Mammo Muchie
Full Professor and DST/NRF SARChI Research Chair in Innovation Studies at Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. Expert in Science, Technology and Innovation for Development (STI4D), with a strong focus on African systems of innovation, innovation and development economics, and technology transfer. He has played a leading role in building research capacity and networks in Africa, including founding the African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (AJSTID) and contributing to the establishment of AfricaLics and the African Globelics Doctoral Academy. He holds a DPhil in Science, Technology, and Innovation for Development from the University of Sussex (SPRU), UK, and has published extensively on innovation systems and African development.
Specialization
Science, Technology and Innovation for Development (STI4D), with a focus on African innovation systems.
Main Themes Addressed in the Lecture
- Global crises: COVID-19, climate change, poverty, inequality, and cybercrime
- Critique of the colonial mindset and the neglect of indigenous knowledge in African innovation
- Need to combine indigenous and scientific knowledge
- Proposal for a post-COVID African Social Innovation System
- Use of traditional knowledge and herbal medicine alongside modern medicine
- Ubuntu philosophy: “I am because you are” and diversity as an asset
- Universalization and humanization of shared human values
- Redefining innovation beyond purely economic criteria
- Emphasis on social innovation and social entrepreneurship
- Combining tradition and modernity, and linking formal and informal sectors
10th International Conference on Management of Technology and Innovation | 2–3 December 2020
Main Themes Addressed in the Lecture
- Africa lost the first three industrial revolutions and now faces both risks and opportunities in the digital revolution
- Need for an integrated and sustainable “African Innovation Revolution” instead of a dependent Africa
- Africa’s rich resources have become a curse rather than a blessing, with wealth flowing outward
- Successful example of Norway: creating a sovereign wealth fund from oil resources
- COVID-19 accelerated the use of digital technology
- Need to shift from exporting raw materials to adding value, and from copying to creating
- Digital technology can accelerate African unity
- Indigenous knowledge and the Ubuntu philosophy should be recognized
- Risk of job losses due to automation; need for entrepreneurial education
- Proposal to use Sahara solar energy for free electricity