Are we using the right metrics? Towards a research agenda for measuring how innovation drives the SDGs in Africa

Increasingly, African states recognise the significance of science, technology and innovation (STI) measurement for assessing progress towards the SDGs and STI Strategy for Africa (STISA) targets, as well as monitoring STI policy achievements at a national level. A concern is that STI measurement is heavily reliant on concepts and theories transposed from the experience of high-income countries, begging the question of relevance. ‘A decade ago, Lorentzen (2011: 80) identified a critical problem for innovation measurement: that despite some progress in theory development, there is little certainty that “what we aim to measure in Africa is what should indeed be measured”. He questioned the extent to which emerging new indicators capture the kinds of technological change, knowledge and capabilities characterising innovation in the contexts of low- and lower-middle income countries. One reason is that there is insufficient attention paid to the developmental challenges of LICs, in the field of innovation studies. What did exist is country-specific empirical studies that did not theorise how the economic structures and dynamics of African LICs differ from those in upper middle- and high-income countries. Lorentzen surfaced a lacuna in the field – a dearth of theoretical and conceptual research exploring the nature and patterns of technological upgrading, learning and innovation in the context of the poorest economies. Over the decade since, the emphasis in the field is shifting, from a conceptual focus on the contribution of innovation to economic growth, to interrogating how innovation drives inclusive and sustainable development. The volume and creativity of such research is so great that Godin et al (2021) recently compiled a substantial handbook on ‘alternative innovation’, responding to the need for new and different imaginaries. Despite this shift, ten years later, Diyamett (2021) echoed the challenge raised by Lorentzen, arguing that the field of innovation studies can in fact be detrimental to poor economies, if it does not build “empirically informed theoretical propositions’’ explaining how technological capabilities can be built. She emphasised how vital such conceptual foundations are for evidence-informed innovation policy. Indeed, a recent review using bibliometric techniques interrogated whether the gap identified by Lorentzen still persisted. Lema et al (2021) found that there had been little change in the primary focus on middle-income emerging economies, increasingly China (see also Joseph et al 2021). Despite the fact that the literature on innovation and development had increased four-fold over the decade, research on LICs was fragmented, and remained marginal (Lema et al 2021). This session therefore attempts to encourage and prioritise attempts to fill the gap in the literature and hence, policy spaces. We promote a research agenda on innovation in Africa, towards the goal of creating contextually-relevant STI indicators. The session contributors share the premise that we require a stronger empirical and conceptual research base to inform shifting policy and measurement objectives. The session contributes by elaborating and critically interrogating a research agenda to measure what we should be measuring for innovation and development policy oriented to achieve the SDGs in African country contexts.