The Innovation Triad, what Africa needs

As a lastborn, Africa can learn quite a lot from her older brothers and sisters, especially those in the Western world. This came across to me very vividly when I saw the following comments in an email thread that was discussing the technology revolution that is currently sweeping across Africa.

These IC radios are what I do research on here at Berekeley.  DARPA
has put forth money for many organizations to work towards such a
‘universal’ or ‘cognitive’ radio.  Together with Raytheon and Nokia,
we at the BWRC are looking into the problem.  There are a number of
technical difficulties in this space, given the broad number of
protocols and frequencies, but it is a hot area in integrated circuit
design right now and solutions are likely to be commercialized in the
next few years.

Right now, the work is focused mostly on consumer applications (i.e.
making your iPhone work both here and in Europe) and military
applications.  But, I personally am involved with the project because
of its applications to the developing world.  I would love to speak
with any of you in the space regarding the opportunities and
challenges for getting the last 3 billion on the WWW.  Please reach
out with any insights on the the market and demand for mobile,
obstacles to adaption/demand satisfaction, areas for innovations, and
other general implementation issues in both Africa and the rest of the
developing/rural markets.

What I found exceptionally interesting about this is not only the fact that the military and private sector are funding research and development aimed at finding new ways of using radio technology to address certain specific issues faced when moving across multiple geographies. What came across very vividly to me was the clear comfort with which the academic researcher talks about the supporters of their research.

Clearly a lesson that we can learn from the West is that military, private sector and academia have time and time again collaborated to come up with technologies that have changed the way people live and work – all over the world. The Internet itself is a perfect example, developed by the USA’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) which is the independent research branch of the USA’s Department of Defense working in close collaboration with universities (Berkeley & MIT) and private sector (RAND Corporation). There are many other examples that we can draw from the Americas, Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia.

My biggest question though is, why do we not see this “Innovation Triad” replicated in African countries? For starters our military simply purchases technology that has been developed in other economies. Our private sector is more of an integrator than an innovator, aggressively pushing imported technologies in search of the ever evasive dollar. And our universities are resource-starved and lackluster – churning out “cookie-cutter” graduates who precisely (more or less) fit the mold imposed upon them by the institution.

What mysterious spell has been cast over these three that keeps them from seeing how much more they can accomplish if they work together? Yet they co-exist, within minutes drive from each other, and languish in mediocrity – simply serving as markets, customers and servants for the real innovators, the real technologists. What can be done to break this enchantment?