

The Dean at Mbarara University Faculty of Science expressed commitment on behalf of the entire University to contribute to societal development¹⁸⁷. For example, students in medicine and teaching were sent to training in rural clinics and schools with limited resources, in order to establish engagement among students and to make them aware of work opportunities available outside urban centres. Therefore, engaging in research with the Salt Lake cluster was regarded as positive and in line with the University vision. The chemistry researcher confirmed that research done with the cluster had been reported in academic conferences and he did not see conflicts between social relevance, concrete applications and academic quality and career development.

Zanzibar Seaweed

Around the coastline of Zanzibar seaweed has been harvested for many years. Two seaweed species rich in carrageenan are sold on export to food and hygiene products industry. Today, thousands of people, mainly women, cultivate seaweed on Zanzibar. The main work is to plant, protect, harvest and dry seaweed for sale to export companies. The seaweed cluster initiative was formed 2006 with aims both to improve cultivation and increase income through production of seaweed products locally. The cluster was initiated by Dr Flower Msuya, who was trained as facilitator related to her position at the Institute for Marine Science in Zanzibar Town. The institute is part of University of Dar es Salaam. Her first initiative was to introduce seaweed as a soap ingredient to a group of women making soap for a local market besides their seaweed farming activities. Adding seaweed increased the market value and visibility of their soap, which in turn increased their economic revenue and independency. Similar efforts were done in other villages, although with slightly different approaches. In Kidoti Village, women have soap making machines, while in Bweleo, soap is made by hand. Other efforts have been to access boats, since cultivation of the higher value species is more successful in deeper water.

Dr Flower Msuya is the driving force in the seaweed cluster and she keeps in contact with the cluster groups in the villages on a regular basis. She is also in contact with other members of the steering group consisting of representatives from governmental Department of Fisheries, Department of Agriculture, and the private export company Birr. Direct relations with Department officials facilitate handling of certificates, conflicting interests in villages etcetera.

Seaweed is mainly cultivated by women and it is mostly women who are members of the cluster groups in the different villages. In two cases, a few men are also members of the groups. Women claimed during interviews that if they had male members, they feared that the men would not be honest, and would not work for the group but only show up when profits were to be shared. They were therefore satisfied with being only women in the groups. However, Dr Msuya argued they would benefit from including male members since seaweed farming requires male coded work like boat driving and diving. Women experienced that the work with soap production had given them a higher self-esteem and higher status in the community since they had a work to go to in the mornings apart from farming. Finances were improved for the individual women as well, since soap sale gave additional incomes for the women. Only a small share of the seaweed is used to produce soap and other seaweed products in cooperatives in a handful of different villages around the island, but the added economic value is important for the women.

Women farmers found a major obstacle for further development was marketing of the seaweed soap. They were also reluctant to develop deep water farming of the higher value species of seaweed, due to difficulties in boat driving and diving. Dr Msuya tried to encourage collaboration with men who could assist, as well as learning of the skills by the women themselves.

The heads of IMS appreciated the cluster initiative and explained that some professors at the Institute had previously been reluctant to interact with stakeholders outside academia. Today, all researchers were eager to communicate and collaborate with various stakeholders. Students were also given tasks involving interaction with other actors in society to learn the relevance and complexity of development issues even within natural sciences.

Co-opetition and social relevance

Clusters aim to increase competitiveness without leaving somebody behind. The practices of co-opetition intend to reduce the negative aspects while stimulating the positive aspects of supporting private firms within the same branch. It was evident in both cluster case that the Cluster Initiatives had brought buyers and producers in the local community into collaboration. This has been beneficial for both. In the Katwe Salt Lake Cluster Initiative it was evident that within the groups of loaders, extractors and traders, profit was divided equally and in solidarity with those in temporary need. There was a balance between collective sale and individual sale, which also occurred in the Zanzibar Seaweed Cluster Initiative. Individual sale of dried seaweed was done parallel to collective production and sale of seaweed soap for the benefit of the group and the group members.

We found a genuine interest and engagement in Mode 2 research with social relevance on all levels at both Mbarara University and Institute of Marine Science (IMS) in Zanzibar. IMS Deputy Director expressed that with the success of the cluster efforts Mode 2 research had permeated the Institute from professors to students, who were trained to collaborate and contribute with society during study programs.

It is our concern that Cluster Initiatives should not be merely consultancies with a financial focus, but should remain genuinely collaborative and mutually beneficial in terms of knowledge. In a triple helix process, where roles are blurred, research will benefit from knowledge sharing with local entrepreneurs and access to governmental information and collaboration.

With knowledge sharing in focus, we find a clear demarcation between Mode 2 research and consultancies. Financial dependency as Holland (2009) describes it is not the same as the shared interests evident in the Cluster Initiatives. There is no direct financial benefit for facilitators in clusters, since most of the work is voluntarily.

In the Katwe case, an investor has paid for the research and therefore extra attention needs to be paid to keep the salt workers in a central position regarding ownership of results and access to benefits coming from the research. Balancing between bringing in capital and loosing control is delicate, and may well lead to the failure of clusters in need of advanced and costly initial investments. In the case of Zanzibar, stepwise development has been possible since soap can be made manually as well as with the help of machines brought in at a later stage, and since dried seaweed is continually sold to exporters without further refinement at the local level.

Research in the cluster context was more visible and more beneficial when it was formulated as an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary activity, as in the Zanzibar case. Both cultivation methods, technology for processing of the harvest and organization and marketing were addressed within the cluster. These issues were on their way to be brought up in Katwe case, but hitherto, chemistry had been mostly disciplinary research.

With reference to Fu et al, the role of PACF supporting cluster development in Africa seem to be highly relevant and important for the development of local and appropriate knowledge production. The establishment of cluster initiatives between local actors including universities in the vicinity of the small scale business firms and local government officials leads to innovation taking place at a speed fitting the local stakeholders and in areas crucial for further development and competitiveness of the business. For example, in Lake Katwe, where salt has been extracted by manual labour for over 100 years, improvements in quality and work conditions can only be achieved with continuous experiments and dialogue on site with salt workers together with local scientists.

Local, small scale development of natural resources has contributed to economic and social development of rural communities in both the cases presented. Some key success factors seem to be:

• Respect for local knowledge and needs, such as control, deliberative progress and joint decision-making.
• Balance between competition and collaboration within local groups.
• Interdisciplinary research addressing different aspects of the work conditions and products.
• Mutual trust between the stakeholders including government.
• Support from University leadership to establish and pursue Mode 2 type research.
• Gender aware planning to include and embrace women’s and men’s work conditions and position in society.
• Consideration of environmental situation to address aspects of continued utilization of the natural resources during forthcoming years.