Innovations of Covid era inspire creativity culture

Yesterday was Creativity and Innovation Day, and what a great moment to look back and celebrate the revolutionary impact of the Covid-19 innovations. While many hid indoors, some were out burning the midnight oil for solutions to the adverse effects of the pandemic.

Innovation has played a key role in the fight against Covid-19 and this culture of innovation should be cultivated to help to fight the imminent dangers the world is to face, such as climate change. The innovators were not only from the health sector but across industries against a common enemy. 

The WHO says Africa spurred several innovations with at least 130 new or modified technologies. For example, there were more than 120 health technologies piloted or adopted within Africa, or about 12.8 per cent of global inventions in 2020. These include online healthcare; artificial intelligence (AI) for disbursement of social welfare funds; governmental digital platforms; Big Data analytics; robotics for food and medicine delivery; and 3D printing. 

The innovations were further categorised as ICT-based, comprising 58 per cent and 3D printing at 25 per cent while 10 per cent were driven by robotics.

A group worth celebrating is Tiba Vent. It comprised 16 university students who developed prototypes of ventilators, which they called Tiba Vent. That in a situation where the tally of ventilators in the country was only 540 with functional ones confirmed to be 256, according to the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra).

Innovation opportunities

How do we inspire a culture of innovation, especially amongst the youth?

One, provide an enabling environment for innovations. It’s crucial to promote inquiry-based learning as it provokes learners to think critically and on how to find solutions to the challenges. Startup innovators play a critical role in the development of the economy.

Therefore, the realisation of the Start-up Bill of 2020 will provide a conducive environment for Kenyan innovators to thrive and find investors for them to scale up their innovations.

Two, companies and organisations ought to open up innovation opportunities. Adding a simple website update like “Innovate with us” can go a long way to promote innovation as many people have creative ideas but no avenue or capacity to test them.

Companies need to invest in functional innovation councils that work with different stakeholders in collecting ideas which can sustainably impact their products, operations and programme.

Three, provide opportunities for funding. Providing funding opportunities through investment will greatly help innovators to acquire up-to-date tools and techniques that will, eventually, make them able to test their innovations for scaling up.

Mr Komba is an alumni and communications coordinator at Generation Kenya. [email protected]