Place Based Economic Development with Simon White

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Innovation and Ecosystems

Namibian PM highlights the role of innovation in Africa's development

The Namibian newspaper on 30 August 2011 carried an article by the Namibian Prime Minister, Dr. Nahas Angula, on how to transform the African economy: Innovation, he says, “is the missing link in African development. African economic take-off can be enhanced if Africa can pay serious attention to innovation and technology. A national innovation system is a pre-condition for unleashing the forces of ‘creative destruction’. New technologies are the pre-requisite for achieving the pre-condition for economic take off.” He proposes the need for innovation strategies that focus on “knowledge production, technological diffusion and knowledge application”.

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The enabling city: places of social innovation

“Social innovation thrives on the ideas and efforts of social entrepreneurs and creative individuals whose socially conscious work contributes to environmentalism in a variety of ways”, writes Chiara Camponeschi in her 2010 e-book, The Enabling City; Place-Based Creative Problem-Solving and the Power of the Everyday. Here, the sources of innovation

MindLab –– a platform for co-creating better ideas.

Here’s a Danish initiative designed to promote innovation within government while breaking down government silos. MindLab is a cross-ministerial innovation unit which involves citizens and businesses in creating new solutions for society – “a neutral zone for inspiring creativity, innovation and collaboration”. MindLab works with civil servants of three Danish

ICTs as an Enabler for Private Sector Development

This October, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) its annual Information Economy report, which focused on the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in enabling private sector development: Information Economy Report 2011; ICTs as an Enabler for Private Sector Development (PSD). The report shows that the