Building A Thriving Innovation Economy
• Have founders that have a track record of innovation • Have women in positions of leadership • Invest time in developing relationships with public and private sector, academia and civil society • Have a physical presence in their city/town for a convenings and work space or have regular access to a physical space for collaboration and community building activities • Embrace an open, collaborative, and inclusive approach to innovation • Adopt a hybrid approach by fostering communities as well as offering innovation services or solutions and teaching innovation and entrepreneurship skills. • Have clarity on intended impact that matters for their community and regularly measure and evaluate the impact of their work • Invest in building communities more than just delivery of programs • Have diverse and qualified team members to ensure proper running of entrepreneurship programs, finances, hub operations, technology development etc • Have strong mentor networks with diverse skill sets and sector experience relevant to their communities Over the next few years, we look forward to unpacking these further, understanding and documenting the intricacies of Africa’s diverse innovation communities and supporting their advancement. We will amplify both measurable and non-measurable impact that our community of hubs continue to have across the continent: growth of startups, amount of funding attracted, jobs created, lives impacted by businesses, connections facilitated, underserved demographics supported, digitalisation of communities and sectors, policies and regulation impacted, impact of coaching and mentorship and so on.
of these stories. But we need to understand more deeply what we mean by Africa rising. We need to make sure that we do not mistake hype for reality; we do not mistake hope for achievement 12 . Who has set our measures of our success and are these measures an honest reflection of the impact of hubs and their communities and the situation on the ground? Is it time to redefine this success? For example, while exits, investments and acquisitions are huge wins that we want to have or hear about in Africa, do hubs and their communities do more that would qualify as success? We need to begin to celebrate more of our innovators who are building solutions that are transforming Africa whether they are elusive Unicorns or the numerous Zebras. African hubs have countless stories to tell. In redefining our measure of success, we begin to nurture even more hubs who understand the potential of Africa and want to do their part to help Africa realise its dream of prosperity. We grow more hubs who understand the potential of Africa’s youth force, who understand the potential that exists in an Africa with great infrastructure and want to innovate to build that infrastructure or want to innovate for an Africa in which that infrastructure exists. AfriLabs will redefine this success and realise this success by increasing the value of African hubs. We have done a lot, but a lot more can be done. Our role as AfriLabs is to position innovation hubs as catalysts for community development, national cohesion and ultimately continental economic prosperity. Having said that, in our experience there are some characteristics that hold firm across all successful innovation ecosystems despite our diversity. Successful innovation hubs: • Are started and managed by members of the innovation community that use them • Serve immediate and future needs of their communities by balancing reactionary tactics with anticipatory ones.
12 Ali Mufuruki - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjgJ2KpyJ5w
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