Malawi excels on innovations
Malawi has excelled on innovations by improving in both rank and score. The country has since been described as innovation learners, according to a recent report on Global Innovations Index (GII).
The report, which is an annual publication featuring, among others, a composite indicator that ranks countries/economies in terms of their enabling environment to innovation and their innovation outputs, ranks Malawi on 113 from 119 out of 143 economies.
Malawi’s score is some notches above neighbouring Zambia and Tanzania.
GII 2014 titled ‘The Human Factor in Innovation’ is the result of collaboration between Cornell University, Insead, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) as co-publishers and knowledge partners.
The report also indicates that Malawi’s score on innovativeness improved to 27.61 in 2014 from 26.73 in 2013 out of a total score of 100.
A local analyst has, so far, upheld the country’s direction on innovation, noting it will have a positive social impact.
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Malawi Innovation Challenge Fund (Micf) manager Kumar Navin said there are a lot of innovations taking place in the country, especially in the manufacturing sector.
“Due to competition from imported goods, companies are now aware that to survive they need to be innovative. The innovations include entirely new or the movement of technology from one sector to another. As a result, local products are also being exported into the region,” he said.
Mifc, a fund supported by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and provides matching grants to entrepreneurs with innovative ideas, has noted that some businesses do not utilise innovations due to the risk associated with it.
Against the backdrop of the performance, the report has touted Malawi, describing it as an innovation learner—economies that perform at least 10 percent higher than expected for their level of gross domestic product (GDP).
Other countries that fall in the group are Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mozambique and Rwanda.
“This year, Rwanda, Gambia, Mozambique, Burkina Faso and Malawi join Kenya, Uganda and Senegal among the sub- Saharan countries referred to as ‘innovation learners’.
“This is an increase of five countries—an achievement when considering that the average GDP per capita of each of these five nations is below $2 000,” reads the report in part.
Malawi, with a GDP per capita of $878.7, was specifically ranked 95 on institutions and 136 on human capital and research.
The country was also ranked 118 on infrastructure, 128 on market sophistication, 50 on business sophistication, 84 on knowledge and technology and 125 on creative outputs.
According to the report, out of 21 low income countries, Uganda tops the list while Malawi comes ninth.
Globally, Switzerland ranks first while Sudan anchors the table at 143.
