Promoting the African endogenous innovation for sustainable development: The AFRICA-ai-JAPAN initiative

The economic development of Africa is dependent on “home-grown” innovations geared to solving the Africa’s development challenges. A partnership among the Japanese academic institution, development partners, the private sector and the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) is promoting the intellectual support of Africa’s own endogenous innovations using the Japanese experiences. This is aimed at strengthening capacity and enhancing expertise required to formulate and implement policy that promote the culture of innovation at the national level. Through this process it is hoped that incorporating local knowledge, values and traditions in scientific innovations will lead to sustainable development. This paper provides an overview of a joint initiative by Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) through the ‘AFRICA-ai-JAPAN project and JKUAT to promote the spirit of local innovations for sustainable development.