Innovation in the African Context
Martin Butler, Stellenbosch University Business School
Successful innovations are always highly context relevant. This is only possible by ensuring that the value added, a critical component of any sustainable innovation, is specific and fit for purpose to the context in which it is applied. African Higher Educational challenges are tied strongly into the historic, demographic and economic realities of our continent. This leads to challenges with attributes unique to our context. It is essential that African HE institutions take a new look at the African context and ensure an assimilation of practices and techniques that will most likely be unique (in combination at least) to our continent. The African success stories of our ability to shape and determine our own destiny is less well-known than the challenges. I would like to share examples of how we innovate, for our context, and need to collaborate, in order to define and execute the educational processes and products that is required for the students of our countries and continent.
