Universities and Councils

Network for Innovation

for Inclusive Development

in Southeast Asia

Segundo Romero, Cecile Reyes and Grace Santos

February 2012

www.ibopasia.net

SEA Map – National Boundaries

Regional Contexts: Southeast Asia

• Impressive economic growth and

poverty reduction over the last 2-3

decades; but rising income and non-

income inequalities (Gini coefficients:

0.34-0.44);

• Notions like social justice, equality and

human rights are not deeply embedded

in the social and political structures (cf.

Latin America). Development =

economic growth and social goals are

secondary objectives of government

policy. This has implications for

inclusive development;

• Some progression towards pluralism

and democracy – esp. Indonesia– but

regression in Malaysia, Thailand and

Cambodia. Leadership models remain

largely paternalistic;

February 2012

Regional Contexts: Southeast Asia

• Significant innovations and innovation

capabilities are becoming more evident

in Asia (esp. Asian Driver economies:

China and India), but also in Southeast

Asia (Singapore, Malaysia and

Thailand).

• Innovation and innovation policy are

geared towards industrial development

and economic development, and less

towards with social and inclusive

development.

February 2012

Innovation and Development

• The innovation trajectory which has engendered rapid growth in SEA (most evident in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand) has tended to exclude the informal economy on which the poor depend for their livelihoods (e.g. agriculture and other primary sector activities), and the social challenges that they face; a situation that has exacerbated inequality and poverty.

• SEA countries need to shift to a different innovation trajectory where communities that are spatially, socially and economically disadvantaged become equal partners, contributing their knowledge about opportunities and constraints.

NIS Main Elements

A NEW PERSPECTIVE: Innovation for Inclusive Development (IID)

IID is understood as “innovation that reduces poverty and enables as many groups of people, especially the poor and vulnerable, to participate in decision-making, create and actualize opportunities, and share the benefits of development.”

Intermediaries in IID

• Research supported by iBoP Asia showed that key to IID is the role of intermediaries that enable poor communities through knowledge and skills and connect them to formal institutions and markets to gain access to technologies, products and services that address their specific needs.

TYPES OF IID INTERMEDIARIES

DIRECT INTERMEDIARIES are those that can directly promote, drive and produce innovations for and with the informal economy.

National and local government units, private firms/ enterprises, NGOs

SUPPORT INTERMEDIARIES are those that can catalyze existing and new knowledge and support new capacity- and competency-building in innovation among direct intermediaries in the formal and informal economy.

International development agencies, research and policy bodies, universities, think tanks

INFORMAL ECONOMY

FORMAL ECONOMY

GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS (e.g. GLOBELICS, scholarly publications, academic exchanges)

Strengths of the Universities as a Support Intermediaries

• Huge and diversified pool of scholars and experts;

• Professional and competency development and accreditation;

• Knowledge creation and sharing (research studies, dissertations and theses, conference papers, etc.);

• Modeling and mirroring of reality (descriptive, explanatory, and prescriptive);

• Convening power – bringing development actors and target beneficiaries in habitual conversation on development issues;

• Policy advice to governments, private enterprises, NGOs and CBOs, and foreign and local grant orgs.

Strengths of Research Councils as Support Intermediaries

• Designed to give policy advice to government;

• Mandated to develop and promote a national and sectoral research agenda;

• Equipped with substantive funds for research grants in support of research agendas and capacity building;

• Access to knowledge and academic resources of their specific countries;

• Access to their counterpart councils abroad and to international networks (e.g. ASEAN);

• Access to adequate organic staff and expert resources;

• Prestige and influence over government, non-governmental and international development sectors.

Universities and Research Councils as Support Intermediaries

• Universities (with their 3 core missions of teaching, research and extension) and Councils (with their research and policy agenda-setting, advisory and research funding roles) are important innovation system actors;

• Research and innovation in universities in the region are still largely oriented towards industrial and economic development and inadequately focused on social and inclusive development;

• Councils do not adequately formulate policies, give policy advice, set research agenda and fund research towards innovation for IID.

Universities for IID: Inward Challenges and Response Strategies

Challenges Potential Response Strategies

1. Not designed to be innovative,

inclusive, nor development-oriented

Create integrative mechanisms for:

• Outcome-oriented engagements with real

groups and communities in the informal

economy

• Multi-disciplinary, field-engaged

coursework

• Multi-disciplinary IID program and project-

oriented institutes (Innovation Centres,

Think tanks)

Define and create multidisciplinary fields (e.g.,

IID) to engage in:

• Forward integration (knowledge assets into

informal economy)

• Backward integration (lessons from

informal economy into the classroom)

• Theory-building (shared understanding of

the whole IID process)

2. Geared towards individual capabilities,

not collective development

3. Highly fragmented organizations (into

functions, disciplines, and ranks)

4. Short-term activity cycles (classes,

semesters, courses)

5. Few long-term programmatic

engagements

6. Incentive system (e.g., publish or

perish schemes) promotes attentiveness

to foreign theories, models, and research

problems

Universities for IID: Outward Challenges and Response Strategies

Challenges Potential Response Strategies

1. Academic autonomy translates

into isolation from governments,

enterprises, NGOs and POs, and

grant-giving institutions

• Enhance interoperability with primary

intermediaries for IID through

partnership-building and functional,

program, and project partnerships

• Embed outcome mapping and

performance management to link inputs

to outcomes and rewards to work in

enhancing its own IID-capabilities and

that of the primary intermediaries

2. Limited working relationships with

primary intermediaries

3. No framework for systematic

inter-university, inter-country

knowledge management, resource

pooling and sharing, and networking

for IID

• Create, network, and enlarge pool of IID

capable universities within countries

and then the region

i. Tap existing networks

ii. Build early linkages with UNIID-SA,

Africa, and LAC to fast-track learning)

UNIID-SEA Goals

Motivate and capacitate pivot universities in participating countries to lead in rethinking and redesigning university core missions and operations in teaching, research and extension to render them IID-capable;

Motivate and capacitate pivot Councils in participating countries to lead in re-thinking and re-designing network core missions and operations in research agenda setting, granting, and policy advice to render them IID-capable;

Facilitate the complementation of Universities and Councils in knowledge creation, sharing, and translation into IID-oriented policy;

Create opportunities for IID–oriented collaboration and partnerships among intermediaries towards more effective IID engagements with the informal economy;

Build an UNIID-SEA Network of Universities and Councils with linkages to other UNIID networks (South Africa, Latin America and South Asia).

UNIID-SEA Structure and Partnerships

Major Project Activities 2012

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Conduct a baseline study of councils and universities in SEA

Establish information and knowledge sharing platforms

Project Launch and Planning Workshop with partners

Develop IID course module

Implement competitive research grants program in universities

Hold capacity building workshop for councils

Submit report to IDRC

Key Year 1 Project Activities

Key Activities of UNIID-SEA

• Conduct baseline study for assessing project outcomes;

• Build an integrative IEC platform for sharing and collaboration

• Undertake IID-oriented capacity-building activities for universities and councils;

• Develop and pilot an IID Course Module in participating universities;

• Promote collaborative research projects on informal economy innovations (e.g. competitive grants);

• Create formal and informal linkages among Universities and Councils and between them and other innovation and development actors;

• Link with other UNIID networks.

Group 1 (“Structured”): Well established and advanced NIS. Singapore and China;

Group 2 (“Fractional”): Weak innovation systems. Some missing links and/or weaknesses within NIS but remedial mechanisms and programs being implemented. Economies are continuously developing their S&T infrastructures. Specialised institutional units established to monitor advancement of R&D, linkages among sectors and technology commercialisation. Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines;

Group 3 (“Entry”): Just beginning to develop NIS. S&T infrastructures underdeveloped. Innovation in enterprises still basic but some remedial mechanisms in place. Indonesia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Cambodia;

Group 4 (“Unstructured”): No established NIS. Innovation management new concept and factors such as institutional arrangements, competencies of manpower, and investment in S&T infrastructure are still being designed. Myanmar and Timor-Leste.

National Innovation Systems (NIS) in Southeast Asia

February 2012

Source: SEA Megacities project