The 2015 Global Innovation Index (GII) shows new ways for policymakers to boost innovation and spur growth, building on local strengths while developing sound national innovation environments.
The report, now in its 8th edition, is co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Each year the GII surveys 141 economies around the world, using 79 indicators to gauge both innovative capabilities and measurable results.
This year’s report includes a chapter on ‘Innovation Policies for Development’, co-authored by UNU-MERIT researchers Micheline Goedhuys, Hugo Hollanders and Pierre Mohnen. In this chapter (embedded below) our authors explain why innovation is a key driver of economic success — for both the developed world and, increasingly, for emerging economies.
Our authors highlight the Science, Technology, and Innovation policies of Kenya and Uganda, and give case studies of inclusive innovation in the mobile banking industry. They also share lessons from market and system failures.
“Emerging economies are very conscious that innovation plays a key role in an environmentally sustainable and socially balanced growth agenda,” say the authors. “Innovation policy has therefore moved to the centre of the policy debate. Because innovation is not only a process of knowledge diffusion, as countries develop, simply adopting existing technologies is no longer sufficient to maintain a high growth rate. Rather countries need to invest in research and innovation to develop products that address their particular needs.
“Governments are therefore developing innovation-support policies that take into account the specificities of their domestic industries. A few emerging countries have successfully introduced such policies and provide interesting cases from which lessons can be learned on a diverse range of innovation policies.”
See below for the full chapter and related infographics.
INFOGRAPHIC
CHAPTER: INNOVATION POLICIES FOR DEVELOPMENT
MEDIA CREDITS
WIPO / GII 2015